ABSTRACT
David Brewster’s Letters on Natural Magic addressed to Sir Walter Scott, published in 1832, paid considerable attention to sound and acoustic science, drawing on the very latest sonorous experiments, including Wheatstone’s “Kaleidophone”. Indeed, Brewster had, himself, invented the Kaleidoscope in 1817, and it was from this that Wheatstone had taken inspiration when naming his own device. “The science of Acoustics”, Brewster explained, “furnished the ancient sorcerers with some of their best deceptions” and seemed to provide them with “supernatural” powers, such as the vocal effects of the statue of Memnon in ancient Egypt. In the ordinary intercourse of life, we recognize individuals as much by their voice as by the features of their face and the form of their body. A friend who has been long absent will often stand before us as a stranger, till his voice supplies us with the full power of recognition.
