The tonograph ( it, tonografo) is a device invented by
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
scientist
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi (28 October 1764 – 26 September 1852) was an Italian archdeacon, scientist, mathematician, political economist. He also wrote a book about pedagogy and invented the tonograph.
Life
Born at Altamura, in what is no ...
(1764-1852) and presented at the ''Terza riunione degli scienziati italiani'' (the "Third Meeting of Italian Scientists"), held in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
in September 1841.
The original device was donated by its inventor
Cagnazzi during the Third Meeting of Italian Scientists. After then, the instrument went lost, but in 1932 ca., thanks to the work of a scholar, it was found in a cellar and exhibited at the
Museo Galileo
Museo Galileo, the former ''Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza'' (Institute and Museum of the History of Science) is located in Florence, Italy, in Piazza dei Giudici, along the River Arno and close to the Uffizi Gallery. The museum, dedicate ...
, located in ''Piazza dei Giudici'',
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
. The original device is now stored in the ''
Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci
Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, dedicated to painter and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, is the largest science and technology museum in Italy. It was opened on 5 February 1953 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Alci ...
'',
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
.
A copy of the device was commissioned by Count Celio Sabini (from
Altamura) and it's now displayed at the museum ''
Archivio Biblioteca Museo Civico'', located in
Altamura.
Making
According to
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi (28 October 1764 – 26 September 1852) was an Italian archdeacon, scientist, mathematician, political economist. He also wrote a book about pedagogy and invented the tonograph.
Life
Born at Altamura, in what is no ...
's unpublished autobiography ''La mia vita'', the tonograph was made by Cagnazzi himself with his own hands ("colle mie mani") in 1841. He also wrote a short essay about how it worked and its purpose and this work was first written in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
language and published under the name ''Tonographiae Excogitatio'' (1841), since Cagnazzi wanted its invention to be known in what it was then known as
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Subsequently, he translated his essay to
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
language on the occasion of the Third Meeting of Italian Scientists, held in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, where he presented his invention.
According to Cagnazzi, his device was very much appreciated during the Third Meeting.
Working principle
The tonograph is a device consisting of a hollow
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
cylindrical section closed at one end and equipped with a hole. The cylinder is in all respects similar to that of the
organs
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...
. Through
bellows
A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtig ...
, operated through one's feet, the air flows through the cylindrical tube making a sound. Inside the cylinder there is a piston whose position is regulated by a thin rod and, as the position of the piston changes, the length of the cylinder also changes. As the plunger (and therefore the rod) changes, the instrument will generate a different sound. A graduated scale makes it possible to "measure" the intonation and inflection of human voice, by matching one's voice with the sound made by the device.
The scale provided by Cagnazzi, apparently, also related to the
harmonic and
diatonic scale employed in music. Cagnazzi assumes that there is roughly an inverse proportionality between the length of a closed cylindrical tube and the sound's
frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
. Based on this assumption, he came to define the width of the scale and he related the scale of the device with the scale of musics.
The device was meant not only to measure, but also to preserve the tones and inflections of human voice (for example, by transcribing them above or below a text). Therefore, it also represents, in a broad sense, a device which helps store some kind of information.
During the presentation of the device, which took place in 1841 at the Third Meeting of Italian Scientists, during which the device was donated to the department, Professor Giovanni Alessandro Majocchi praised
Cagnazzi for his invention, as it provided
declamation
Declamation (from the Latin: ''declamatio'') is an artistic form of public speaking. It is a dramatic oration designed to express through articulation, emphasis and gesture the full sense of the text being conveyed.
History
In Ancient Rome, decla ...
schools with a way to precisely and successfully store the tone and intensity of human voice. The diatonic and chromatic scales of music didn't have enough notches to accurately represent the tone and intensity of human voice. During the presentation, chemist Giuseppe Gazzeri objected that a mechanical device could never make a sound similar to the human voice, as the material of which the human
phonation system is made and the materials of which a mechanical device is made are intrinsically different.
[ annali1841, pp. 269-270.]
Majeri himself replied to Gazzeri's objection by explaining that sound is described by three factors, namely
tone,
intensity and
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...
