Signedon base: RUDOLPH KOENIG / À PARIS
FunctionWhen organ pipes adapted with manometric capsules are mounted on the wind chests of this apparatus, the small flames fuel by gas oscillate according to the sound waves produced in the organ pipes. This instrument was one of the firsts to visually display the vibrations of sound waves. The rotating mirror is essential for the visualization of interference phenomena in sound waves. Koenig's catalogue shows nice pictures of how the flames will appear when, for instance, two organ pipes are tuned so they produce a beat.
A video demonstration of a manometric flame was also produced by the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica in Florence, Italy and is on YouTube here.
Primary SourcesRudolph Koenig, Catalogue des appareils d'acoustique construits par Rudolph Koenig (Paris, 1865), 45, no. 215.
Rudolph Koenig, Catalogue des appareils d'acoustique construits par Rudolph Koenig (Paris, 1889), 85, no. 239.
Related WorksDavid Pantalony, Rudolph Koening (1832-1901), Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) and the Birth of Modern Acoutsics, unpublished dissertation, University of Toronto, 2002.
David Pantalony, "Rudolph Koenig's Workshop of Sound: Instruments, Theories, and the Debate over Combination Tones," Annals of Science 62 (2005): 57-82.
Thomas Greenslade, "The Acoustical Apparatus of Rudolph Koenig," The Physics Teacher, 30 (December, 1992).