Dr Harry Ferdinand Olson, E.E., Ph.D. (December 28, 1901 – April 1, 1982) was a prominent engineer and inventor with RCA Victor, the Acoustic Research Director of RCA Laboratories, Princeton, and a pioneer in the field of 20th century acoustical engineeringHarry F. Olson A Biographical Memoir by Cyril M. Harris notably in the fields of high-fidelity, digital music synthesis, microphones, loudspeakers, acoustics, radar, submarine communication, magnetic tape and noise reduction.
Olson wrote ten books including Dynamical Analogies, on electrical-mechanical-acoustical analogies, and had over one hundred patents.
Biography Harry F. Olson was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, to Swedish immigrant parents. Technically inclined from an early age, he built and flew model airplanes, constructed a steam engine and invented a wood-fired boiler that drove a 100-volt DC generator. Olson designed and built an amateur radio transmitter, gaining enough proficiency to be granted an operator's license. Olson went on to earn a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Iowa then continued to earn a master's degree with a thesis on acoustic wave filters in solids and a doctorate in physics, working with polarization of resonance radiation in mercury.
Immediately after completing his course of study in 1928, Olson moved to New Jersey to work for RCA Laboratories. Olson would remain at RCA for almost four decades.
Olson had a continuing interest in music, acoustics, and sound reproduction, and, by 1934, he was placed in charge of acoustical research at RCA. At RCA, Olson worked on a wide range of projects, which included developing microphones for the broadcasting and motion picture industries, improving loudspeakers, and making significant contributions to magnetic tape recording.
Like many engineers of the World War II generation, Olson also made significant contributions to military technology as well, particularly to the fields of underwater sound and anti-submarine warfare.
After the war Olson, along with Herbert Belar, developed the first modern electronic synthesizer. Equipped with electron tubes, the Mark II Sound Synthesizer was used to compose music, which was recorded and sold to the public.
A prolific inventor and engineer, Olson was awarded more than 100 patents for the various types of microphones (including the widely used 44- and 77-series), cardioid (directional) microphones, loudspeaker baffles, air-suspension loudspeakers, isobaric loudspeakers, early video recording equipment, audio recording equipment, phonograph pickups, underwater sound equipment, noise reduction, sound technology in motion-pictures, and public-address systems he developed. He also authored 135 articles and ten books including an interdisciplinary text charting the dynamical analogies between electrical, acoustical and mechanical systems.
In 1949, Olson was honored by being the first recipient of the Audio Engineering Society's John H. Potts Memorial Award, an award program which was later renamed the gold medal. In 1953-4 Olson served as president of the Acoustical Society of America, which awarded him the very first Silver Medal in Engineering Acoustics in 1974 and the Gold Medal in 1981. He won the IEEE Lamme Medal in 1970, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1959, and was the recipient of many honorary degrees during his lifetime.
Olson retired from RCA in 1967, continuing as a consultant for RCA Laboratories.
High Fidelity Demonstration
Shortly after World War II, Dr. Olson conducted an experiment, now considered a classic, to determine the preferred bandwidth for the reproduction of music. Previous experimenters had found that listeners seemed to prefer a high-frequency cutoff of 5000 Hz for reproduced music. Dr. Olson suspected that this was likely due to imperfections in the sound, especially in the higher frequencies, as reproduced by equipment in common use at the time. These imperfections included clicks and pops (from 78 rpm recordings), added noise (from AM radio broadcast static), hiss and harmonic distortion (from amplifier circuits), and non linear frequency response from primitive loudspeaker designs. If the sound was free of these problems, he reasoned, listeners would prefer full frequency reproduction.
In his experiment, he set up a room which was divided diagonally by a visually opaque but acoustically transparent screen. The screen incorporated a concealed low-pass acoustical filter having an upper frequency cutoff of 5000 Hz. This filter could be opened or closed, allowing either the full range of frequencies to pass or the range only below 5000 Hz. At first, a small orchestra sat and performed on one side of the screen, while a group of test subjects sat on the other and listened. The listeners were asked to select their preference between two conditions: full bandwidth or restricted bandwidth. There was overwhelming preference in favor of the full bandwidth. Next, the orchestra was replaced with a sound-reproduction system with loudspeakers positioned behind the screen instead. When the sound system was free of distortion, the listeners preferred the full bandwidth. But when he introduced small amounts of nonlinear distortion, the subjects preferred a restricted bandwidth, thus demonstrating clearly the importance of high quality in audio systems.
As a result of this experiment and the work of others, such as Avery Fisher and later Edgar Villchur, high fidelity sound recording, transmission, and reproduction equipment saw increased investment, development, and public acceptance in the following decades. The design and manufacture of everything from microphones, to tape recorders, vinyl records, amplifiers, and loudspeakers were impacted.
Influence on High-Quality Modern PA Systems The Grateful Dead's early sound engineering team, led by Owsley Stanley and Dan Healy, considered Harry Olson's 1957 book "Acoustical Engineering" the Dead's "bible" on building the Wall of Sound (Grateful Dead), the first touring sound system that allowed a band to actually hear themselves and have the audience hear what the band was hearing on stage. The band made copies of the book for all of the Dead's sound crew.
The Wall of Sound influenced all modern high-quality PA systems for live music.
Personal life
Harry F. Olson was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on December 18, 1901. He was the first of two children. His parents were Swedish immigrants.
