Albert Michelson's Harmonic Analyzer: A Visual Tour of a Nineteenth Century Machine That Performs Fourier Analysis

Bill Hammack, Steve Kranz, Bruce Carpenter

Research output: Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook

Abstract

Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer celebrates a nineteenth century mechanical calculator that performed Fourier analysis by using gears, springs and levers to calculate with sines and cosines—an astonishing feat in an age before electronic computers. One hundred and fifty color photos reveal the analyzer’s beauty though full-page spreads, lush close-ups of its components, and archival photos of other Michelson-inspired analyzers. The book includes sample output from the machine and a reproduction of an 1898 journal article by Michelson, which first detailed the analyzer.
Original languageEnglish (US)
PublisherArticulate Noise Books
Number of pages128
ISBN (Print)978-0-9839661-6-6, 978-0-9839661-7-3
StatePublished - 2014

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