Altered Sensations by David Pantalony

Author:David Pantalony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

The difficulties Koenig went through were somewhat relieved by a letter from S.P. Thompson in London informing him that he had been named an honourary fellow of the Physical Society in London. “I was quite surprised by this whole affair,” Koenig admitted to Loudon, “because I had thought that the new generation of scientists in England no longer knew me at all.”57 The English had remained his most ardent supporters. Loudon in Canada remained Koenig’s most important customer. In the spring of 1901 he asked Koenig to help him draft some notes for a lecture he wanted to give on “progress in acoustics.”58 Even though bedridden, Koenig responded by writing a short, but fairly thorough history of acoustics from his own perspective, with references to himself in the third person.59 Following his death, Loudon translated this history, gave it as a presidential address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and published it in Scientific American under his own name, with no mention of that Koneig had written it.60 Loudon visited Paris in August 1901 to help Koenig sort out his business affairs and to seek buyers for his prized instruments. Perhaps during his visit they agreed to publish Koenig’s memoir under Loudon’s name, or perhaps Loudon simply stole it from a dead friend. This inexplicable omission is surely a mysterious ending to what had been a fruitful and warm friendship.

Koenig died on 2 Oct. 1901 with his niece Helene, his sister Anna and his brother-in-law, Ernst Neumann at his side. He was cremated and buried at the Parisian cemetery, Père Lachaise.61 Anna and Helene stayed for a month afterward sorting out his possessions and arranging to sell some of his prized instruments. There were still six workers at the shop and the family decided to keep the firm going until the Russian order was completed. L. Landry, his main collaborator for thirty years, eventually took over the business,62 but immediately following Koenig’s death, the family also wanted to create the impression that the firm was not closing so as to keep bargain hunters from taking advantage of the situation (they kept the apartment until 1903). Abbé Rousselot, a phonetics researcher at the Collège de France, came by later in the month and offered to buy the complete tonometer for 25,000 fr. The family initially held out for more money, but eventually sold it to him at that price.63 Part of this tonometer (from group 4) is now in storage in the Rousselot collection of instruments at the Mitterrand Branch of the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris, “département de l’audiovisuel.” They range from ut7 (4,096 Hz; C8) to fa9 (21,845.3 Hz; F10). Mixed in with the tonometer are forks marked “LL” for L. Landry, Koenig’s successor.

In 1901 the family also sold and donated Koenig’s large collection of books and journals. He still had over 800 copies of his own book from 1882. Among the personal items left by Koenig which were divided into six parts for his nieces and nephews –

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