Collected Papers on Acoustics

Wallace Clement Sabine (1868–1919) was the father of architectural acoustics. His published writings, though few in number, constitute the still valid foundations of the subject. Almost single-handedly, Sabine mapped out a new science. He was the first to bring quantitative measurement to bear upon this class of acoustical problems. He conducted the first research on optimal reverberation time for music rooms. His discovery that the product of total absorption and the duration of residual sound was a constant still forms the basis of the science of sound control in listening rooms. The eleven papers contained are his most important contributions — the records and results of a creative scientist, nursing and shaping his offspring through its first maturity.