Harvey Fletcher

Harvey Fletcher
Born(1884-09-11)September 11, 1884
DiedJuly 23, 1981(1981-07-23) (aged 96)
Provo, Utah, U.S.
Alma materBrigham Young University
University of Chicago
Known forInvention of the hearing aid
The father of stereophonic sound
Oil drop experiment measuring the charge of the electron
AwardsPresidential Citation
Louis E. Levy Medal (1924)
ASA Gold Medal (1957)
Audio Engineering Society Gold Medal Award (1958)
IEEE Founders Medal (1967)
Grammy Award (2016)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsWestern Electric
Bell Laboratories
Columbia University
Doctoral advisorRobert A. Millikan

Harvey Fletcher (September 11, 1884 – July 23, 1981) was an American physicist.[1] Known as the "father of stereophonic sound", he is credited with the invention of the 2-A audiometer[2] and an early electronic hearing aid.[3][4] He was an investigator into the nature of speech and hearing, and made contributions in acoustics, electrical engineering, speech, medicine, music, atomic physics, sound pictures, and education. Following his death, he was credited with collaborating with his doctoral advisor, Robert Millikan, on the Nobel-prize winning oil drop experiment which first determined the charge of the electron.[5]

  1. ^ Gardner, Mark B. (October 1981). "Obituary: Harvey Fletcher". Physics Today. 34 (10): 116. Bibcode:1981PhT....34j.116G. doi:10.1063/1.2914315.
  2. ^ Fletcher, Tom. "In Memory of Harvey Fletcher".
  3. ^ William M. Hartmann (January 9, 1997). Signals, Sound, and Sensation. Springer. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-1-56396-283-7.
  4. ^ Fletcher, Stephen H. (1992). "HARVEY FLETCHER 1884-1981" (PDF). NAS Online. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  5. ^ David Goodstein (January 2001). "In defense of Robert Andrews Millikan" (PDF). American Scientist. 89 (1): 54–60. Bibcode:2001AmSci..89...54G. doi:10.1511/2001.1.54. S2CID 209833984.