I went to see a splendid talk on Thursday, by James G Mansell, the author of The Age of Noise in Britain - Hearing Modernity.
It concentrated on the Anti-Noise League, a pressure group, lobbying against, well, you can imagine, particularly active in the 1930s. (That's their logo above)
Things I learned (or possibly misheard):
The Science Museum staged an exhibition about noise abatement in the 1935. The Rubber Growers Association was, rather cannily, a significant sponsor. Their message struck home with at least one visitor.
Milk deliveries were of particular concern to the Anti-Noisers. A clanky, clattery business, I suppose, early in the morning. Interesting how the clinks of milk bottles now signify a golden age of community, not an irritation.
Dan McKenzie was an important anti-noise thinker and his book The City of Din, was a central text. It might be of interest to Dan.
Mr Mansell suggests that the League failed to achieve any traction because they tried to make a medical case for their cause. They maintained that noise caused Neurasthenia. Unfortunately that was soon discredited as not really a thing, and there was no actual evidence that noise was especially unhealthy.
A bit like screens.
He also showed this cartoon and pointed out how gendered and class-based the league's assertions were. They were very concerned about the noise made by women (all that typing!) and the working classes (factories! cinemas!) because of how much they disturbed vital male activity like 'brain-work'.
(All of this rather echoes contemporary angst amongst developers that their essential brain-work is constantly disturbed by the open-plan chatter of lower class people like social media experts. Nothing changes.)
The Anti Noise League apparently used to take factory workers to the countryside so they could experience peace and quiet. To the League's frustration all the workers wanted to do once they'd got there was head off to the cinema or the music hall for some life-affirming din.