This image visually depicts the working of sound using the Aeolian harp—an instrument significant to the Romantic imagination—as the primary model. The engraving also includes several scientific diagrams indicating how the harp might function.
This scientific diagrams depicts "vibrations in solid bodies," including rods and plates. In the image, Herschel presents readers with another set of experiments that helps them conceptualize the movement of sound through space, again depending on the visual. Figures 36-41 involve the vibrations of a rod either resting against a wall or free.
This image depicts an octave as rendered differently by each temperament. Young particularly emphasizes circumference Y, which represents the system that Young found most effective: twelve-tone equal temperament. The image depicts an octave and variant systems of tuning, or "temperament." The octave is represented by the circumference of the circle.
Using mathematical techniques, this image visually depicts aural phenomena: the sound waves produced by playing an octave. The image uses scientific diagrams to depict sound waves and vibrational patterns. The specific phenomena depicted by the various figures and the import of these depictions are discussed at length below.
The series of plates given in this gallery depicts the ear and how it works. This image, Plate 18 of Bell's illustrations, depicts the semicircular canals of the ear. Bell further describes the image: "The cochlea is named by its similitude to the shell of a snail. It is the most difficult part of the ear to be described."
The series of plates given in this gallery depicts the ear and how it works. This image, Plate 17 of Bell's illustrations, depicts the three small bones of the ear. Bell describes it as such:
The series of plates given in this gallery depicts the ear and how it works. This image, Plate 16 of Bell's illustrations, depicts the inner ear. Bell describes it as such: "These are the mastoid cells. They are thought to strengthen the effect of the sound, by reverberating the air from the tympanum."
The series of plates given in this gallery depicts the ear and how it works. This image, Plate 13 of Bell's illustrations, depicts the ear without the skin. The numbers and their labels are given below:
A: the helix
B: the unnamed cavity
C: the antihelix
D: its cavity, called the scapha
What does sound look like? How might it be visually represented? Can it be explained in a scientific diagram? This gallery seeks to explore these questions by examining the form and significance of the ways in which the Romantic period sought to incorporate the ephemeral, ineffable, and invisible element of sound into the visual register. Beginning with an anatomical depiction of the ear and its various parts, this gallery traces the new scientific developments assisting Romantic scientists in understanding how the ear itself functioned.
