Women, Science and Sound in Nineteenth-century France

Book excerpt: This book deals with the substantial role performed by women in the sophisticated scientific and technological environment of nineteenth-century France. In a period marked by both radical experimentation and rich spiritual sensibility, women interacted with the latest acoustical technologies to produce a striking language of sonority that reached a wide popular audience. The author shows that a variety of sonorous spaces containing newly-invented organ models (the teacher-training institution, the convent, and the salon) became significant acoustic laboratories in which women were able to formulate and express their creativity in sound. Rather than inhibiting their freedom of expression, such spaces allowed women to negotiate social convention and mark their own unique contribution to acoustical science.