26 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



RESEARCH IN APPLIED ACOUSTIC'S AT THE 

 WALLACE CLEMENT SABINE LABORA- 

 TORY 



Paul E. Sabine, Geneva 



The problem of the behavior of sound within an en- 

 closed space is as old as the art of public speaking. Vi- 

 truvius in his classic work on Architecture gives an ad- 

 mirable analysis of the conditions within an auditorium 

 necessary for good hearing. Since that time it has been 

 the subject of many opinions, enlightened and otherwise, 

 as well as one of considerable popular interest. It is not 

 too much to say, however, that it is one of the latest of 

 physical problems to which the modern scientific method 

 of exact quantitative experimentation has been applied. 

 As a result the subject is even yet shrouded in mystery in 

 the minds of many, and numerous false notions are still 

 current. 



The Wallace Clement Sabine Laboratory of Acoustics 

 was built for the researches of the late Professor Sabine 

 by his friend Col. George Fabyan. It is located at River- 

 bank, one mile from Geneva and thirty-seven miles west 

 of Chicago. The work that is now being carried on there 

 is a continuation of the Research in Architectural Acous- 

 tics begun in 1895, and carried on by Professor Sabine 

 with remarkable skill and vigor up to the time of his 

 death three years ago. A brief review of this earlier 

 work constitutes a necessary introduction to an outline 

 of the present activities of the new Laboratory. 



These investigations had their inception in the neces- 

 sity for correcting the acoustic properties of the Lecture 

 Room of the then new Fogg Art Museum at Harvard 

 University. The lines and proportions of this room cor- 

 responded very closely to those of Sanders Theatre, the 

 large assembly room of the University, and Avere not in 

 any marked degree 'different from those often found in 

 theatre design. Although the volume of the new room 

 was only one-fourth as great as that of the older room, 

 yet it was found that its acoustic properties were such 

 originally as to render it almost impossible of use as an 



