Word: shurcliff
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Shurcliff, although absolutely convinced of the value of his cause, was new to public relations and unsure of his group's image. A scientist standing in the way of apparent progress? He was cautious in dealing with the press, and spent long evenings preparing press releases after a day's work at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator, where he is Senior Research Associate...
...press has been kind to Shurcliff and the Citizens' League. In fact, in those six months, a national advertising campaign and overwhelmingly favorable publicity have brought the League a membership of 1250 people from 39 states and has made what then seemed an almost ludicrous goal look remotely attainable...
...boom itself is an extremely loud noise. Shurcliff describes it as making every house along the boom path seem "next door to a jet airport"--only worse. The sound of an arriving jet (all commercial jets fly below the speed of sound) builds up gradually, so at the peak of the noise there is no element of surprise. But a sonic boom provides no warning, and Shurcliff thinks that it is the boom's startling effect, even more than the noise itself, which makes it intolerable...
...boom was as loud as a real one, the volunteers knew the boom would occur within five seconds after they pushed the button. Even among the fully-prepared subjects, almost half showed a marked increase in heart-beat as a result of the boom. NASA has never admitted to Shurcliff that the experiment's lack of surprise and the heartbeat findings might invalidate the conclusion that people can adapt to the noise...
...until the afternoon of August 18. "Sonic Boom Leaves Hub Trail of Terror," the Record-American headlined its story--no overstatement, according to other papers, because "scores of people" claimed to have been "knocked off their feet" by the boom, which was caused by a small military plane. Shurcliff doubts those particular claims, but booms invariably shatter windows, sometimes seriously undermine the foundations of buildings, and have even been responsible for deaths--three people in France died this summer when a boom caused their barn to collapse. Shurcliff estimates that the shockwaves from a fleet of 150 SST's flying...