Sounds of Our Times: Two Hundred Years of Acoustics

  • Robert T. Beyer
Springer: 1999. 444pp $49.95, £37.50
An early sound-recording session.

The science of sound and vibration has come down in the world during the twentieth century. It occupied a position of pre-eminence in antiquity, with the Pythagorean views of universal harmony and the ‘music of the spheres’.

By the nineteenth century it was still in the mainstream of rapidly developing physical science, and many famous names made contributions: scientists like Hermann von Helmholtz, Lord Rayleigh, Gustav Kirchhoff and Joseph Henry, and inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. In the twentieth century the subject has lacked the glamour of quantum mechanics, astrophysics or molecular biology, but nevertheless research has continued with accelerating pace.

Robert Beyer's engagingly written history of the subject since 1800 tells the whole story, and may help restore some sparkle to a Cinderella subject. It is liberally supplied with period illustrations and anecdotes, while maintaining a high standard of technical accuracy and completeness. Among the many gems is the first experimental verification of the formula for the Doppler effect, when the experimental apparatus consisted of a steam locomotive, several trumpeters and some musically trained observers. Beyer also describes the long story of ways to visualize and measure waveforms of sound and vibration — from Helmholtz resonators, tuning-forks and rotating mirrors through the early developments in electromagnetic devices, up to modern electronic and computer-based methods.

During this century the scope of the subject has expanded enormously, with such topics as underwater acoustics, architectural acoustics and ultrasonics. All are covered in Beyer's systematic account, which draws especially on the author's long association with the Acoustical Society of America whose journal and regular conferences provide invaluable raw material, while the society itself is included as part of the history of the subject.

The book comes right up to date with an inevitably brief overview of recent developments and trends across the whole field, from structural vibration to the physiology of hearing. The result is of interest to any scientific reader. Those working in the subject will naturally turn first to the reference list to see if they are mentioned. I wasn't, but I was quite impressed at the choice of modern developments in the areas with which I am familiar.

It would be unrealistic to expect such a general book to give a definitive review of every speciality, but Beyer has made a very creditable stab. This book combines good science with being a good read. It should make its way into many libraries, and onto many bedside tables.