Promoting sustainability and climate awareness were the main aims at this years 'Focus Frostburg' event. With 'Earth day' fast approaching on Friday April 22nd, Frostburg state University played host to the annual 'Focus Frostburg' as a part of their 'Learning Green, Living Green' initiative. The event took place at the newly renovated Lane University Center on Wednesday April 20th. An array of stalls and displays along with numerous guest speakers were on offer at the Lane center to promote environmentally friendly activities and provide information about various environmental issues.
Taking the 3pm slot at room 232 of FSU's Lane Center building was ‘Dr. Greg Wood’, a staff member of the University's history department. His presentation 'Industry, Urbanization and the production of noise, 1890-1920' attracted a sizable amount of staff and students. Mr. Wood welcomed the crowd that gathered and began his presentation by addressing his main topic, "The ways sensory history shaped the environment and the discussion of noise pollution." Dr. Wood spoke about the negative impacts industrial times had on people and society during the time period of 1890-1920 and how "many people struggled to come to grips with these changes in society".
The hum of the air conditioner ironically polluted the room as everyone sat silently and intently listened to Dr. Woods’s account of a time when industrialization was changing people’s lifestyles.He spoke particularly of the city of Chicago, it's move into industrialization and the negative impact the noise pollution from these industries had on society at the time. The creation of modern machinery had become a detriment to people’s everyday lives. Dr. Wood recounted one man's tale of his life living beside the track switcher for the Chicago railroad, "The machine sounds like a gun every 30 minutes as the tracks switch...I can't eat or sleep." His letter, published in the Chicago Daily Tribune was merely answered with "we'll look into it" suggesting as Dr. Wood stated that at the time "there was no escape or solution to the problem." Dr. Wood explained that in the 1890's Chicago's train industry served on average 30 million people a year. The train became a "routine noise in the city, it made up a constellation of sound...whistles, bells, wheels, conductors shouting." Comparing it to the sound of the 'lonely rooster' Dr. Wood explained that this noise pollution was an unwelcome sound for many of the cities citizens.
Dr. Wood went on to say that this "noise pollution" wasn't just a negative impact on the city’s residents. During these industrial times many people sought employment in steel-works, It was a huge part of the city of Chicago but for many working in such environments had negative impacts on their health. Dr. Wood spoke about a Newspaper article from 1907, in the article the writer spoke of 'Boiler-Making', an apparatus used for trains. For this, workers had to use extremely heavy sledge hammers. Hammers so heavy that they created an almost deafening work environment, "After you've been working in a boiler shop for a few years you stop hearing it...you start to go deaf."" Nothing helps, if you can't handle it, you go crazy and quit". As Dr. Wood stated, these industrial creations gave rise to the question, "Is modern-life too strenuous?" Dr. Wood went on to say that workers were in fact "listening their way to death."
For many people this industrialized sound pollution was unbearable, residents of the city, particularly those of the 'upper-class' attempted to come up with ways to overcome this "disruptive environment". Using the projector,Dr.Wood displayed an image that had been posted in the 'Chicago Examiner on July 4th 1909' of a 'Utopian city rearranged to reduce noise. Other attempts were also made; in 1913 'City Club plan for a suburb' was created. "Wealthy Chicagoans seeking to escape the sound", Dr. Wood explained that the wealthier people believed that in creating suburban towns they would create “A panacea, a place that could bring quietness”. This at the time was all that the people wanted, to be able to escape the unbearable noise. Another image Dr. Wood displayed was that of hot air balloons in Chicago. It was believed by the people that they, "could finally look down on the place of noise...All noise could be nicely escaped if you could get into a hot air balloon". A solution that would only provide temporary release from the situation, it was an excellent note for Dr. Wood to finish on. The "solution" of the hot air balloon showed to the audience gathered at the lane center just how desperate the people living in these big cities were to escape this new, unwanted pollution of noise that modern invention had brought to their homes, even if this release was only very temporary.
Before finishing completely, Dr. Wood offered a 'Questions and Answers segment', during which a member of the audience asked "You've lived in a big city before, are there any similarities that you have noticed that remind you of the noise in the big city here in Frostburg." Dr. Wood replied with a note of humour. "Not really, although sometimes when I'm at home I can hear the parties. If there's an argument on Bowery Street I can hear exactly what is happening from my house, but that's about it." A far cry from the big Cities like Chicago, it is undeniable that there is in fact a certain amount of noise pollution in almost every stretch of the world, even a hot air balloon sometimes couldn't provide us with complete release from the everyday sounds of "the modern world.”
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