Holophone
notes: label: Description
content: Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887) was a Scottish engineer famous for his work with lighthouses who, in the 1860s, designed a simple device for sending acoustic signals that would be especially useful at times of severe fog. Joseph Henry, the founding Secretary of the Smithsonian, was a friend of Stevenson’s, as well as an active member of the U.S. Lighthouse Board. It is thus not surprising that this device ended up in the Smithsonian Instrument Room. A metal tag reads “MR T. STEVENSON’S / HOLOPHONE / for condensing Sound / in one direction.”
label: Description
content: Ref: Thomas Stevenson, <i>Lighthouse Construction and Illumination</i> (London and New York, 1881), pp. 259-261.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314599
label: catalog number
content: 314599
label: accession number
content: 205890
objectType: label: Object Name
content: acoustic apparatus, horn
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in x 12 in x 11 3/8 in; 25.4 cm x 30.48 cm x 28.8925 cm