Rudolph Koenig
1832 - 1901
(Karl) Rudolph Koenig (1832-1901) was born in Königsburg, a former East Prussian town. He studied at the University of Königsberg, and in 1851 joined Vuillaume, a Parisian violin-maker, as an apprentice. In 1858 he started his own business designing and constructing acoustical apparatus.
For the next forty three years, Koenig produced a series of instruments for the production and analysis of sound. He manufactured and tested them in his apartment on the Isle Ste. Louis, on the Seine River in Paris. Koenig, who never married, lived in the small front room of his apartment, while he and his assistants built and tested instruments in the back rooms. Each piece of apparatus was tested, and perhaps used in an ongoing experiment by Koenig himself. in 1859 Koenig issued his first catalogue. His 1889 catalogue contains a list and illustrations of most of his apparatus.
For the next forty three years, Koenig produced a series of instruments for the production and analysis of sound. He manufactured and tested them in his apartment on the Isle Ste. Louis, on the Seine River in Paris. Koenig, who never married, lived in the small front room of his apartment, while he and his assistants built and tested instruments in the back rooms. Each piece of apparatus was tested, and perhaps used in an ongoing experiment by Koenig himself. in 1859 Koenig issued his first catalogue. His 1889 catalogue contains a list and illustrations of most of his apparatus.
More information, photographs of instruments and a full biography of Koenig, by Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Physics, Kenyon College, may be found at: "The Acoustical Apparatus of Rudolph Koenig," Kenyon College, http://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Titlepage/koenig.html (accessed 02/05/2015)