Harvey Fletcher

Born on 11 September 1884 in Provo, Utah, Harvey Fletcher was a physicist whose pioneering work in acoustics included the first demonstrations of stereophonic transmission and recording. Fletcher received his BS from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1907. He then attended the University of Chicago, where he worked with Robert Millikan as an assistant and participated in Millikan’s famous oil-drop experiment to measure the charge of an electron. In 1911 Fletcher earned his PhD, the first PhD summa cum laude in physics ever awarded by the University of Chicago. Fletcher then returned to BYU as chair of the physics department, where he taught for the next five years. In 1916 he joined Bell Labs, becoming director of all physical research in 1935. Over his 33-year career there, Fletcher’s research included pioneering work on the audio quality of the telephone and improvement of hearing aids. He became best known for his work on stereophonic sound. To better re-create live sound, Fletcher used multiple microphones and loudspeakers, giving the sound direction and depth. He held a number of demonstrations of stereophonic sound transmission, including at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, and he collaborated with conductor Leopold Stokowski to make more than 100 stereophonic recordings the Philadelphia Orchestra. Fletcher also published more than 50 papers, was awarded more than 18 patents, and wrote his landmark treatise Speech and Hearing (1929). After retiring from Bell Labs at the age of 65, Fletcher accepted a position at Columbia University, where he started an acoustical engineering department. In 1952 he returned to his alma mater, BYU, as director of research and later became chair of the engineering department and dean of the college of physical and engineering sciences. Over his career, Fletcher held leadership positions in several scientific societies, including serving as president of the American Physical Society, vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and president of the Acoustical Society of America, which he also helped found. Thirty-five years after his death in 1981 , Fletcher received the 2016 Individual Technical Grammy Award for exemplary contributions in the recording field. (Photo credit: BYU Photo Studio, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)

Date in History: 11 September 1884