Etusivulle | Articles in English
The legacy of the Finnish inventor and engineer Eric Magnus Campbell Tigerstedt (1887–1925) is not very widely known, even among the Finnish public. Nevertheless, Tigerstedt’s short yet prolific life touched and crossed several cultural and national boundaries: he was born to a Swedish-speaking aristocratic family in Russia’s Grand Duchy of Finland, but he studied in Germany, worked in Denmark and died in the United States at the age of 37. During his ill-fated career, Tigerstedt managed to create around 70 novel electrical devices and methods, which received over 100 patents from all over the world. Many of his inventions were aimed at creating a functioning and commercially viable sound film technology, including various amplifiers, loudspeakers and microphones. Even inventions such as the Cryptographone and an electronic hearing aid can be seen as side products of his ultimate dream of recording and reproducing synchronised sound with film image. This article and its attached documents introduce Eric Tigerstedt’s work on the ‘speaking image’ and the different approaches he used: sound on film both as variable density and as variable area photography, synchronisation of sound on disk with film projection, and recording sound – and even image – through magnetisation on a steel wire or steel band.
In pre-World War I Europe, the race to invent the ‘speaking image’ (as Tigerstedt called what we now refer to as ‘talking picture’) was fervent. Even though the final breakthrough of commercial sound cinema occurred in the United States only in the late 1920s, much of the foundation for the development was laid with innovations that took place over a decade earlier in Europe. Léon Gaumont (1864–1946) in France was among the first to combine a phonograph with a moving picture machine – an approach later known as sound-on-disk, which was commercially introduced as Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone in 1926 (Kellogg 1967, 174, 180). The alternative approach, known as sound-on-film, was taken by both Ernst Ruhmer (1878–1913) in Germany and the French-born Eugène A. Lauste (1857–1935) in Great Britain, as they conducted successful experiments from about 1900 onwards on sound photography on film, which eventually became the sound film’s dominant form with the launch of the RCA Photophone and similar systems (Kellogg 1967, 176–7, 184, 186–7).
Meanwhile, Russia’s sound film history begins with the description of two early Soviet era sound-on-film systems: Pavel Tager’s (1903–1971) variable density and Aleksandr Shorin’s (1890–1941) variable area photography (Pozner 2014, 65–66). In Finland, which was a part of the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy in the nineteenth century before gaining its independence in 1917, the first domestic sound film was produced in 1929 by Lahyn Filmi, which used equipment ordered from the US (Kuusela 1976, 12–16). Both Tager and Shorin, as well as the Lahyn entrepreneurs, conducted their sound experiments in the latter part of the 1920s. However, at a lesser-known earlier stage, in Russia’s Grand Duchy of Finland, the young inventor Eric Magnus Campbell Tigerstedt (1887–1925) had begun testing and developing the possibilities of photographing sound on filmstrips as early as 1912 (Kuusela 1976, 11; Kuusela 1981, 38; Tigerstedt n.d., II/1, 46–49 and 103–105).
Eric Tigerstedt was born in Helsinki in 1887 to a Swedish-speaking noble family as the second son of seven children. Much of what is known about his life and inventions is based on the materials archived at the Museum of Technology’s Eric Tigerstedt Collection in Helsinki, Finland. The textual part of the collection consists of Tigerstedt’s original patents and patent application texts, his business notes and correspondence and, most importantly, an unpublished manuscript by Eric’s younger brother, Göran Tigerstedt, ‘The Life and Times of E. M. C. Tigerstedt’. This manuscript, with its rather creative style, has had a major impact on the formulation of the official history of Eric Tigerstedt.[1]
Young Eric displayed an early fascination with technology and physics: at the age of 15 he managed to build a secret listening device to wire-tap his family home; he engaged in colour photography, for which he mixed his own ingredients; and he even constructed an X-ray machine to look at his own leg after breaking it during a skiing trip (Kuusela 1981, 13–14, 28, 30; Sethi 2016, 85–87; Tigerstedt n.d. I/1, 52–58, II/2, 44–48 and I/4, 101–103). One of the most notable events was when, in 1905, he managed to build an amateur radio set, a spark transmitter, with which he contacted Russian warships in the Baltic Sea. Refusing to reveal his location, he sneered that he was in a ‘veseloe mesto’ (fun place). According to Göran’s manuscript, Eric was eventually caught and only released from custody after his father contacted the Russian physicist and radio inventor Aleksandr Popov (1859–1906), who evaluated Eric’s activities as impressive but harmless (Kuusela 1981, 22–23; Sethi 2016, 86; Tigerstedt n.d. I/3, 12–27; I/6, 19–20).
During the years 1908–1911 Eric Tigerstedt studied engineering at the Friedrichs-Polytechnikum in Cöthen (Anhalt) in Germany. He applied for and received his first patents in his graduation year, for a thumb trigger and a shot counter for a rifle (Kuusela 1981, 31; German Patent No. 267617; Finnish Patent No. 5046). The following year, he also started his first experiments with different methods for photographing sound on film as variable density drawings (Kuusela 1981, 35, 104). Eric’s brother Göran recollects the earliest recording attempts involving a device consisting basically of parts screwed to a wooden board and Eric yelling into a microphone in his hand: ‘Grau ist alle Theorie, Grün ist nur des Lebens Baum’ [‘All theory is grey, only the tree of life is green’ – an abridged quotation from Goethe’s Faust] (Kuusela 1981, 35; Sethi 2016, 89; Tigerstedt n.d. II/1, 47–49).
