This large and complex device, which resolves the timbre of a sound in such a way that the information can be seen, consists of eight Helmholtz resonators, each connected to a gas jet, and a four-sided rotating mirror. It was designed and made by Rudolph Koenig in Paris. It came from the Smithsonian Instrument Room, and was probably purchased by Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as founding Secretary of the Institution.
Ref: Rudolph Koenig, Catalogue des Appareils d’Acoustique (Paris, 1865), p. 46.
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