Long, rectangular wooden box. At one end there is a hollow conical piece and on the opposite end there is a square metal plate screwed to the face. Three curved metal tubes protrude from the plate, curving around the edge. On one side of the box there is a fipple. On the reverse side from the fipple is a wooden board nailed to the box, with glass tubes fastened to the board by wire and held in place with a wooden piece which slides in above. Two ends of the glass tubes and on the end of one of the metal tubes are fitted with the remnants of what were likely rubber sleeves. The three metal tubes curve around the box edge toward the glass tubes.
Accession Number: 2012.ph.601
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Wood, glass, metal, rubber
Markings: “RUDOLPH KOENIG À PARIS”
Dimensions (cm): 54 x 12 x 10
Used in acoustical experiments.
“The three manometers demonstrate dilations and compressions of vibrating air in the organ pipe. Water inside the manometer tubes move in accordance with changes in air pressure. The water level stays the same in the manometer connected to the pipe during both dilations and compressions; the water lowers in one under the influence of dilations; and the water rises in the other under the influence of compression.” Koenig, 1889 catalogue, translated from the French.[1]
Rubber sleeves or tubing which may have connected the glass and metal tubes has disintegrated and is mostly absent except for a few remnants around two glass tubes and one metal tube end. Some green corrosion on the metal tubes. Glass tubes are dirty. Scratches and nicks on the surface of the box.
Associated Instruments:
Manufacturer: Rudolph Koenig
Date of Manufacture: c. 1880s
University of Toronto Physics Department
1) Pantalony, David. (2009). <i>Altered Sensations: Rudolph Koenig’s Acoustical Workshop in Nineteenth-Century Paris</i>. Dordrecht: Springer.
Historical Notes:
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