Early Horn History

[Clipped and Shorn]

Verkündungshorn,

aus:

Phonurgia nova

(Kempten 1673)

Als sein Rivale, der Universalgelehrte und Fellow der Royal Society Sir Samuel Morland (1625-1695), im Januar 1672 in den "Philosophical transactions" eine Schrift herausgab, in der er unberechtigten Anspruch auf die Erfindung der Sprechtrompete erhob, bewegte dies Kircher zu einer Richtigstellung in seinem Werk "Phonurgia Nova", dem ersten veröffentlichten Buch, das sich ausschließlich mit der Akustik auseinandersetzte. Kircher erläuterte darin seine Verwendung der "tuba stentorophonica", mit der er die Versammlungen am Schrein des Heiligen Eustachius in Mentorella zusammenrief, und zwar viele Jahre vor dem Zeitpunkt, den Morland für seine Erfindung beansprucht hatte - und er unterstützte dies durch die Zeugenaussagen von James Alban Gibbs, Gaspar Schott und anderen. Darüber hinaus hatte Kircher in "Musurgia Universalis" bereits fast ein Vierteljahrhundert zuvor ausführlich über schallverstärkende Megaphone geschrieben. Nach dieser vernichtenden Widerlegung seines Gegners wendet sich Kircher der Wiederaufnahme und Erweiterung seiner Erkenntnisse aus "Musurgia" zu. Er erörtert die Wissenschaft der Echos und der Schallverstärkung und stellt Pläne für zahlreiche geniale Erfindungen im Bereich der Klangerzeugung vor, zu denen sprechende Statuen, eine Äolstuba, Abhörvorrichtungen und eine unüberschaubare Menge von Hörnern und Megaphonen zählen. Kircher war davon überzeugt, daß die Helixform für die Schallverstärkung am geeignetsten sei. Sprechtrompeten wie die hier gezeigte erreichten oft gigantische Ausmaße und überschritten leicht die Größe eines Menschen.

C&S

[Clipped and Shorn]

For those of you who speak English:

Propagation Horns

from

Phonurgia nova

(Kempten 1673)

When rival polymath Sir Samuel Morland, FRS (1625-95), published a paper in the January 1672 issue of Philosophical transactions in which he laid spurious claim to the invention of the speaking-trumpet, Kircher was moved to set the record straight in Phonurgia nova, the first published book devoted entirely to acoustics. Kircher detailed his use of the 'tuba stentorophonica' to summon his congregation to St. Eustace's shrine at Mentorella for many years prior to Morland's claim, and annotated his account with testimonials from James Alban Gibbs, Gaspar Schott, and others. In addition, Kircher had written extensively on amplifying megaphones almost a quarter century earlier in Musurgia Universalis. Having routed this pretender, Kircher proceeds to reiterate and elaborate his findings from Musurgia, discussing the science of echoes and amplification, and presenting designs for many ingenious sound inventions, including talking statues, an aeolian tuba, eavesdropping devices, and a myriad of horns and megaphones. Kircher believed a helical form was most efficacious for amplification, and speaking- trumpets like the ones reproduced here would often reach immense proportions, towering over the height of a man.

C&S

[Clipped and Shorn]

Here is the image:

C&S

[DRBILL]

I wonder if you could get those cast in brass?

DR BILL

[hwatkins]

I figured father bill was going to recount working at the factory that made these horns..... (not that I would be making fun of older folks)

[fini]

That horn tripod would make a dandy antenna base...

[ZAKO]

Whos got the lungs to get a toot out of that horn?

[fini]

I thought you didn't inhale?

[DRBILL]

----------------

On 5/10/2004 3:34:37 PM hwatkins wrote:

I figured father bill was going to recount working at the factory that made these horns..... (not that I would be making fun of older folks)

----------------

WORKED there?!! I OWNED the place!

DR BILL

[hwatkins]

----------------

On 5/11/2004 10:22:49 AM fini wrote:

I thought you didn't inhale?

