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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 engineering 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

Patents

References

1. ^ Harry F. Olson A Biographical Memoir by Cyril M. Harris
2. Olson, Harry F. (1943). Dynamical Analogies (PDF). New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Ltd. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
3. "Mix Foundation. TEC Awards. TECnology Hall of Fame, 2005. Innovations That Changed the Pro Audio World". Archived from the original on 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
4. Lindsay, R. Bruce (1982-08-01). "Olson, Harry F. ⋅ 1901–1982". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 72 (2): 645. Bibcode:1982ASAJ...72..645L. doi:10.1121/1.388152. ISSN 0001-4966.
5. "IEEE Lamme Medal Recipients". IEEE. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
6. Anderson, Brian (5 July 205). "The Wall of Sound: The untold story of the Grateful Dead's short-lived mega PA, arguably the largest, most technologically innovative sound system ever built". vice.com. Vice Media Group. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
7. US Patent 1814357
8. US Patent 1885001
9. US Patent 1892644
10. US Patent 1892645
11. US Patent 1897732
12. US Patent 1984542
13. US Patent 1988250
14. US Patent 2007748
15. US Patent 2064316
16. US Patent 2102212
17. US Patent 2102736
18. US Patent 2113219
19. US Patent 2119345
20. US Patent 2203875
21. US Patent 2224919
22. US Patent 2228886
23. US Patent 2234007
24. US Patent 2269284
25. US Patent 2271988
26. US Patent 2293166
27. US Patent 2299342
28. US Patent 2390847
29. US Patent 2414699
30. US Patent 2429104
31. US Patent 2461344
32. US Patent 2490466
33. US Patent 2493638
34. US Patent 2502016
35. US Patent 2502018
36. ^ US Patent 2502019
37. US Patent 2512467
38. US Patent 2516338
39. US Patent 2539671
40. US Patent 2539672
41. US Patent 2548235
42. US Patent 2.566039
43. US Patent 2566094
44. US Patent 2572376
45. US Patent 2628289
46. US Patent 2629000
47. US Patent 2640110
48. US Patent 2642948
49. US Patent 2645648
50. US Patent 2649164
51. US Patent 2656004
52. US Patent 2680787
53. US Patent 2686296
54. US Patent 2688373
55. US Patent 2699472
56. US Patent 2699474
57. US Patent 2718272
58. US Patent 2751441
59. US Patent 2773130
60. US Patent 2808466
61. US Patent 2814353
62. US Patent 2825823
63. US Patent 2838607
64. US Patent 2854511
65. US Patent 2645684
66. US Patent 2855816
67. US Patent 2858375
68. US Patent 2870856
69. US Patent 2918667
70. US Patent 2964272
71. US Patent 2971057
72. US Patent 2983790
73. US Patent 3007012
74. US Patent 3007362
75. US Patent 3104729
76. US Patent 3400215

External links

• Olson biography
• National Academy of Sciences. Harry F. Olson, 1901-1982: A Biographical Memoir by Cyril M. Harris
• Harry F. Olson discography at Discogs

• American acoustical engineers
• 1901 births
• 1982 deaths
• American people of Swedish descent
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• ASA Gold Medal recipients
• IEEE Lamme Medal recipients
• 20th-century American inventors
• Engineers from Iowa
• Fellows of the American Physical Society