It Was Noisy When I Was Young

Our local farmer had one of these back when I was young - I was pleased to find this which I believe is the only one left in preservation. I am reliably informed I called it the G'donka. It baled all the hay, up until silage took over in the sixties, then followed the combine doing the straw. It outlasted three combines (Massey Ferguson 780, MF 500 and Claas Senator) and finally retired sometime in the seventies.

I used to call these G'donkas too



The combination of video camera microphone and computer speakers doesn't indicate how loud they were, you could hear them from streets away.

I don't recall this big brother but I believe they were imported



mostly they used the likes of this for big jobs



Big holes and trenches were dug with pneumatic drills which were unsilenced, small ones with the Irishman's Motorbike



One of the farmers still had one of these



starting it was a real hoot



Cars, and especially trucks and buses, were much noisier than they are now, but on the other hand there were far fewer of them, there wasn't the same continuous low frequency roar we suffered from in the south east, from the M25 and most of the A roads.

Boeing 707s were pretty damn loud too, beaten by Concorde, and I think the VC10 was the loudest of all, except perhaps for Vulcan bombers. Despite only having half as many engines the BAC 111 was up there also. Again though newer planes are individually much quieter, with a much higher rate of climb, there are so many more of them.

Just some random thoughts about historical changes from my delvings into YouTube.

You Tube can be an amazing place ...

There has always been noise, perhaps when working around / using noisy machinery there is more awareness to take care of too much loud noise. Use appropriate safety equipment etc.

Some people find it hard to be somewhere where it is quiet and seem to have background music on.
I can remember one of our sons used to do his school homework while music played quietly in the background ... each to our own I guess, he ended up doing ok

All the best Jan

I worked on an assembly line in a fabrication shop now that was noisy, boilermakers made a hell of a din and that was in the days before ear defenders were standard issue

Yes I ponder about non-dietary factors that have changed over time and their potential effects on disease incidence, like differing levels and types of pollution, and noise, especially low frequency sounds which can affect the body even when the ears are being defended.

graham64 wrote:I worked on an assembly line in a fabrication shop now that was noisy, boilermakers made a hell of a din and that was in the days before ear defenders were standard issue

Hi Graham I bet the worst noise came when someone was late and they hammered the offender in! Derek

Long birder wrote:

graham64 wrote:I worked on an assembly line in a fabrication shop now that was noisy, boilermakers made a hell of a din and that was in the days before ear defenders were standard issue

Hi Graham I bet the worst noise came when someone was late and they hammered the offender in!  Derek

Yes I remember it well Derek, there was no way anyone who was late sneaking in unnoticed  was even worse if a foreman dared to be late