Sound and Science

Five pages (one crossed out) of the Totenklage (tâmbi song)

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On the Pneumatic Action

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Voice-controlled Writing Machine

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Voiceprint identification (manual)

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Graphie du Son (1857)

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Brevet d’Invention (1857)/ Certificat d’Addition (1859)

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Principes de Phonoautographie

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Le Problème de La Parole s’Écrivant Elle-Même (1878)

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Inscription Automatique des Sons de l’Air au Moyen d’une Oreille Artificielle  [...]

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Die Loango-Expedition ausgesandt von der Deutschen Gesellschaft zur Erforschung Aequatorial-Africas

Pechüel-Loesche’s printed account of Kautschukmelodie and the music of the Bafióti/Bavili.  [...]

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Recording of Macuxi women singing while producing manioc beer (1911)

Theodor Koch-Grünberg’s recording of Macuxi women singing while producing manioc beer (1911). Track 17 from: Walzenaufnahmen aus Brasilien (1911–1913): Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv; Historische Klangdokumente, ed. Lars-Christian Koch and  [...]

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Allgemeine Theorie der Musik auf den Rhythmus der Klangwellenpulse gegründet

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Ueber die Definition des Tones

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Beobachtungen über einige Bedingungen der Entstehung von Tönen

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Descrizione dell’arciograno

Loose paper in large sheet format, printed on one side only, without any superscription, but with the following date at the bottom: In Venetia, after Nicolo  [...]

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Röntgentonfilm der Sprache

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Quelques expériences d’acoustique

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On Manometric Flames

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Ueber das Fehlerhafte und Willkührliche in der alten griechischen Musik

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Die Akustik

Die Akustik was written by Ernst Chladni in 1801, and is the first comprehensive work on acoustics to appear in German. The first part dealt with  [...]

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Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni

Chladni was a physicist whose work focused on experimental acoustics. He invented the “Chladni figure” and various instruments. Until his death, he continued to travel and  [...]

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Sigmund Exner

Sigmund Exner is known for his work in comparative physiology and his studies of perception psychology from a physiological standpoint. He conducted important research on the localization of behavioral functionality  [...]

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Jules Antoine Lissajous

Jules Antoine Lissajous was a high-school teacher, then held prestigious administrative posts in the education system of various parts of France. He had trained in physics,  [...]

people

Kymograph

The kymograph could create visual representations of measurements carried out over a certain period of time, and played an important role in physiology, acoustics, and other  [...]

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On rapid variations in the current through the direct-current arc

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Stimmeinstellungszeichen

The Stimmeinstellungszeichen, literally “voice disposition indicators,” are metal shapes about 10 cm in diameter. Polished brass wire is bent to form abstract curves and lines. The linguist Eduard  [...]

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Der musikalische Rhythmus als Erkenntnisquelle

Reprint of the first edition (Stuttgart: Ichthys Verlag, 1928)

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Becking curves

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Neues zu den Rutzschen Reaktionen

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Kay Sona-Graph

This photograph shows the sound spectrograph produced by the Kay Electric Company. The device made it possible to create visual representations of the spectrum of audio  [...]

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Handmade paper waterfall plot: Mississippi

This photograph shows a three-dimensional representation of sound using paper. The spectrum (frequencies from low to high) is represented by an arrangement of single strips of  [...]

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Handmade paper waterfall plot: Beethoven’s 8th symphony

This photograph shows a three-dimensional representation of sound using paper. The spectrum (frequencies from low to high) is represented by an arrangement of single strips of  [...]

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Brüel & Kjær 2304 level recorder

These pictures show the measuring device Type 2304 produced by the Danish company Brüel & Kjær. Level recorders like this one made it possible to create  [...]

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Double Siren

The double siren was one of Koenig’s more popular instruments. It consisted of two “polyphonic” or “multivoiced” sirens with more than one series of holes, and  [...]

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Koenig Analyser

Description: 14 universal resonators supported by a cast iron frame. The resonators can be adjusted by sliding them outward, range from UT2 (base C) to UT5 and  [...]

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Große Deutsche Funkausstellung und Phonoschau Berlin 1930 – site plan, detail

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Große Deutsche Funkausstellung und Phonoschau Berlin 1930 – site plan

Height x width: 43 x 55 cm

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Technical drawing of the “Doegen-Lauthalter” (blueprint)

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Event poster for Wilhelm Doegen’s lecture “Stimmen der Völker in Liedern”

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Max Osswald Photographs

Gathered by historian of architecture Sabine von Fischer, this set consists of sound photographs taken by Franz Max Osswald, the founder of the first laboratory for the  [...]

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Photographic study of sound propagation within convex and concave

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Contact sheet of photographic sound studies

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Image archive / foto: Osswald, Franz Max / Ans_10391-011  [...]

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Photographic study of sound propagation in a cupola space

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Photographic study of sound propagation for an auditorium of variable size  [...]

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Acoustics laboratory, E.T.H. Zürich: Oscillation chart of the adjacent reverberation room

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Image archive, Inventory-number: Ans_10391-100  [...]

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Acoustics laboratory, E.T.H. Zürich

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Photographic study of sound propagation in Semper’s Stadthaus Winterthur auditorium

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Photographic study of sound propagation for rooms with wood coffering

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Tonsystem und Musik der Siamesen

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Photographic study of sound propagation for an elliptic space with coffering  [...]

Inventory number: Ans_10391-066

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Photographic study of sound propagation with explanatory line drawings

Inventory number: Ans_10391-050

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Photographic study of sound propagation in the Ear of Dionysius

Inventory number: Ans_10391-091

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Postcard of the Berlin City Palace

Carl Stumpf’s Institute for Psychology in the Berlin City Palace on a postcard from 1920.

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Lissajous’s figures, Wheatstone apparatus for compounding two orthogonal oscillations

This video demonstrates the principle of Chladni figures and vibrating plates. Brass plates of different shapes are fixed centrally at the top of wooden columns. Sand is  [...]

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Vibrations of plates, Chladni’s figures

This video demonstrates the principle of Chladni figures and vibrating plates. Brass plates of different shapes are fixed centrally at the top of wooden columns. Sand is  [...]

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Sounds, vibrations, and Marloye’s harp

This video demonstrates the principle of a Marloye’s harp. The masses of four pendulums are backed to the inside of a glass vessel. When an arch rubs  [...]

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Recording the vibrations of tuning forks

This video demonstrates the principle of recording the vibrations of tuning forks. A small glass sheet is covered in a layer of black carbon, using the fumes  [...]

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Manometric capsule, resonance, Koenig sound analyzer

This video demonstrates the principle of the manometric capsule and the Koenig analyzer, which can be used to study sound. The capsule is made of two small  [...]

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