Science and Sound in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Sound and Science in Nineteenth-Century Britain is a four-volume set of primary sources which seeks to define our historical understanding of the relationship between British scientific knowledge and sound between 1815 and 1900. In the context of rapid urbanization and industrialization, as well as a growing overseas empire, Britain was home to a rich scientific culture in which the ear was as valuable an organ as the eye for examining nature. Experiments on how sound behaved informed new understandings of how a diverse array of natural phenomena operated, notably those of heat, light, and electro-magnetism. In nineteenth-century Britain, sound was not just a phenomenon to be studied, but central to the practice of science itself and broader understandings over nature and the universe. This collection, accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, will be of great interest to students and scholars of the History of Science.

Dr Edward J. Gillin is Lecturer in the History of Building Sciences and Technology at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction in University College London. A cultural historian of nineteenth-century Britain, he specialises in questions of science, technology, and architecture, and how these relate to broader histories of society, politics, and religion.

Volume One Contents - Charles Wheatstone, "New Experiments on Sound", Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, 1823, Vol. vi, (London, England), pp. 81-90. - (Anon.), "The Enchanted Lyre", The Literary Gazette, Vol. 5, (London, 1821), p. 586. - Thomas Busby, "The Acoucryptophone, or Enchanted Lyre", Concert Room and Orchestra Anecdotes of Music and Musicians, ancient and modern, Vol. I, (London, 1825), pp. 9-10. - (Anon.), "Enchanted Lyre", The Circulator of Useful Knowledge, amusement, literature, science, and general information, (London, 1825), p. 284. - Charles Wheatstone, "Description of the Kaleidophone, or Phonic Kaleidoscope", Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and Art, Vol. I, 1827, (London, England), pp. 344-51 - (Anon.), "The Kaleidophone, or phonic Kaleidoscope", Mechanics' Magazine, 11 Aug., 1827, Vol. 8, (London, England), pp. 49-52. - Charles Wheatstone, "Experiments on Audition", in The Scientific Papers of Sir Charles Wheatstone, D.C.L., F.R.S, (Taylor and Francis: London, 1879), pp. 30-5. Originally from the Quarterly Journal of Science, 1827. - Charles Wheatstone, "On the Resonances, or Reciprocated Vibrations of Columns of Air", Quarterly Journal of Science, Vol. III, 1828, (London, England), pp. 175-83 - Charles Wheatstone, "On the transmission of musical sounds through solid linear conductors, and on their subsequent reciprocation", Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, No. 5, (John Murray: London, Dec., 1831), pp. 223-38. - Robert Willis, "On the vowel sounds, and on reed organ-pipes", Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1829), pp. 1-38. - Charles Wheatstone, "On the vowel sounds, and a reed organ-pipes", in The Scientific Papers of Sir Charles Wheatstone, D.C.L., F.R.S, (Taylor and Francis: London, 1879), pp. 348-67. - (Anon.), "Royal Institution", The Dublin Literary Gazette, or Weekly Chronicle of Criticism, Belles Lettres, and Fine Arts, Vol. I, (Dublin, Ireland: 1830), pp. 395-6. - Michael Faraday, "On a Peculiar Class of Acoustical Figures, and on the Forms of Fluids Vibrating on Elastic Surfaces", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 121, 1831, (London, England), pp. 299-340. - Charles Wheatstone, "On the Figures Obtained by Strewing Sand on Vibrating Surfaces, Commonly Called Acoustic Figures", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 123, 1833, (London, England), pp. 593-633 - King's College London Library, Charles Wheatstone, "Lectures on Sound", (1835). - David Brewster, Letters on Natural Magic addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Bart, (John Murray: London, 1832), pp. 1-7, 157-243. - Felix Savart, "Researches on the elasticity of regularly crystallized bodies", Edinburgh Journal of Science, Vol. I, new series, Apr.-Oct., 1829, (Edinburgh, Scotland), pp. 141-6. - Arthur Trevelyan, "On the vibration of heated metals: By Arthur Trevelyan, Esq.; including a letter on the same subject by Dr W. Knight", The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 3rd Series, Nov., 1833, (London, England), pp. 321-332. - Michael Faraday, "Trevelyan's experiments on the production of sound during the conduction of heat", in Michael Faraday, Experimental researches in chemistry and physics, (Richard Taylor and William Francis: London, 1859), pp. 311-4. - J. P. Marrian, "On Sonorous Phaenomena in Electro-Magnets", Philosophical Magazine, Series 3, 25:167, (1844), pp. 382-4. Index