Transformations in the Workshop

Abstract

In the German context, Helmholtz and his followers listened attentively to resonators with their ears, while in Paris observers watched them resonate with manometric flames. There were also artisanal influences work. Helmholtz’s first glass resonators were conceived as products of mathematics, while from Koenig’s workshop the subsequent spun-brass receptacles were more the products of local tuning solutions. The actual analyser also carries evidence of the manufacturing context in Paris. The cast iron frame on the model at Dartmouth College (purchased c. 1870) has manufacturing marks on the feet revealing construction techniques employed to produce large numbers of these instruments for a growing market. The turned wooden handles found on most surviving models, also found on hundreds of Parisian instruments at the time, represent further the popularization of acoustics and the significant influence of the booming Parisian precision trade of the 1860 s.