We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
ACOUSTICS 109
some rare chance, be completely suitable, then Providence has indeed been kind. The greater probability, however, is that structural material or architectural design (unless these have been adapted) will require some moderation to insure desired effects. The new art, like the new prima donna, has a proud jealousy of her own.
One fortunate phase of the necessity for alteration is that the building no longer is to be considered for mere passive housing of patrons. It now plays a role in their entertainment. Changes made in acoustical conditions may be looked upon, not merely as additions to rent, but as investment in improving service and fostering good will. Like decorative features, they more than pay their way; unlike them, they are indispensable. Modern science unsettles the imagination, at times, by giving inanimate matter a kind of mind or spirit. Radio — to give but one instance — has filled the air with voices. And now acoustics may be looked upon as a wizard, converting lifeless beams and stone into a great servant of the master Man. No longer merely a thing to keep out the elements, the building finds its tongue and lends its voice to that of the "speaking" film!
If this seem too fantastic, then let no one dismiss the fantasy without considering it in a practical light. At the very least, the voice of the walls must not break in upon the one that speaks from the machine! There must, at all costs, be harmony; and the special magic whose charm we must evoke is the rigid mathematical science called acoustics!