photograph of anechoic sound chamber
Date: circa 1945
Inventory Number: 2005-1-0014
Classification: Photograph
Subject:
Author: Leo L. Beranek (born 1914)
Maker: Electro-Acoustic Laboratory, Harvard University (1940 - 1947)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
frame: 37.4 x 47.6 x 1.3 cm (14 3/4 x 18 3/4 x 1/2 in.)
storage: 38 x 48 x 2 cm (14 15/16 x 18 7/8 x 13/16 in.)
Material:
Description:
Black and white photograph in a wood frame. It shows the interior of a rectangular room with all its walls, including the floor, densely covered by fiberglass wedges alternating in orientation between horizontal and vertical. The picture was taken from a bridge suspended by steel cables from the ceiling of the room, which supports a narrow railway track and enters the room at mid-height from floor to ceiling. The very thick entrance doors are open in this picture and a loaded railcart can be seen in the adjacent (normal) room on the tracks.
Signedunsigned
Historical AttributesThis is a picture of a the anechoic chamber dubbed "Beranek's Box." Constructed in 1942 on Oxford Street (Harvard University), the four-story-tall concrete box was lined with 20,000 large fiberglass wedges. It was destroyed 25 years later due to a lack of interest in acoustical research at Harvard University.
A similar picture, very likely made at the same time as this one, features in the article by Beranek and Sleeper that is listed in the primary sources. That one is a view facing away from the door.
A similar picture, very likely made at the same time as this one, features in the article by Beranek and Sleeper that is listed in the primary sources. That one is a view facing away from the door.
Curatorial RemarksSee instrument's file folder in the CHSI library for documentation provided by Dr. Beranek.
Primary SourcesLeo Beranek and Harvey P. Sleeper, Jr., "The Design and Construction of Anechoic Sound Chambers," Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 18 (1946): 140-150. [There is a copy of this publication in the instrument's file.]
ProvenanceFrom Dr. Leo Beranek, 2005.
