crayonDesignBook designPhotography2014

Albert Michelson's Harmonic Analyzer

A visual tour of a nineteenth-century machine that performs Fourier analysis. I photographed and designed the book.

Cover: Albert Michelson's Harmonic Analyzer, the machine photographed against blackThe harmonic analyzer seen from the side, full width, against black

It was no surprise that Bill, Bruce and I, a couple of academic engineers and a mathematician, were ecstatic to operate and analyze a machine that can calculate a Fourier transform by the turn of a crank. Along with a series of videos, we made a book to memorialize the design of one of physics' greatest minds.

I photographed the machine part by part against black and designed the book around those photographs: a spread for each of fifteen parts, then the output it produces, Michelson's original 1898 paper, the math, and eight views of the whole machine.

Design

The machine does the work. Every part gets its own spread with a short text and a locator photo on the left and the part at full bleed on the right, so you can read the book as an explanation or just look at it.

Crank: a page of text facing a macro photograph of the crank, chain and brass eyelet
Crank

Each part of the machine gets a spread. Text and a small locator photo on the left, the part at full bleed on the right.

Measuring stick and rocker arm, macro photographs with the part names visible on the brass
Measuring stick

The parts are labeled on the machine itself, so the photographs double as diagrams.

Amplitude bars, four macro photographs on a black spreadGears and chain, four macro photographs on a black spread
Amplitude bars · Gears

Detail spreads, four frames to a page.

Introduction spread with a photograph of Bill Hammack beside the machine
Introduction

Bill with the analyzer. The book opens with what the machine does before showing how.

Contents page
Contents

Fifteen parts, then output, Michelson's 1898 paper, the math, and eight views of the whole machine.

Albert Michelson's Harmonic AnalyzerFull book · free PDF at engineerguy.comVideo series on YouTubeEngineerGuy · 4 parts
To finish this page
  • Photograph the printed book, hardcover if there is one.
  • Add the ISBNs and a link to buy a printed copy (engineerguy.com has it).