1/19/06

Loud Alarm

I was practicing in the annex and then the fire alarm went off. The hallway was really really loud...as you all know...like so loud you could go deaf. I should go back and practice more, but I have to work at 3:00, so it isn't really worth it. And I was actually practicing well...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The loudness is only part of the problem. The very quick onset of the sound is the MOST dangerous thing. Above about 95 decibels, our ears normally have a dampening mechanism that prevents harm to the middle and inner ear. This mechanism takes about 1/10 of a second to engage. The rise of the fire alarm sound is almost instantaneous. In that first twentieth of a second, you can do more damage to your hearing than you would listening to the alarm itself for five minutes.

Eastman made an extremely bad choice when it decided to install the current fire alarms.

philosophia said...

Hmmm, very "Alarm Will Sound". :)