Altered Sensations: Rudolph Koenig’s Acoustical Workshop in Nineteenth-Century Paris

400 Pages·2009·14.5 MB·English

by  David Pantalony

Altered Sensations
Archimedes
NEW STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
VOLUME24
EDITOR
JedZ.Buchwald,DreyfussProfessorofHistory,CaliforniaInstitute
ofTechnology,Pasadena,CA,USA.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Jeremy Gray, The Faculty of Mathematics and Computing,
The Open University, Buckinghamshire, UK.
Sharon Kingsland, Department of History of Science and Technology,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
ADVISORY BOARD
HenkBos,UniversityofUtrecht
MordechaiFeingold,California Institute of Technology
AllanD.Franklin,UniversityofColoradoatBoulder
KostasGavroglu,NationalTechnicalUniversityofAthens
AnthonyGrafton,PrincetonUniversity
TrevorLevere,UniversityofToronto
JesperLützen,CopenhagenUniversity
WilliamNewman,Indian University, Bloomington
Lawrence Principe, The Johns Hopkins University
JürgenRenn,Max-Planck-InstitutfürWissenschaftsgeschichte
AlexRoland,DukeUniversity
Alan Shapiro,University of Minnesota
NancySiraisi,HunterCollegeoftheCityUniversityofNewYork
NoelSwerdlow,UniversityofChicago
Archimedes has three fundamental goals; to further the integration of the histories of science and
technology with one another: to investigate the technical, social and practical histories of specific
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industry have come to be so strongly linked.
For other titles published in this series, go to
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David Pantalony
Altered Sensations
Rudolph Koenig’s Acoustical Workshop
in Nineteenth-Century Paris
123
DavidPantalonyPhD
Curator,PhysicalScienceandMedicine
CanadaScienceandTechnologyMuseum
AdjunctProfessor,DepartmentofHistory
UniversityofOttawa
Ottawa,Canada
[email protected]
ISBN978-90-481-2815-0 e-ISBN978-90-481-2816-7
DOI10.1007/978-90-481-2816-7
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009928017
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ForTrevorLevere,whointroducedmetothe
historyofscientificinstruments.
Acknowledgments
This research began as a small instrument cataloguing project initiated by Doug
Creelman at the Psychology Department at the University of Toronto. It led to
research in the Koenig collection at the Physics Department (one of the largest in
theworld),followedbythediscoveryoftheKoenig-Loudoncorrespondenceinthe
U of T archives and then to research in the Koenig collection at the Smithsonian
Institution.IhavesincetrackeddownKoenig’smaterialsandinstrumentsincollec-
tions across Europe and North America. It has been an adventure and privilege to
tracetheinstrumentsandhistoryofoneofParis’smoreprolificinstrumentmakers.
IamdeeplythankfultoTrevorLevereforfirstseeingthevalueofdoingthisproject
and to Randall Brooks (Canada Science and Technology Museum) for supporting
itscompletioninthisform.IwouldalsoliketothankJedBuchwaldforsupporting
thepublicationofthisbookintheArchimedesseries.
I would like to acknowledge the following people and institutions for their key
supportinthisundertaking:
UniversityofToronto:TrevorLevere,SungookHong,andIanHackingfor
theirsupervisionofthefirstpartofthisproject,thedoctoraldissertation
(2002).
NationalMuseumofAmericanHistory,SmithsonianInstitution:SteveTurner,
DebbieWarner,RogerSherman,andKarenLee.
DartmouthCollege:RichKremer.
DibnerInstitute,MIT:GeorgeSmith,MylesJackson,DavidCahan,Erwinand
ElfriedaHiebert.
I am indebted to Julian Holland (Australia) and Myles Jackson (Polytechnic
University,Brooklyn)forcarefullyreviewingtheentiremanuscript.
I would also like to acknowledge the generous research assistance and
manuscript suggestions from a number of people at museums and universities
throughout North America and Europe: Paolo Brenni (Fondazione Scienza e
Tecnica,Italy);DougCreelman,JohnSlater,HaroldAverill,LouisaYickandRob
Smidrovskis (University of Toronto). Tom Greenslade (Kenyon College); David
Cahan (University of Nebraska); Marta Lourenço, Gil Pereira, Catarina Pires,
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Marisa Monteiro, Ermelinda Antunes (Portugal); Michael Kelley, Sara Schechner,
Jean-François Gauvin, Marty Richardson and Samantha Van Gerbig (Harvard
University);RolandWittje(UniversityofRegensburg);RalphGibson,TomKenyon,
Kellen Haak and Debbie Haynes (Dartmouth College, NH); Elizabeth Ihrig and
David Rhees (Bakken Museum); Sylvie Toupin (Musée de la Civilisation du
Québec, Québec, Canada); Elizabeth Cavicchi, Debbie Douglas, Markus Hankin,
Yinlin Xie and Sam Allen (MIT); Neil Brown (Science Museum, U.K.); Bill
Fickinger(CaseUniversity);MichaelWright(London);ThierryLalonde(CNAM);
Jean Barrette (McGill University); Anna Giatti (Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica,
Italy);FulvioMedici(UniversityofRome);KathyOlesko(GeorgetownUniversity);
Barnaby Frumess and Ennis Pilcher (Union College); Dennis Alexander (Aylmer,
Quebec);DavidMurray(Queen’sUniversity,Canada);MikeAllibon(Toronto).
I am grateful to Eberhard and Reinhild Neumann-Redlin von Meding of
Bückeburg,Germanyforopeningtheirhomeandfamilyarchives.
This project was funded and supported by the following agencies and institu-
tions: Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, U of
