Construction
Scott, a printer and bookseller by trade, was inspired when he happened to read about the anatomy of the human ear in the course of his business. His phonautograph was constructed as an analog of the ear canal, eardrum and ossicles. Scott created several variations of the device. The functions of the ear canal and eardrum were simulated by a funnel-like horn or a small open-ended barrel with a flexible membrane of parchment or other suitable material stretched over the small end. A pig bristle or other very lightweight stylus was connected to the membrane, sometimes by an indirect linkage which roughly simulated the ossicles and served as an amplifying lever. The bristle traced a line through a thin coating of lampblack—finely divided carbon deposited by the flame of an oil or gas lamp—on a moving surface of paper or glass. The sound collected by the simulated ear and transmitted to the bristle caused the line to be modulated in accordance with the passing variations in air pressure, creating a graphic record of the sound waves.
Scott's first patent described a flat recording surface and a weight-driven clockwork motor, but the later and more familiar form of his invention, marketed by Rudolph Koenig in 1859, recorded on a sheet of lampblack-coated paper wrapped around a cylinder which was hand-cranked. The cylinder was carried on a coarsely threaded rod so that it progressed along its axis as it rotated, producing a helical tracing. The length of the recording that could be accommodated depended on the speed of rotation, which had to be rapid in order to resolve the individual waveforms of various sounds with good detail. If only longer-term dynamics such as the cadences of speech were being studied, the cylinder could be rotated much more slowly and a longer recording could be made. Some phonautographs included a tuning fork or other means of simultaneously recording a known reference frequency.
Several other inventors subsequently produced modified versions of the phonautograph and recorded the sound-modulated line by the use of various implements and in various formats, either in attempts to improve on Scott's apparatus or to adapt it to specific applications. In at least one instance, a complete return to the device's conceptual origins was made by employing the preserved parts of an actual human ear.
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Au clair de la lune
You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser. This 1860 phonautogram by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville is the oldest known intelligible recording of the human voice. The recording is played at what is believed to be a realistic speed, revealing a man's voice, presumably Scott's, singing very slowly. The words are claimed to be "Au clair de la lune, Pierrot repondit", but some listeners hear "Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot, prête-m—". Read more about this topic: Phonautograph Famous quotes containing the word construction:“There’s no art “No construction stiff working overtime takes more stress and straining than we did just to stay high.” “When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.” |