Relevance of noise control for the development of acoustics in 20th century

Abstract

Driven by progress and requirements of the advancing machine age, Acoustics of the 20th century has run through a tremendous development. Starting from a profound understanding and formulation of its theoretical physical framework by Hermann von Helmholtz and Lord Rayleigh at the end of the 19th century, Acoustics and its many sub-disciplines developed to an important technical and engineering discipline which, at the beginning of the 21st century, had become a basic design tool for environmental compatibility and comfort features of most technical products and utilities. In Europe, this development has strongly been driven by urgent requirements of fast after-war reconstruction and growing needs of noise control which enforced particular interactive efforts of research institutes and companies to cope with the challenges of the time. Based on recent widespread contributions to the history of European Acoustics presented at Forum Acusticum 2023 in Torino, the relevance of noise control for the development of Acoustics in the last century will be highlighted and appreciated. With reference to some typical examples, it will be shown how the disciplines of engineering acoustics and noise control essentially contributed to renew and strengthen acoustics as an indispensable interdisciplinary field of science and technology.