Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner (also known as Joseph T. Tykociner; 5 October 1877, in

Włocławek Włocławek (; or ''Alt Lesle'', Yiddish: וולאָצלאַוועק, romanized: ''Vlatzlavek'') is a city in the Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeship in central Poland along the Vistula River, bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

– 11 June 1969, in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents i ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

) was a Polish engineer and a pioneer of

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an Analog s ...

technology. In 1921 he became the first research professor of

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. Within a year of his arrival at the university, he conducted the first sound-on-film

motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

recordings at a physics demonstration that showed how pictures and sound could be synchronized to produce a "

talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed befo ...

", a motion picture with sound.

Life

Tykociner was born into a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish family in

, a town in Polish territory then under Russian control.
Moone, Tom, "Joseph Tykociner: Pioneer of sound on film" Ingenuity. University of Illinois Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. retrieved Dec. 17, 2006 He worked for the

Marconi Company The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 which was a pioneer of wireless long distance communication and mass media broadcasting, eventually becoming on ...

in 1901 in London at the time the first radio signal was transmitted across the Atlantic. At the age of eighteen he came to the United States. In New York City he met

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla (;"Tesla"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...

and became an expert in shortwave radio. He received a jeweled gold watch from Czar Nicholas II for setting up a radio communication system for the Russian fleet. The Joseph Tykociner Commemorative Website, based on the forthcoming book "Out of Sync:The Life of Joseph Tykociner, "Father of The Talkies"" by Paul Doering. retrieved Dec. 17, 2006 He was at St. Petersburg's Helsinki Station when Lenin returned from exile in 1917. After the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

he worked on radio for the Polish government.

Sound film

He worked from 1918 to develop a system of recording and reproducing synchronized sound on motion picture film. He became the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

's first research professor of engineering in 1921. On June 9, 1922, Tykociner publicly demonstrated for the first time a motion picture with a soundtrack optically recorded directly onto the film. When Tykociner demonstrated the first sound-on-film motion picture recordings the projector had a photoelectric cell made by his Illinois colleague Jakob Kunz at its heart. In the first sounds ever publicly heard from a composite image-and-audio film, Helena Tykociner, the inventor's wife, spoke the words, "I will ring," and then rang a bell. Next, Ellery Paine, head of the university's Department of Electrical Engineering, recited the

Gettysburg Address The Gettysburg Address is a Public speaking, speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, U.S. president, following the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The speech has come to be viewed as one ...

. The demonstration was written up in the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

'' on July 30, 1922. A dispute between Tykociner and university president David Kinley over patent rights to the process thwarted its commercial application. Tykociner applied for a patent shortly before the public demonstration. The patent was awarded in 1926. Many people consider

Theodore Case Theodore Willard Case (December 12, 1888 – May 13, 1944) was an American chemist who invented the Movietone sound system, Movietone sound-on-film, sound-on-sound film, film system. Early life and education Case was born on December 12, 1 ...

as the inventor of the sound film even though Tykociński made sound film 3 years before him. In 1919,

Lee De Forest #REDIRECT Lee de Forest {{redirect category shell, {{R from move{{R from other capitalisation ...

filed patents for his sound-on-film process

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. In 1919 and 1920, de Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofi ...

, unaware of Tykociner's work. DeForest, working with

, produced several short films in 1921 and 1922, and introduced Phonofilm at a presentation at the Rivoli Theater in New York City on April 15, 1923. Case and DeForest had a falling out, and Case took his patents to William Fox, who used Case's patents to develop Fox Movietone.

Radar

In the 1920s, Tykociner did antenna design research that was a precursor to

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

Zetetics

After his official retirement in 1946, he did research in a new field he termed "zetetics," (not to be confused with zeteticism, Marcello Truzzi's term for scientific skepticism), which Tykociński-Tykociner described as the collection and systematization of "all information about research activities, including creative processes, with the view of extending that knowledge which leads to discoveries, inventions, and the solution of human problems." This included the study of the science of research and the relationship between science and art. When he died in 1969 in

, his estate and papers were left to the university. The Tykociner Memorial Lectures began in 1972 with a lecture by

Dennis Gabor Dennis Gabor ( ; ; 5 June 1900 – 9 February 1979) was a Hungarian-British physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971 for his invention of holography. He obtained British citizenship in 1946 and spent most of his life in Engla ...

. Through 1998, other distinguished scientists and artists spoke on the relationship between science and the arts, including Leon Cooper,

Leon Lederman Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

, and

Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was a British-American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrix, random matrices, math ...

. In 2002 the lectures were changed to weekly lectures in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Tykociner Memorial Lectures at the University of Illinois' Champaign-Urbana Campus. retrieved Dec. 17, 2006

Notes

External links