T; Massey College, U of T; School of Graduate Studies, U of T; Smithsonian
InstitutionPre-DoctoralFellowship;OntarioGraduateScholarship;SocialSciences
andHumanitiesResearchCouncilGrant,GovernmentofCanada;MunkCentrefor
International Studies; Dartmouth College, NH, Post-Doctoral Fellowship; Dibner
Institute,MIT,Post-DoctoralFellowship.
WithparticularthankstoMomandDad,myfamily(thePantalonyFoundation),
andRebeccaandDominicfortheircontinuedandgeneroussupport.
Contents
1 Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
JourneytoParis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Vuillaume’sViolinWorkshop–1851–1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
FromViolinstoTuningForks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
TheScientificInstrumentTradeinParis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 HermannvonHelmholtzandtheSensationsofTone . . . . . . . . 19
HermannvonHelmholtz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
PhysicalAcoustics–TheoryandInstruments(TuningForks,
Tonometer,DoubleSiren) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
InstrumentsasAgentsofChange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
ExperimentalResults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Physiological Acoustics – The Piano as a Model
fortheInnerEar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Psychological Acoustics – Resonators as Aids
forHearingSimpleTones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
SynthesisingVowelsSounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
AComprehensiveTheoryofHarmonyandMusic . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 TransformationsintheWorkshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
InsideParisianWorkshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
ThePhonautographandtheOriginsofGraphicalAcoustics . . . . . . 41
PrecisionandGraphicalAcoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The “Plaque tournante” at Rue Hautefeuille:
TransformingHelmholtz’sAcoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Demonstrating Helmholtz: Adam Politzer and Koenig
attheAcadémiedesSciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
ManometricFlameCapsuleandOpticalAcoustics . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4 TheMarketandItsInfluences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
The First Year of Business – from the Workshop
totheClassroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
ix
x Contents
1862ExhibitionatLondon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
SellingHelmholtz’sInstruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
FunctionReplacesBeauty:1867ParisExposition . . . . . . . . . . . 72
AmericansattheFair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
WilliamB.Rogers,AlexanderGrahamBellandMIT . . . . . . . . . 75
TheParisianScienceMonopolyandaPortugueseCustomer . . . . . . 77
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5 ConstructingaReputation,1866–1879 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
MeasuringtheVelocityofSoundintheSewersofParis . . . . . . . . 84
CreatingVowelsSoundsOutofWood,BrassandSteel . . . . . . . . . 86
SeeingaVoice:ManometricVowelStudies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
ExtendingtheTonometer,OneFileMarkataTime. . . . . . . . . . . 91
ChoosingtheRightSteel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
BringingtheWorkshopintoCombination-ToneStudies . . . . . . . . 96
Precision and Livelihood Under Attack:
TheKoenigClockFork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6 ExpandingtheNorthAmericanMarket,1871–1882. . . . . . . . . 109
RecoveryfromtheTurmoilof1870–1871 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
TheThirdCatalogue,1873 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
JosephHenryandtheSmithsonianInstitution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
CentennialExhibition,1876 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
JamesLoudonandtheUniversityofToronto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
“CetteVilledeMalheur” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
PublicLecturesatToronto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7 TheFaradayofSound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
LifeatQuaid’Anjou:1882–1901 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
TheCombination-ToneControversyinEngland . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
WorkshopasTheatre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Heidelberg1889:theGermanResponse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
TheDebateoverTimbre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
WaveSirens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
BacktoVibrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Ultrasonicsand“LeDomainedelaFantaisie” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Conclusion–BeyondSensations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
AppendixA–KeyDatesinRudolphKoenig’sLife . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
CatalogueRaisonnéofKoenigInstruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Bibiliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365