Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15973

    Otocousticon

    Date
    3 September 1668
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p1
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 230mm
    width (page): 180mm
    Subject
    Physics
       > Acoustics
    Content object
    Description
    Figures of an 'otocousticon' which one Mr Watkins at Christ Church, who was 'deafish', used as a hearing aid. John Wallis described it in his letter dated 3 September 1668 to Henry Oldenburg.

    There is a sketch of a similar instrument by Isaac Newton (EL/N1/49/001) from 1675.
    Transcription
    I have given a rude draught of it in ye margin; but will not undertake yt ye proportions are exact, having nothing to direct mee but an Idea in my memory of so many years tsanding.
    Transcribed by the Making Visible project
    Related fellows
    John Wallis (1616 - 1703, British) , Mathematician
    Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
    Powered by CollectionsIndex+/CollectionsOnline