The Korg MS-10analog synthesizer is a musical instrument capable of generating and modifying electronic signals, enabling a broad range of possible sounds. Produced by the Korg corporation in 1978, the MS-10 was a reduced model compared with other products, which often had more parts and thus offered greater flexibility.
Ebenezer Snell was the professor of physics at Amherst College and a central figure in science education in 19th century America. In the 1850s he developed a series of wave models that he used in his teaching. The models were very popular and by 1860 five of them were being produced commercially for use in schools and academies.
Source: Steven Turner; Curator, Physical Sciences, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
This instrument was manufactured in Germany around the turn of the 20th century. It is surprisingly small and can easily be held in one hand. It was designed to be placed in front of the lens of a projector and to be used for “shadow projection”, which was a teaching method more common in Germany than in America. This machine only shows the sinuous motion of a transverse wave, but a more elaborate version was also made that included a series of angled rods that allowed it to also demonstrate longitudinal waves.
This apparatus consists of three wires, each bent to resemble transverse waves. The wires are mounted in a rectangular brass box that was placed in front of the lens of a projector. The top two wires are identical, but positioned so that their shadows appear to move in opposite directions as a crank on the side of the box is turned. As they do this, the crests and troughs of the waves alternately lineup and overlap. The corresponding “interference” of the two waves is seen in the changing shape of the third wire.
André Prosper Crova was a faculty member at the University of Montpelier. He invented this acoustic wave model in the 1860s and commissioned the prominent Parisian acoustic instrument maker Rudolph Koenig to manufacture it for him. It was first shown at the 1867 Paris World Fair.
„This instrument was used in an Ohio high school and probably dates from the late 19th or early 20th centuries. The replication of classic experiments was a common way to teach science at this time, and Chladni’s figures were considered to be both instructive and beautiful.
These instruments demonstrate the “communication of vibrations” between connected plates. This was a topic first investigated by the French scientist Felix Savart, in the 1820s. Savart experimented with a pair of identical glass disks that were connected by only a single glass rod. When the two disks were sprinkled with sand and the first one vibrated, both disks formed identical patterns.
Source: Steven Turner; Curator, Physical Sciences, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Picture: Steven Turner
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