Tone Variator
date: label: date made
content: around 1907
label: date made
content: ca 1907
name: label: maker
content: Max Kohl
notes: label: Description
content: This tone variator, which consists of a cylindrical brass resonator on a wooden base, produced a moderately pure tone. The frequency is controlled by moving the piston up or down. The inscription reads “Max Kohl Chemnitz / D.R.G.M. 189710”. William Stern (1871-1938), a German-Jewish psychologist and philosopher, invented the form in 1897 and used it to study human sensitivity to changes in pitch. He fled to the United States in 1933. The D.R.G.M. patent number dates from around 1906, the same time that Max Kohl, in Chemnitz, began making instruments of this sort.
label: Description
content: Ref: William Stern, <i>Autobiographical Essay</i> (Worcester, Ma., 1930), vol. 1.
label: Description
content: H. G. Bishop, “The Stern Variator,” <i>The American Journal of Psychology</i> 34 (1923): 150-151.
label: Description
content: Max Kohl, <i>Physical Apparatus</i> (Chemnitz, 191-), vol. 2, p. 446.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: Germany: Saxony, Chemnitz
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Cornell University Department of Psychology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.300427.114
label: catalog number
content: 300427.114
label: accession number
content: 300427
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Variator
label: Other Terms
content: Variator; Diagnostic Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 62.4 cm x 25 cm x 20.2 cm; 24 9/16 in x 9 13/16 in x 7 15/16 in