Abstract
AT the discussion following Prof. H. Hartridge's paper on "Acoustic Control in the Flight of Bats" recently read before the Linnean Society (Nature, 156, 490; 1945), Mr. A. J. Wilmott reported that when he was a child there was in Cambridge a well-known blind organist who was accustomed to walk about the town without the usual aids. When asked how he did it, he replied that the echoes, for example, from a brick wall, or from a low wall with railings above, appeared to him to be very different. By recognizing the different types of echo he could tell what was near him, and thus locate where he was. This acute sense of hearing even extended to the recognition—at just over two paces—of four ladies who in curiosity to see what would happen stood quite still right across the pavement in the organist's way. The organist hesitated a pace and then came to a complete stop. One of the ladies laughed; thereupon she was instantly recognized by the organist, who said, "I thought there was somebody there". This appears to show that sounds of ordinary frequencies have actually been used by man in much the same way as supersonic sounds are used by bats. (See also p. 692 of this issue.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Acoustic Control in the Flight of Bats. Nature 156, 687 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/156687a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/156687a0