Olson married Lorene Johnson of Morris, Illinois in 1935. Both his mother and his wife were talented amateur artists — Lorene's paintings were displayed in Olson's RCA office for many years. Olson died at Princeton Medical Center in Princeton, New Jersey on April 1, 1982, at the age of 80.
Awards and honors
Year Honor or Award 1940 The Modern Pioneer Award of the National Association of Manufacturers 1952 The John H. Potts Medal of the Audio Engineering Society 1955 The Samuel L. Warner Medal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers 1956 The John Scott Medal of the City of Philadelphia 1956 The Achievement Award of the IRE Professional Group on Audio 1963 The John Ericsson Medal of the American Society of Swedish Engineers 1965 The Emile Berliner Award of the Audio Engineering Society 1967 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Mervin J. Kelly Medal 1969 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Consumer Electronics Award 1970 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Lamme Medal 1974 The Acoustical Society of America's first silver medal in engineering acoustics 1981 The Acoustical Society of America's Gold Medal
Patents
Year Patent Description Patent Number 1931 Acoustic Device For Sound Pick-up (Ellipsoid Microphone) 1,814,357 US Patent 1814357 1932 Apparatus for Converting Sound Vibrations Into Electrical Variations (First Practical Ribbon Microphone) 1,885,001 US Patent 1885001 1932 System Responsive to The Energy Flow of Sound Waves (Pressure and Velocity Sound Level Meter) 1,892,644 US Patent 1892644 1932 Sound Pick-Up Device (Unidirectional Cardioid Microphone) 1,892,645 US Patent 1892645 1933 System For the Conversion and Transfer Of Energy (Condenser Microphone Step-Up Transformer With A Remote Preamplifier.) 1,897,732 US Patent 1897732 1934 Acoustic Device (Loudspeaker Horn) 1,984,542 US Patent 1984542 1935 Loud Speaker and Method of Propagating Sound (Passive Radiator Loud Speaker) 1,988,250 US Patent 1988250 1935 Acoustic Device (Double Voice Coil Loudspeaker) 2,007,748 US Patent 2007748 1936 Electroacoustical Device (Ribbon Telephone Microphone/Speaker) 2,064,316 US Patent 2064316 1937 Sound Reproducing Apparatus (Multi-Cellular Horn) 2,102,212 US Patent 2102212 1937 Acoustical Device (Small Portable Closed Back Ribbon Microphone) 2,102,736 US Patent 2102736 1938 Microphone 2,113,219 US Patent 2113219 1938 Microphone And Circuit (Microphone Mixer By Verifying Field Coil Strength) 2,119,345 US Patent 2119345 1940 Loud-Speaker (Multiple Flare Horn) 2,203,875 US Patent 2203875 1940 Loud-Speaker (Hybrid Bass-Horn/Bass-Reflex Design) 2,224,919 US Patent 2224919 1941 Electroacoustical Apparatus (Line Microphone "Shotgun Microphone") 2,228,886 US Patent 2228886 1941 Acoustical Apparatus (Woofer Surround) 2,234,007 US Patent 2234007 1942 Signal Translating Apparatus (Multiple Co-Axial Loudspeaker Designs) 2,269,284 US Patent 2269284 1942 Electroacoustical Apparatus (Design of the RCA 77 Ribbon Microphone) 2,271,988 US Patent 2271988 1942 Radio Remote Control System (Using Different Frequencies of Sound) 2,293,166 US Patent 2293166 1942 Electroacoustical Apparatus (Line Array Microphone) 2,299,342 US Patent 2299342 1945 Signal Translating Apparatus (Sub-Aqueous Submarine Microphone) 2,390,847 US Patent 2390847 1947 Magnetostrictive Signal Translating Apparatus (Rugged Sub-Aqueous Submarine Microphone) 2,414,699 US Patent 2414699 1947 Signal Translating Apparatus (Sub-Aqueous Submarine Pressure Compensated Speaker) 2,429,104 US Patent 2429104 1949 Signal Transmission and Receiving Apparatus (Ultrasonically Power Wireless Earphone) 2,461,344 US Patent 2461344 1949 Air Suspension Loudspeaker 2,490,466 US Patent 2490466 1950 Synthetic Reverberation System 2,493,638 US Patent 2493638 1950 Diffraction Type Sound Absorber (Suspended) 2,502,016 US Patent 2502016 1950 Diffraction Type Sound Absorber Covered By A Membrane 2,502,018 US Patent 2502018 1950 Diffraction Type Sound Absorber With Complementary Fitting Portions 2,502,019 US Patent 2502019 1950 Diffraction Type Sound Absorber With Fiberglass Walls (Cylinder) 2,502,019 1950 Single Element, Unidirectional, Dynamic Microphone (With Pattern Control) 2,512,467 US Patent 2512467 1950 Feedback Controller System For Recording Cutters And the Like (Phonograph Recording Lathe) 2,516,338 US Patent 2516338 1951 Directional Microphone (Coincident Pair Of Ribbon Microphones With Horizontal Pattern Control) 2,539,671 US Patent 2539671 1951 Coaxial Dual-Unit Electrodynamic Loud-Speaker (Improved Version) 2,539,672 US Patent 2539672 1951 Transformerless Audio Output System (Tube Amplifier) 2,548,235 US Patent 2548235 1951 Means For Improving The Sensitivity And The Response Characteristics Of Velocity Microphones 2.566,039 US Patent 2.566039 1951 Line Type Pressure Responsive Microphone 2566,094