Editing Hermann von Helmholtz (section)

===Acoustics and aesthetics===
[[File:Hermann von Helmholtz-2.jpg|thumb|Last photograph of von Helmholtz, taken three days before his final illness]] [[File:Helmholtz resonator 2.jpg|right|thumb|The Helmholtz resonator (''i'') and instrumentation]]

In 1863, Helmholtz published ''[[Sensations of Tone]]'', once again demonstrating his interest in the physics of perception. This book influenced musicologists into the twentieth century. Helmholtz invented the [[Helmholtz resonance|Helmholtz resonator]] to identify the various [[audio frequency|frequencies]] or [[Pitch (music)|pitches]] of the pure [[sine wave]] components of [[Fourier analysis#Applications in signal processing|complex sounds containing multiple tones]].<ref name="Helmholtz1885">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/onsensationston00unkngoog |last=von Helmholtz |first=Hermann |year=1885 |title=On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music |edition=Second English |translator-first1=Alexander J. |translator-last1= Ellis |location=London |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. |page=[https://archive.org/details/onsensationston00unkngoog/page/n69 44] |access-date=12 October 2010 }}</ref>

Helmholtz showed that different combinations of resonators could mimic [[vowel]] sounds: [[Alexander Graham Bell]] in particular was interested in this but, not being able to read German, misconstrued Helmholtz's diagrams as meaning that Helmholtz had transmitted multiple frequencies by wire—which would allow multiplexing of telegraph signals—whereas, in reality, electrical power was used only to keep the resonators in motion. Bell failed to reproduce what he thought Helmholtz had done but later said that, had he been able to read German, he would not have gone on to invent the telephone on the [[harmonic telegraph]] principle.<ref>{{cite web | title = PBS, American Experience: The Telephone – More About Bell | website = [[PBS]]| url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/peopleevents/mabell.html}}</ref><ref name="MacKenzie2008">MacKenzie 2003, p. 41.</ref><ref>Groundwater 2005, p. 31.</ref><ref>Shulman 2008, pp. 46–48.</ref>

[[File:Ludwig Knaus - Der Physiker Hermann von Helmholtz (1881).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Helmholtz in 1881, portrait by [[Ludwig Knaus]]]]

The translation by [[Alexander J. Ellis]] was first published in 1875 (the first English edition was from the 1870 third German edition; Ellis's second English edition from the 1877 fourth German edition was published in 1885; the 1895 and 1912 third and fourth English editions were reprints of the second).<ref>{{cite book |title=On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music |author=Hermann L. F. Helmholtz, M.D. |year=1912 |edition=Fourth |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co |isbn=9781419178931 |url=https://archive.org/details/onsensationston01helmgoog}}</ref>