Volume 6, Number 4, December, 1998 - Noise News International

Feature
Advances in Acoustical Standards
and Electroacoustics
Georqe S. K. Wong, Acoustical Standards, Institute For National Measurement Standards,
National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, KIA OR6.
George S. K. Wong is the
Program Leader responsible
for acoustical standards at the
National Research Council of
Canada, Institute for National
Measurement Standards. He
joined NRC in 1966 after graduating
with a Ph.D. from the University ofManchester
Institute for Science and Technology. He has
published more than 80 technical papers and reports
and is coeditor ofa book entitled AlP Handbook
of Condenser Microphones: Theory,
Calibration, and Measurements, with authorship
for six chapters.
Dr. Wong is a fellow ofthe Acoustical Society of
America and the Institute of Electrical Engineers
(UK,I. He is a member ofINCE and the Institute of
Mechanical Engineers (UK). He is heavily involved
in acoustical standards activities with international
and national organizations such as the ASA, IEC,
ISO, OIML and the CSA. Currently, he is Vice Chair
of the ASA Accredited Standards Committee on
Acoustics, 51; Associate Editor of the Standards
News Department of the Journal ofthe Acoustical
Society ofAmerica, and also serves as Chair and
member of several standards working groups. For
the Canadian Standards Association, he is Chair of
the Subcommittee on Calibration and Executive
Member of the ZI07 Committee on Acoustics and
Noise Control.
Introduction
Since the theme ofthe Congress at which this subject
matter was first presented* was Acoustical Developmentsfor
Urbanization, I would like to point out that
noise problems related to urbanization date back to
4000 BC An inscribed clay tablet has been discovered
which states that the Great Flood was the punishment
to the people for making too much noise which
disturbed the tranquillity of the gods. Community
noise zoning regulations have a long history. In about
600 BC, the city ofSybaris in Southern Italy required
tinsmiths and other noisy tradesmen to have their
shops outside the city walls. Several centuries later,
wheeled traffic from the Roman Forum was banned
because of noise and congestion; this could be one of
the earliest traffic noise regulations.
Acoustical standards activities can be traced to
the 3rd Century BC during the reign ofthe first Emperor
of China, Quin Shi Haung Di. Some ancient
Chinese weights and measures were based on acoustical
standards: a standard vessel used for measuring
grain and wine was defined not only as to weight but
also as to pitch when struck, and, given a uniform
shape and fixed weight, only a vessel of the proper
volume would give the proper pitch. Also, measures
derived from the length of a pitch pipe and its subdivisions
in terms of millet grains supplanted the previous
Chinese measures oflength that were based on
the dimensions of the human body, substantially increasing
the accuracy of those measures.
Today, acoustical standards are built on the foundation
of electroacoustics and acoustic metrology. I
will discuss some recently published acoustical
standards and describe a variety of unique
electroacoustical advances in instruments and in
measurement techniques for standardization that
have been or are being made by the international
acoustics community.
Some New Acoustical Standards
Three relatively new acoustical standards may be of
interest:
ANSI S3.44·1996 American National Standard
Determination ofOccupational Noise Exposure and
Estimation of Noise-Induced Hearing Impairment.
This standard is an adoption of the international
standard ISO 1999: 1990(E).
ANSI SI2.9-1997-Part 4, American National
Standard Quantities and Procedures for Description
and Measurement of Environmental Sound - Part 4:
*This article is based on the Keynote Address presented
at The Sixth Western Pacific Regional Acoustics
Conference, Hong Kung, China, 1997
November 19-21.
1998 December
NoiselNews International 209