Invention Timeline - Alfred Marshall Mayer, American Physicist; Measured the Wave Lengths and Velocities of Sound in Gases
b. November 13, 1836 and d. ?
American physicist. He showed that the translation of a vibrating body caused it to emit waves differing in length from those produced by the same vibrating body when stationary; he devised a method of detecting the phases of vibration in the air surrounding a sounding body, leading to his invention of the topophone; a mode of measuring the wave lengths and velocities of sound in gases, resulting in the invention of an acoustic pyrometer; a method of determining the relative intensities of sound; five new methods of sonorous analysis for the decomposition of a compound sound into its elementary tones; the determination of the laws of vibration of tuning-forks.
Oh, birth, oh, death of Time!
Oh, mystery sublime!
Ever the rippling ocean
Brings forth the wave
To smile or rave,
And die of its own motion.
A little wave to strike
The sad, responsive shore,
And be succeeded by its like,
Ever and evermore.
—The Lost Day: Mackay
1877, December—Edison announced a phonograph.
1880—Audiphone invented by R. G. Rhodes.
