From:	"MARTIN E. GOTTHARD" <s457033@*******.GU.EDU.AU>
Subject:	Re: The (almost) recent death of (almost) Pres. Dunkelzahn
Date:	Tue, 20 May 1997 19:32:17 +1000

> > What's a noise damper? And would either have necessarily corrupted all
> > footage of the actual blast? And would it mask the sound of the limo
> > soaring through the air and landing (which one of the witnesses claimed
> > to have heard, IIRC).
>
> A noise damper is a device that creates a noise at a frequency that
> masks a specific noise. They are developing these for cars to
> replace the muffler.
>
Only partly. The muffler is there to make the car less noisy to others
who you happen to drive past (noise pollution, etc.). A noise damper is
designer to cover up normal road noise (which includes the exhaust note),
and removing the muffler would have to be reflected by making the damper
correspondingly loud.

Marty