Rudolph Koenig
| Karl Rudolph Koenig | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
26 November 1832 Königsberg, Prussia |
| Died | 2 October 1901 (aged 68) Paris, France |
Karl Rudolph Koenig (German: Rudolf Koenig; 26 November 1832 – 2 October 1901), known by himself and others as Rudolph Koenig, was a German physicist, chiefly concerned with acoustic phenomena.
Koenig was born in Königsberg (Province of Prussia), and studied at the University of Königsberg in his native town.
About 1852 he went to Paris, and became apprentice to the famous violin-maker, Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (1798-1875), and some six years later he started business on his own account. He called himself a "maker of musical instruments," but the instrument for which his name is best known is the tuning fork. Koenig's work speedily gained a high reputation among physicists for accuracy and general excellence. From this business Koenig derived his livelihood for the rest of his life. One of his last catalogs had 262 different items.
He was, however, very far from being a mere tradesman. Acoustical research was his real interest, and to that he devoted all the time and money he could spare from his business. In the 1860s, the Koenig sound analyzer revolutionized musical and scientific worlds by demonstrated visually that musical notes and voices were in fact made up of simple sounds. An exhibit which he sent to the London Exhibition of 1862 gained a gold medal, and at the Philadelphia Exposition at 1876 great admiration was expressed for a tonometric apparatus of his manufacture. This consisted of about 670 tuning-forks, of as many different pitches, extending over four octaves, and it afforded a perfect means for testing, by enumeration of the beats, the number of vibrations producing any given note and for accurately tuning any musical instrument. An attempt was made to secure this apparatus for the University of Pennsylvania, and Koenig was induced to leave it behind him in America on the assurance that it would be purchased; but, ultimately, the money not being forthcoming, the arrangement fell through, to his great disappointment.
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