Concepts and Significance of Noise in Acoustics: Before and after the Great War

Historians of science, technology and medicine have looked at noise in the interwar period in the context of the anti-noise movement, public hygiene and the modern city. I offer a different view, drawing upon distinctions in German between “Lärm,” “Geräusch,” and “Rauschen,” which all translate into “noise” in English. I argue that at least three historical developments altered the concept and significance of noise within science: the deployment of acoustics and acousticians in the Great War, the rise of electroacoustics and media technologies such as telephony and radio broadcasting, and the emergence of comparative musicology.