The talkies (1930)

Page scan 000212 from The talkies

Record Details:

Title:
The talkies
Date:
1930
Publisher:
London: Crosby Lockwood and Son
Volume:
The talkies
Leaf #:
000212
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
August 29, 2024
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140 THE TALKIES Sound, while not entirely similar, has certain points in common with light: it obeys the laws of reflection and to some extent those of refraction or the bending of a ray ; it can very readily be focused. If the sound of a chord played on the piano be passed through a prism, not of glass, but of some gas denser than air, enclosed in a film of gold-beater's skin, that chord will be split into its component sounds as surely as light is resolved into the colours of the rainbow when it passes through a prism of glass. This method may even be applied to the analysis of the harmonics that give the characteristic "timbre" to a single note from any instrument. Sound, like light, will be reflected from hard surfaces as an echo. It will even cause large areas of wall to tremble when they are sympathetic to the sound which is impinging on them; and booming effects will be produced which will destroy definition, or introduce an air of artificiality into the most perfectly reproduced music or speech. Echoes and reverberations are pregnant with trouble for Talkie installation engineers. Walls or roofs which are curved collect the sound and, by concentrating it into narrow rays, focus it only on to certain portions of the auditorium, leaving the rest in a sea of meaningless