The Gun-firing on the Western Front

Abstract

IN NATURE for July 13 Dr. C. Davison directs attention to Dr. van Everdingen's investigations with regard to the propagation of sound, and he also refers to the inaudibility of the reports in the face of a gentle wind when the observer was comparatively near. In this neighbourhood the sounds are heard distinctly when a quiet situation is found, but a very marked peculiarity is the fact that the direction of the wind seems to make no appreciable difference in the intensity of the sound. For example, on July 19 the booming was very intense and quite easily heard with the wind blowing from the north-west. On the 20th, with the wind from the east, the audibility was no greater, possibly not so great. Westerly winds have been frequent of late, but have not diminished the sounds at all, whereas it is a fact that on some occasions with an easterly wind no sounds were heard. It is, of course, impossible to say whether there was firing or not on these latter occasions, but it is certainly worth recording that on the majority of the occasions upon which I have heard the sounds since the end of 1914 I have at the same time observed that the wind was westerly.