Wallace C. Sabine
1868 - 1919
Wallace Clement Sabine was an American physicist and Harvard professor who became known as a founder of the field of architectural acoustics. Beginning in 1895 he conducted experiments to improve the acoustics in the Fogg Lecture Hall in Harvard's Fogg Art Museum.
When he began, Sabine did not have a particular expertise in acoustics. He experimented with changing the reverberations in Fogg, using an organ pipe, stopwatch, human bodies and seat cushions from the nearby Sanders Theater at Harvard to change the acoustics in the hall.
Around 1900 he was involved in designing the acoustics for Boston Music Hall (now called Boston Symphony Hall), considered one of world's best concert halls for acoustics.
A unit of sound absorption, known as the sabin, is named after him.
See also, William J. Cavanaugh, Gregory C. Tocci, Joseph A. Wilkes, eds.,Architectural Acoustics: Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. pp. 33-34.