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founding dean of the UCLA College of Fine Arts, may have described Vern Knudsen best in a 25 February 1963 letter to him regarding the name for the new Physics building: “It is very rare that I find a real enjoyment in reading our Daily Bruin. But nothing has pleased me more...than the naming of the new Physics building. They couldn’t have found a ‘human’ name of greater significance than that of Vern Knudsen. The name stands for everything that is good and noble in the sciences as well as the humanities. No one I know has served the two often conflicting branches so wise- ly and unselfishly as you. The golden letters that will shine in front of the new building will always be a symbol of what you have done for this campus during the many years dedicated to your teaching, world-wide known research, and untiring service to all the arts.”AT
References
1 Vern O. Knudsen, Architectural Acoustics (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1932).
2 Vern O. Knudsen and Cyril M. Harris, Acoustical Designing in Architecture, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1950). Reprint edi- tion available from the Acoustical Society of America.
3 Special Collections, Library Special Collections, Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles Box 951575, Los Angeles, California 90095-1575.
4 http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt109nc33w&developer =local&style=oac4&s=1&query=utah&x=19&y=5&servlet=view (last viewed 2/27/2011).
5 R. Bruce Lindsay, “Relaxation Processes in Sound Propagation in Fluids: A Historical Survey,” in Physical Acoustics Volume XVI, edited by Warren P. Mason and R.N. Thurston (Academic Press, New York, 1982).
6 Copies of magazine periodicals found in the Rancho Riviera files include “The Absorption of Sound by Acoustical Plaster,” The California Plasterer VIX, No.7, December 1932; “Ear Defenders,” National Safety News V39, No. 2 (February 1939); “Defense Against Noise,” National Safety News V45, No. 2 (February 1942); and, “How Sound is Controlled,’ Heating•Piping, and Air Conditioning VIII, No. 10 (October 1931).
7 Vern O. Knudsen, “Architectural Acoustics,” Scientific American 209, No. 5 (November 1963). The article is clearly written and what Dr. Knudsen says is still true, the opening paragraph
proves the adage that he who knows not history is bound to
repeat it.
8 Vern O. Knudsen, “The Measurement of Sound Absorption in a
Room,” Philosophical Magazine VV, No. 33, 1240-1257 (June
1928).
9 For example: “Modern Acoustics and Culture - Faculty Research
Lecture at the University of California at Los Angeles,” delivered 6 May 1936, published by the University of California Press (1937), price 50 cents. This lecture/paper is included in “Vern O. Knudsen, Collected Papers from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,” compiled by I. Rudnick and T. Bomba, Acoustical Society of America (September 1975).
10 Robert S. Gales, “Vern O. Knudsen,” ECHOES 14, No. 1 (Winter 2004).
11 Such as Scop V1, No. 2 (Spring 1947), the “Official literary- humor quarterly publication of the Associated Students of the University of California at Los Angeles;” and the V34, No. 2 (November 1959).
12 Hand corrected draft of 18 May 1964 oral history interview with Vern Oliver Knudsen, page 22, by Leo Delsasso with W. J. King, for the American Institute of Physics.
13 W. H. Martin, “Decibel—The Name for the Transmission Unit,” The Bell Telephone Technical Journal V8, No. 1 (January 1929). 14 Mr. Cowan was Executive Secretary of AMPAS from 1931 to 1933 and the editor of “Recording Sound For Motion Pictures,” (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1931). His producer credits include “My Little Chickadee” (1940) with Mae West and W. C. Fields, “The Story of G.I. Joe” (1945) with Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum, and “Love Happy” (1949) with the Marx Brothers and
Marilyn Monroe (!).
15 In 1929 Mr. Shearer, brother of the actress Norma Shearer, intro-
duced playing the music during filming so that the dancing and singing would be filmed in sync with the music. He was nomi- nated 21 times and won 12 Oscars for Best Sound Recording as well as 7 Scientific & Technical Academy Awards.
16 It appears that when this book was published: Leo L. Beranek, Music, Acoustics and Architecture (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1962). The publisher, in a 2 August 1960 letter to Dr. Knudsen, says that the initial title, “Acoustics of Music Halls” was “a poor one, since in England this suggests musical spectacles of the strip-tease type.”
17 From typescript of Vern O. Knudsen’s review of Introductory Acoustics by George W. Stewart (Van Nostrand, New York, 1932). 18 From typescript of Vern O. Knudsen’s review of Acoustics by Leo
L. Beranek (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954).
Neil A. Shaw is a Principal with Menlo Scientific Acoustics, Inc., Topanga, California. His projects range from perform- ance and production spaces, sacred spaces, corporate meeting and conference facilities, academic buildings, and cruise ship vessels to research laboratories. They include the Getty Villa, the Rose Bowl, the Microsoft Acoustic Research Laboratory, Disney Cruise Lines, and the Government of St. Lucia. He studied Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union and received his BS Engineering and MS Engineering degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Dr. Richard Stern and Dr. William C. Meecham. He is a member of the faculty at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and of the Audio Engineering Society.
Knudsen’s Attic 35