----------------

I think that during the 70s I was the Anti-Clinton.

I never exhaled....

[Clipped and Shorn]

The horny player would make a toot most uncommon.

http://www.crystalinks.com/tut.html'>fini's famous uncommon toot

C&S

[Colin]

Horns are much older than that. Justamadeupname, son of Arablikename, of lower Drymiddleeastarea, who was NOT properly weaned as a child, his mother NOT yet of such an age to just sayth no, kept putting all sorts of thingth in his mouth. At age two, he blowth upon a small empty goat horn leth lying around the tent and causeth a joyous noise.

Ath an adult, Justamadeupname perfectth thith merry maketh technique and verily performth all sorth of noisy making displayth at mitzvahth and other celebrations. He found that with horns, bigger is better. With a small horn, he foundth that one breath could fillth a four camel-skin tent. This was calledth a four-skin horn. Many young men around the world still playth this horn.

Justamadeupname foundth that with a larger goat or bull horn, one breath could fillth a twenty-skin tent and maketh a loud noise in a crowded tent. This loud note was called a hit and a bull that fillth a tent with loud voice became knownth as bullthitter!

The largeth banquet Justamadeupname ever servth was a outdoor buffeth for a war lord nameth Joshua, of Judea, whose party guesths were so exciteth by joyth noises, that they ruinth the wallth of the neighboring town. As usual, the rich lordth and politicianth taketh all credit, but ever since, the biggest parties are servth by horns.

[Clipped and Shorn]

Colin,

I think you should take the job at Cambridige, I have read your paper and I have put in a strong recommendation for a tenured position for you.

C&S

ps: Keep those muscles tough.

[3dzapper]

C&S, Are you saying that they need a new bullthitter at Oxford?

Rick

[Clipped and Shorn]

Here is the information about Kircher you were asking about. You can see that between the propagation horns and the magnets, it was only a baby step away from the Klipschorn even then.

Magnes, Kircher's second and most significant book on magnetic phenomena, consists of three sections- the first describing the nature and properties of magnets, the second on practical applications including navigation and mechanical curiosities, and finally a philosophical discussion on how magnetism and analogous forces conspire to define all of nature. It is the second section, containing charts and tables compiled by Kircher from reports solicited from Jesuit scholars throughout the world that generated intense interest in the book. Detailing a wealth of data on variations in magnetic readings across longitude, latitude, and time, its success resulted in its being reprinted twice within the next few years. At the same time, Magnes generated considerable controversy in the nascent international scientific community for its dismissal of key concepts from predecessors such as Johann Kepler and William Gilbert. In one instance, Kepler, expanding on Gilbert's speculation, described the sun as a huge magnet, whose rotation on its axis caused the earth and planets (themselves smaller magnets) to move around it in orbits. Kircher disproved this by experimenting with actual magnets, and observing that rotation of a large central magnet actually caused a sympathetic axial rotation in its otherwise stationary satellites. On the basis of this phenomenon, Kircher devised a device for 'magnetic hydromancy' in which small wax figures, embedded with magnets and suspended in water-filled globes, could be made to spell out specific messages or forecasts from symbols and letters printed on the surface of their vessels. Controlled by a hand-cranked rotating central magnet, this mechanically simulated divination device, bearing the Hermetic motto 'Nature Rejoices in Nature', epitomizes Kircher's unique blend of skepticism towards paranormal activities and delight in the underlying mysteries of seemingly mundane reality.

Could you please summarize this for me, thanks.

