| 释义 |
photophone|ˈfəʊtəʊfəʊn|
[f. Gr. ϕῶς light, photo- + -ϕωνος sounding, sounder, ϕωνή voice, sound.]
Any apparatus in which sounds are transmitted by light; esp. that invented by A. Graham Bell and Sumner Tainter in 1880, by means of which sound-vibrations are conveyed to a distance by means of a beam of light reflected from a mirror and received upon a sensitive selenium cell by means of which the sounds are reproduced. See radiophone.
1880A. G. Bell in Jrnl. Franklin Inst. CX. 246 We have named the apparatus for the production and reproduction of sound in this way ‘The Photophone’, because an ordinary beam of light contains the rays which are operative. 1880Athenæum 25 Sept. 405/2 The sensibility of the metal selenium to the action of the solar spectrum recommends it as the most favourable substance for use in the ‘photophone’, as the new instrument is called. 1889Preece & Maier Telephone 104 Bell and Sumner Tainter have constructed an apparatus, to which they gave the name of ‘photophone’, which enabled them to reproduce words at a distance by the aid of luminous rays.
Hence photophonic |-ˈfɒnɪk| a., pertaining to or produced by the photophone; photophony |fəʊˈtɒfənɪ|, the use of the photophone; the conveyance of sound-vibrations by means of light.
1880A. G. Bell in Athenæum 4 Dec. 747/3 (title of paper) On Methods of preparing Selenium and other Substances for Photophonic Experiments. 1881S. P. Thompson in Nature 17 Feb. 366/2 An elegant series of researches in photophony. 1882Nature 16 Feb. 377/1 Yielding radiophonic and photophonic sounds when illuminated by intermittent beams of different kinds. |