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XXXII.—On the Harmonic Analysis of certain Vowel Sounds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2016

Fleeming Jenkin  and
J. A. Ewing
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Extract

The permanent record obtained with Mr T. A. Edison's phonograph has afforded a new opportunity of investigating the nature of spoken sounds, and the method which this invention placed at our disposal appears to us to possess several important advantages.

This method consists in obtaining a magnified transcript on paper of the indentations impressed by spoken vowels on the tinfoil of the phonograph, and then subjecting the periodic wave-forms thus obtained to harmonic analysis.

The curves as drawn in ink on paper represent to a large scale the surface of a longitudinal section of the tinfoil made along the centre of the furrow impressed by the pricker of the phonograph. The forms impressed on the tinfoil depend essentially on the movement which a particle of air performs when the given sound is being uttered, and the harmonic constituents of each period of the continuous wave-form indicate the relative proportions in which the prime tone and its harmonics are present in the sound.

We thus obtain what may be called a harmonic analysis of the vowel sounds.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , 1878 , pp. 745 - 775
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1877

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References

page 752 note * These figures have been reproduced by a photo-lithographic process.

page 765 note * The following note is taken from our diary:—“May 20. Voice No. 5 did duplex and single ū's on bb, a, and g. The duplex ū on bb was very ō-ish. The others were good. The single form on a was the best of all.”

page 775 note * Auerbach uses the word “factor” to denote a constant multiplier, which is not the sense in which the word has been employed on page 772.