Erwin Meyer

Abstract

(1899-1972) gilt als der führende deutsche Akustiker seiner Zeit. Er war ungewöhnlich vielseitig interessiert. Zu vielen Teilgebieten der Akustik haben er und seine Schüler Wesentliches beigetragen, in frühen Jahren besonders zur Elektroakustik und zur akustischen Messtechnik. Geboren ist er am 21. Juli 1899 in Königshütte (Oberschlesien), seine Eltern waren der Postinspektor Paul Meyer und dessen Ehefrau Margarethe, geb. Schleiffer. Gestorben ist Erwin Meyer am 6. März 1972 in Pontresina (Schweiz). Das Foto in Abbildung 1 zeigt ihn im Alter von 65 Jahren. Für sein Berufsleben waren drei Stationen wichtig: Breslau, Berlin und Göttingen.

Acoustics in Göttingen: Research at the Drittes Physikalisches Institut during the 20th Century (and Beyond)

“…He served as the German editor the rest of his life, and this journal became a main channel of dissemination of the scientific results from the Institute until the 1990s, and partly till today. 1 Many earlier articles had been written in German, which was quite customary at that times, but this possibly hindered a wider spread and international recognition of several seminal works. Later, Meyer condensed his deep general and practical knowledge together with Ernst-Georg Neumann into the textbook Physikalische und technische Akustik (or just the "Meyer-Neumann") [5] that should become a long-term standard in Germany (and via translation to English as well abroad).…”

“…He designed new pressure sensors and determined front thicknesses of shock waves in water and other liquids [11]. For more information on the many works on measurement techniques and metrology at DPI, as well as on electroacoustics, musical acoustics and building acoustics, we refer to [1][2][3][4].…”

“…Major studies on concert hall acoustics were conducted by Meyer, Kuttruff, Schroeder and coworkers, and they coined many findings and techniques in room acoustics (e.g., the Schroeder curve or Schroeder reflectors). For the long-term impact of these studies, see [1,3]).…”

“…For more details, we refer the reader to other sources, where the scientific history and activities at DPI have been portrayed quite elaborately. Namely, we recommend Dieter Guicking's book on Erwin Meyer [1], the Festschrift to the Institute's 60 th anniversary [2], the Memorial Volume in Honor of Manfred R. Schroeder [3] and the book chapter "Erwin Meyer -Akustik in Göttingen" by Peter Költzsch [4].…”

Erwin Meyer – A Great German Acoustician. Biographical Notes

“…It became evident that newm easurement procedures had to be developed which were only possible with the recently invented vacuum tubes. In addition to twop apers on the hearing process from the collaboration with Waetzmann (1925) 1 and acomprehensive handbook article about hearing (1927), Meyer published in rapid sequence articles on testing loudspeakers and sound fields, on measuring frequencyr esponse curves of telephones and loudspeakers, on nonlinear distortion of loudspeakers, on am ethod for automatically recording reverberation curves, and on an additional method for automatic recording of sound spectra. "Modern methods of sound analysis" wast he subject of his "Habilitationsvortrag" at the Technical University of Berlin, atalk to be giveninthe German procedure to qualify for teaching at au niversity (December 1928).…”