History of the tuning fork. I: Invention of the tuning fork, its course in music and natural sciences. Pictures from the history of otorhinolaryngology, presented by instruments from the collection of the Ingolstadt German Medical History Museum

Laryngo- rhino- otologie
H Feldmann

Abstract

G. Cardano, physician, mathematician, and astrologer in Pavia, Italy, in 1550 described how sound may be perceived through the skull. A few years later H. Capivacci, also a physician in Padua, realized that this phenomenon might be used as a diagnostic tool for differentiating between hearing disorders located either in the middle ear or in the acoustic nerve. The German physician G. C. Schelhammer in 1684 was the first to use a common cutlery fork in further developing the experiments initiated by Cardano and Capivacci. For a long time to come, however, there was no demand for this in practical otology. The tuning fork was invented in 1711 by John Shore, trumpeter and lutenist to H. Purcell and G.F. Händel in London. A picture of Händel's own tuning fork, probably the oldest tuning fork in existence, is presented here for the first time. There are a number of anecdotes connected with the inventor of the tuning fork, using plays on words involving the name Shore, and mixing up pitch-pipe and pitchfork. Some of these are related here. The tuning fork as a musical instrument soon became a success throughout Europe. The German physicist E. F. F. Chladni in Wittenberg around 1800 was the first to systematically investigate the mode...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 21, 2009·European Psychiatry : the Journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists·T ReichhartC Rummel-Kluge
Apr 1, 2021·OTO Open : the Official Open Access Journal of the American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery Foundation·Maciej J Wrobel, Bogdan F Bogacz

Nov 3, 2020·Zeitschrift für medizinische Physik·Jürgen Kießling

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Auditory Perception

Auditory perception is the ability to receive and interpret information attained by the ears. Here is the latest research on factors and underlying mechanisms that influence auditory perception.