Abstract
THE only papers on this subject with which I am acquainted are the following:—(1) The distance to which the firing of heavy guns is heard, NATURE, vol. lxii., 1900, pp. 377-79; (2) the audibility of the minute-guns fired at Spithead on February 1, Knowledge, vol. xxiv., 1901, pp. 124–25. Reference might also be made to NATURE, vol. xli., 1890, p. 369, and vol. lx., 1899, p. 139. The firing during the funeral procession of the late Queen Victoria was heard to a distance of 139 miles from Spithead. There is therefore no reason why firing along the Belgian coast should not, with favouring winds, be heard for many miles inland from our coasts. The air-vibrations affect pheasants and other birds (probably by swaying the branches of trees) for some distance after they cease to be perceptible to the human ear, as was widely observed on the occasion of the North Sea battle on January 24. I would suggest that observations of this kind should also be forwarded to Dr. de Varigny.
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DAVISON, C. Distances at which Sounds of Heavy Gun-firing are Heard. Nature 96, 173 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/096173b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096173b0
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