Tom Dent answer

Re:
Message: 5
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:03:58 -0000
From: "Tom Dent" <tdent@auth.gr>
Subject: First widely known absolute pitch determination?

A historical question. At what period in music/acoustic history did
the measurement of pitch by Hertz or cps become commonly known and
useful? When did tuning forks (etc.) start to have their pitch in Hz
stamped on them? What methods were used to measure and check pitch?

What I have found suggests that Sauveur was an important figure in the
early scientific development, but details are lacking.

~~~Thomas~~~
Dear Thomas:
I have on hand an old book in Spanish written in1882, entitled "Tratado
elemental de F�sica, by A. Ganot , p. 260.
As sub-title of the said book ("Llamas manometricas de Koenig") i.e.
Manometric Koenig flames, describes the method used to mesure the
frequency of the sound. The method employs two devices: the first
comunicates the vibration of a sound to a flame, and the second consists
of a stroboscopic system that reflects the flame using four mirrors
placed on the sides of a rotating cube to "immobilize " the image of the
flame.
The first device has a rubber membrane separating two zones: one for the
sound comming from a horn, and the other connected with coal gas that is
inflated into the chamber leading to the flame, that thus trembles
imperseptively.
The succesion of images stemming from the flame are reflected on the
mirrors of the rotating cube and the quantity of times these images are
repeated in a given period of time, equals the frequency of the sound.
.
Eduardo

--
Eduardo Sabat-Garibaldi
Simon Bolivar 1260
11300 Montevideo
Uruguay
Phone: +(598)(2) 7080952
Webpage (Spanish and English): http://members.lycos.co.uk/dinarra

(IFIS): www.invention-ifia.ch/ifis/sectiong/g0101/g0101.htm