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Properties of Variable-Width Sound Film as an Optical Diffraction Grating

Abstract

IN a recent letter in NATURE1, D. Brown described an ingenious and simple method of obtaining acoustic spectra, namely, by using a strip of 'variable-density' sound film as a diffraction grating for light. If the transparency of the film is modulated by one frequency only, the spectrum obtained will only contain the orders zero and plus and minus one. Higher orders do not occur. If the transparency is modulated by a complicated sound, the place and intensity of the different lines in the spectrum will give immediate visual information on the spectral composition of this sound.

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  1. NATURE, 140, 1099 (Dec. 25, 1937).

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SCHOUTEN, J. Properties of Variable-Width Sound Film as an Optical Diffraction Grating. Nature 141, 914–915 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141914a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141914a0

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