This mid-1970s documentary “A Look at Sound” is part of the “Life Around Us” series and was directed by Tom Spain, and narrated by Dan Ingram. A man topples a tree with a chainsaw. Big Ben rings. A ballerina spins in a music box. A woman wearing a felt hat is part of a Princeton football crowd. A police car speeds past (1:10-3:01). Various decibel sound waves and examples are shown (3:16-3:48). A street noise barometer in Tokyo displays to traffic, including a Toyota 1000 (3:49-4:26). A pebble dropped in a still pond creates waves (4:28-4:52). A modern version of Robert Boyle’s 1657 invention shows a ringing bell inside a glass jar with an air pump (5:17-6:15). Boys put their ears to a train track. They talk through tin cans joined by a long string (6:16-6:45). An animated diagram shows sound waves inside a concert hall and a yodeler (7:00-7:52). A telescope visualizes voice sound patterns in sonorous figures (7:54-8:16). Turpentine poured on a membrane and vibrated at various frequencies creates predictable patterns (8:17-8:54). Sand on a metal plate vibrated at a high frequency rearranges into patterns (9:55-9:10). Two liquids vibrated create figurative patterns (9:12-9:28). Iron filings appear to walk together when vibrated (9:29-9:45). Animation explains hearing via the eardrum, middle ear, and brain (9:46-11:15). Vibrations are shown at various cycles per second. A porpoise uses its skills, and slow-motion footage of a bat shows echolocation (11:17-13:35). Thomas Edison’s 1877 drawings and his photo taken by Matthew Brady show the first phonograph, advertised on a horse-drawn carriage. A nickel machine would make a phonograph play. Multiple people listen through tubes to the same photograph (13:36-15:39). 1916, The Dixieland Jazz Band records into giant megaphones in a New York studio. 1973, Credence Clearwater records “Lodi” to magnetic tape (15:40-17:40). United Technology Center scientists experiment with sounds using flames, apples, and rats that choose to listen to Mozart or Schoenberg (17:42-19:29). A couple in 1970s pajamas sleep soundly through city noise but he answers the ringing wall rotary telephone. She wakes up when the baby cries (19:30-20:55). An experiment recorded an extremely busy highway outside a neighborhood and interviewed occupants. A women in a mini-dress gets her mail. The main complaints were dogs, airplanes, and motorcycles (20:57-22:15). A woman holds a radio up to her ear as she walks; a toddler pounds a pan with a wooden spoon; a smiling woman dances at a 1970s club; cars honk at a traffic jam, and a car peels out (22:30-23:12). At Rio de Janeiro, a man jackhammers, 1970s dressed women talk on the street, motorcycles are started, and car doors are slammed for their sound (23:14-24:18). A Concorde flies; animation explains sonic booms (24:20-24:42). People take hearing tests (24:43-26:15). A woman walks past loud construction with her fingers in her ears. A Lufthansa worker wears safety headphones, as do elephants at a zoo, and pedestrians (26:17-27:22). A child listens against soundproof glass (27:24-27:56).

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