Object Details
- Max Kohl
- Description
- This tone variator, which consists of a cylindrical brass resonator on a wooden base, produced a moderately pure tone. The frequency is controlled by moving the piston up or down. The inscription reads “Max Kohl Chemnitz / D.R.G.M. 189710”. William Stern (1871-1938), a German-Jewish psychologist and philosopher, invented the form in 1897 and used it to study human sensitivity to changes in pitch. He fled to the United States in 1933. The D.R.G.M. patent number dates from around 1906, the same time that Max Kohl, in Chemnitz, began making instruments of this sort.
- Ref: William Stern, Autobiographical Essay (Worcester, Ma., 1930), vol. 1.
- H. G. Bishop, “The Stern Variator,” The American Journal of Psychology 34 (1923): 150-151.
- Max Kohl, Physical Apparatus (Chemnitz, 191-), vol. 2, p. 446.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Cornell University Department of Psychology
- around 1907
- ca 1907
- ID Number
- MG.300427.114
- catalog number
- 300427.114
- accession number
- 300427
- Object Name
- Variator
- Other Terms
- Variator; Diagnostic Medicine
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 62.4 cm x 25 cm x 20.2 cm; 24 9/16 in x 9 13/16 in x 7 15/16 in
- Place Made
- Germany: Saxony, Chemnitz
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Science & Scientific Instruments
- Record ID
- nmah_733886
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-88e9-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
