What were the largest man-made sounds, excepting explosives, before the 18th century?

Factual Questions
1

See subject. I was thinking about the rock concerts I’ve been to, and then of classical works, and remembered hearing the “Dies Irae” from the Verdi Requiem, and the whole blow-you-away decibel thing. It’s a fun task to name works in pre-industrial classical music that go to 11.

So that gives me brass, drums, and a lot of voices (sports or political rallies also). Then I thought of Baroque and later organ music.

Then I thought of OP. Including un-planned, perhaps a building collapse. Anvil hammers? I’m talking throughout human history. (So, the hydraulis/water in Ancient Greece counts as interesting, if it was loud–which I don’t know at the moment.)

Any other sources of massive decibels Man could have created other than these I’ve mentioned? Clearly there’s subjective context, such as someone yelling in your ear is loud, perceptually.

2

Cx: “hydraulis/water organ”

3

Church bells? They would need to be fairly loud to call the parishioners at the time few had timepieces.

4

Large sound?

5

Yeah, my bad. And this from someone who corrects people who use “less” when they should use “fewer.”

6

An army charging and screaming war cries, maybe.

7

I’d go with church bells.

8

nm

9

The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 was mistaken as rifle shots from over 2,000 miles away.

10

But was presumably not man-made.

11

Church bells would have to be a very good contender. Modern times require old churches to apply sound control measures to their bells to avoid annoying the locals - of about 20dB. The sound levels in the bell chamber would seem to get to 120dB SPL. That is pretty loud.

12

What about dams? The pre-gunpowder world built some pretty big ones, which naturally eventually collapsed or were destroyed. That would often be pretty noisy I’d think, depending on how they collapsed.

13

Big Ben, a 13½ tonne bell in St Stephen’s Clock Tower at the Palace of Westminster, is struck by a 200 Kg hammer, sounding an ‘E flat’ at around 118 decibels. With a few short breaks, it has been striking 156 times a day for the last 155 years.

It’s not clear where they measured the volume though.

14

Good point about where to measure the volume. According to this site: http://home.earthlink.net/~dnitzer/4HaasEaton/Decibel.html , the noise a 12" cannon makes 12" from its barrel is 225dB. :eek:

15

That wouldn’t put it before the 18th century,though.

I don’t know how the sound volume of a bell relates to its weight, but the largest bell ever made seems to have been the Great Bell of Dhammazedi, cast in 1484, with a weight of 300 tonnes. Reportedly, it had an “unpleasant” sound, and I can well imagine that…

As for catastrophic events, there was the collapse of the great copper mine in Falun, Sweden, in 1687, but I can’t find any cites for at what distance it was heard.

16

We have gunpowder in the 17th century, famous explosion in Edinburgh when Queen Mary tried to off her husband Lord Darnley in February, 1567. Can’t say that was the loudest, but exempting a gunpowder explosion before the 18th century would be in error.

17

Regarding bells - people sometimes claim that carillons are the loudest non-amplified musical instruments on Earth. Actually, steam calliopes have them beat, but you might question “musical”. Steam calliopes don’t enter into THIS discussion of course - 19th century.

18

That’s what they’d like you to think…

19

Weren’t alphorns used to communicate vast distances in the mountains?

20

Blacksmiths must have been very loud, and then in the early stages of the industrial revolution, factories where a number of workers were all hammering out metal parts would have made a lot of noise…