. The tone depends on the sound's frequency, the intensity is the "strength" of a sound, while the
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...
depends on the material of the "sounding body" ( it, corpo sonante). Different sounds such as a
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...
and a
bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...
may have the same tone and intensity, but they are often perceived as different sounds. The difference is given by the timbre. Since intensity and tone but not timbre are meaningful and employed in acting schools, Gazzocchi's objection, according to Majocchi, is unreasonable "by itself".
Example of use
An example of the use of the tonograph is provided by
Cagnazzi himself. The syllables of each word and each sentence of a text to are pronounced slowly enough, so as to imitate the voice with the device. Once the sound of the voice seems closest to the human voice of the syllable, the corresponding value on the scale is transcribed below the syllable. At a lower level, the number of bellows pressures carried out for each word is also added. The "measurement" of the voice requires a lot of diligence and a certain number of attempts before reaching a precise measurement.
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi (28 October 1764 – 26 September 1852) was an Italian archdeacon, scientist, mathematician, political economist. He also wrote a book about pedagogy and invented the tonograph.
Life
Born at Altamura, in what is no ...
provides an example of the use of the tonograph based on a notable verse by
Ennius
Quintus Ennius (; c. 239 – c. 169 BC) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce, Apulia, (Ancient Calabria ...
(''Andromache''):
From the example above, it's clear that the purpose of the device is to help store the features of human voice, its tones and music. Cagnazzi himself shaped his experiment based on the information provided by
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
on how the above verse was pronounced in the
classical era
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
.
[ tonografia-1841, p. 46.]
Cagnazzi faces the impossibility (with some exceptions) of faithfully reconstructing the tones and inflections of the voice that the
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
and the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
used in their survived works. The same inventor, in the first part of his essay ''Tonografia escogitata'' (1841) made some acute observations on both
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
and
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
; he also explained, in the preface, the purpose of his work as well as of his invention:
Previous attempts
According to what reported by its inventor, there had been some previous attempts to faithfully transcribe the tones of acting. Some attempts had been carried out by the ''
Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigr ...
'' of
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. Its perpetual secretary
Charles Pinot Duclos wrote that abbot
Jean-Baptiste Dubos
Jean-Baptiste Dubos (; 14 December 1670 – 23 March 1742), also referred to as l'Abbé Du Bos, was a French author. He was also a diplomat and an art critic. Life
Dubos was born in Beauvais. He was educated in Paris and received a Master of Arts ...
proposed to create a group of experts in the field of music, in order to identify and distinguish fractions of the human voice's
diatonic scale.
[ tonografia-1841, pp. 34-37.]
Nevertheless, the ''Académie'' didn't succeed in the above purpose, since human ears (even the ears of the most skilled people) basically can't go beyond a certain level of precision without a proper device. The failure led the ''Académie'' to jump to the conclusion that distinguishing between fractions of the diatonic scale was simply impossible, and alternative methods, based on science and mathematics, weren't taken into account. Cagnazzi compared the ''Académie'' to the fox in
Phaedrus's
fable
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that illustrat ...
, who said that the grapes were unripe since he couldn't reach it.
See also
*
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi (28 October 1764 – 26 September 1852) was an Italian archdeacon, scientist, mathematician, political economist. He also wrote a book about pedagogy and invented the tonograph.
Life
Born at Altamura, in what is no ...
*
Declamation
Declamation (from the Latin: ''declamatio'') is an artistic form of public speaking. It is a dramatic oration designed to express through articulation, emphasis and gesture the full sense of the text being conveyed.
History
In Ancient Rome, decla ...
*
Acoustics
*
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
* {{Cite book , title=Gli strumenti della scienza. Liceo Cagnazzi. Catalogo 1800-1900 , author=AA.VV. , year=2011 , pages=224 , publisher=Torre di Nebbia , location=
Altamura , url=https://issuu.com/michelecolonna/docs/gli_strumenti_della_scienza, via=
Issuu
Issuu, Inc. (pronounced "issue") is a Danish-founded American electronic publishing platform based in Palo Alto, California, United States.
Founded in 2004 as a Danish startup, the company moved its headquarters to the United States in 2013.
...
, isbn=978-88-95911-27-4 , ref=strumentiscienza-2011
External links
LombardiaBeniCulturali - TonografoFonografo di Luca De Samuele Cagnazzi
Musical instruments
Linguistics
Acoustics
History of physics