C&S

[Clipped and Shorn]

Back by popular demand:

The last of his books to be published during his lifetime, Turris Babel was Kircher's attempt to reconstruct the specifics surrounding the famous biblical story, recounted in Genesis 10-11, of Nimrod's attempt to build a tower that reached the heavens. Apart from his interest in ancient civilizations and biblical historicism, the story was of particular interest to Kircher as an account of the origin of languages, and, by Kircher's extension, of polytheism. The second half of Turris is devoted to Kircher's theories on linguistics. The first section, similar to his Arca Noë of four years earlier, contains an imaginative speculative expansion of the Tower of Babel story in light of Kircher's knowledge of history, geography, and physics. This model illustrates Kircher's proof that Nimrod's ambition was intrinsically flawed: in order to reach the nearest heavenly body; the Moon, the tower would have to be 178,672 miles high, comprised of over three million tons of matter. The uneven distribution of the Earth's mass would tip the balance of the planet and move it from its position at the center of the universe, resulting in a cataclysmic disruption in the order of nature.

C&S

[Clipped and Shorn]

OK, stop pestering me, just this one more, and that is all you get:

I know Kircher and Klipsch both begin with a "K", but is that the only connection?

Following a two-year visit to Sicily, where he witnessed the March 1638 eruptions of Aetna and Stromboli, Kircher became increasingly fascinated with geological and meteorological phenomena. Upon his return to Naples, he had himself lowered into the active crater of Vesuvius to make firsthand observations. From his investigations and research, Kircher concluded that continually circulating channels of fire (for which volcanoes act as occasionally emerging safety valves) and water honeycombed the Earth's interior, and that these, in conjunction with the wind, were responsible for all weather and geological events.

These ideas formed the thesis of Kircher's most popularly successful and renowned book, Mundus Subturraneus. While primarily a geological textbook, this massive and copiously illustrated volume contained discussions of gravity, the moon, the sun, eclipses, ocean currents, hydraulics, saline analyses, fossils & petrifaction, remains of giants, subterranean beasts and demons, poisons, metallurgy, the Universal Seed, the generation of insects, astrological medicine and fireworks, as well as a lengthy attack on the alchemy of Paracelsus, which Kircher disdains in favor of chymiotechnicus, or 'true chemistry'. While considering the Philosopher's stone 'mystic and fictitious', Kircher himself claimed to have performed palingenisis, resuscitating a plant from its ashes and displaying the results in the Museo Kircheriano until cold weather shattered its glass display vessel.

C&S

[Clipped and Shorn]

OK, now it has evolved into another whole concept:

To illustrate his belief in the magnetic relationship between the sun and the vegetable kingdom, Kircher designed this heliotropic sunflower clock by attaching a sunflower to a cork and floating it in a reservoir of water. As the blossom rotated to face the sun, a pointer through its center indicated the time on the inner side of a suspended ring. Kircher claimed that it didn't work well because enclosing it in a glass case would block the sun's attractive force, and that it was 'therefore susceptible to inaccuracies due to the wind'. Further, "when the sunlight was weak, and itself was as if withered and worn out, it ran slow, seeking rest." Descartes misread Magnes, interpreting Kircher's descriptions as referring to one of his earlier speculations attributing heliotropic timekeeping properties to a sunflower seed floating in a marked cup. Although Kircher was, in fact, describing experiments with other heliotropic plant matter, Descartes seized on his own misinterpretation to launch a vituperative attack on Kircher's scientific abilities, referring to the gentle Jesuit as 'possessed of an aberrant imagination' and 'more quacksalver than savant'. Descartes' authority in the developing scientific community was such that Kircher's reputation was to suffer irreparable damage as a result. Even Kircher's longtime supporter Peiresc became suspicious. Nevertheless, Kircher regularly maintained a version of his sunflower clock in his museum, modifying it occasionally and demonstrating its accurate functioning on more than one occasion. From Magnes, "Added to this is the fact that a clock of this sort can barely last one month, even though cared for with the greatest effort; thus nothing is perfect in every aspect."

C&S

[Clipped and Shorn]

And you thought your Khorns were big!

C&S

[Colin]

Modified two-way system, using snail shell from Dr. Doolittle and surround horns, sweet spot is 150 away, listener sits on 15 foot high platform to integrate the treble with the bass, changes in songs are indicated by flags and hand signals, a 110 bullthitter sytem