Tigerstedt’s earliest patent application relating to these experiments (T–19237) is dated 10 December 1912 and describes a gas flame microphone creating an electric current which, with the help of a Faraday machine, controls the intensity of the light ray directed to the film. The next application, from spring 1913 (T–19080; Document 1), describes several methods for both recording and reproducing sound on film with a gas flame or dyed smoke and a throttle valve which is modified by the intensity of sound and connected to a microphone circuit and selenium cells. There are also application variants in which two membranes and levers operate on shutters through which the light ray is directed on film (T–19607, April 1913) and a cylinder-shaped rubber membrane modulates the current of an arc lamp (T–19835, December 1913). The final approach in this line includes a mirror connected to the microphone membrane that reflects the light of the arc lamp to the film, with a selenium cell adjusting light intensity (T–20024, 24 July 1914)[2]. There is no evidence, however, in the archive or in Kuusela (1981) that any of these applications actually resulted in Tigerstedt receiving a patent.
The first actual patent that Tigerstedt did receive relating to sound-on-film is from around the same time. Dated 5 June 1913, German patent No. 309834 (Document 2) is for a method to reproduce sound photographed on a filmstrip with the help of radium or Röntgen rays, or ultraviolet light[3]. Tigerstedt’s other early patent relating to film originates from the same date: he invented a method to stop the flickering of the image with the help of mirrors (German patent No. 310351). Also in 1913, Tigerstedt experimented with sound-on-disk: he designed a synchronising method for a projector and a gramophone (10 June 1913, unnumbered application; Document 3). According to Göran Tigerstedt, it was with this, or a similar, invention that the first presentation of the ‘speaking image’ in Finland was held in Tigerstedt’s laboratory in the summer of 1913 (Kuusela 1981, 44; Tigerstedt n.d. II/1, 162). In 1913, Tigerstedt also designed a portable machine he named ‘Biograph’, for playing sound film with images projected on matt glass and sound reproduced through ‘listening tubes’, or headphones (T–19236; Document 4).
To secure better facilities and financing for his experiments, Tigerstedt founded the company Fotomagnetofon with two businessmen, Axel Wahlstedt and Hugo Swartling, and moved his laboratory to Berlin in 1913 (Kuusela 1981, 43–44; Tigerstedt n.d, II/1, 158). According to Göran Tigerstedt’s manuscript, Eric met with German physicist Bruno Glatzel (1878–1914), who was the author of the Handbuch der Phototelegraphie und Teleautographie (Leipzig 1911). Eric had designed and constructed what he called an ‘elektroftalmoskop’ (electro-ophthalmoscope), a precursor of television, designed to transmit image and sound over long distances. According to Göran, he presented it to Glatzel and together they conducted successful experiments with it in 1913 (Kuusela 1981, 46–47, 51; Tigerstedt n.d. II/1, 153–155, 188–191; II/2, 8–10).
The following year Tigerstedt focused on variable area sound recordings on film. He filed a patent application for a system with a membrane and two mirrors (T–19839). This was followed by an improved version where sound is photographed with the help of specifically designed pointed or triangular mirrors; this version was awarded the German patent No. 309536 (Document 5). A further modification included a membrane and a lever and a saw blade shutter; this invention received French patent No. 520067 (Kuusela 1981, 105). After testing variable area photography with different numbers of double-edge drawings, Tigerstedt concluded that multi-track was the best solution, and built such a multi-track with nine rows (Kuusela 1981, 47, 55; Tigerstedt n.d. II/1, 180; II/2, 32)[4]. During 1914, Tigerstedt was also awarded a German patent (No. 309535) for an additional method for reproducing sound from a film reel with the help of a selenium cell, alternating current, and an electric magnet.
Eric Tigerstedt realised early on that the key to sound film lay in the amplification method. He had invented an electric amplifier for a gramophone as early as the summer of 1912 (Kuusela 1981, 36–37; Tigerstedt n.d. II/1, 84–91). After conducting his sound film experiments with amplifying vacuum tubes (Lieben tubes from Germany), Tigerstedt found their quality poor and created a better tube, to the point of blowing the glass and pumping the vacuum inside the tube himself (Kuusela 1981, 57–62; Tigerstedt n.d. II/1, 185; II/2, 38–74, 98–106). The result was a high-vacuum tube with cylindrical electrodes, which resembled American inventor Lee de Forest’s (1873–1961) earlier invention, the ‘Audion’, yet with improved amplification qualities. Tigerstedt applied for a patent with the title ‘Relais für undulierende Ströme' on 27 June 1914 (later issued as German patent No. 314805). Close to a breakthrough, Tigerstedt organised a presentation in Berlin called ‘Wort und Bild’ [Word and Image], where he presented his sound film with perfect theatre quality amplification (Kuusela 1981, 59; Sethi 2016, 90; Tigerstedt n.d., II/2, 75–89)[5].
At this point, the experiments and patent processes were interrupted by the beginning of World War I. Because of his Russian passport, Tigerstedt was ordered to leave Germany within three days in July 1914, and his company’s belongings were confiscated (Kuusela 1981, 62–63, Tigerstedt n.d. II/2, 121–129). Germany declared all previously issued patents of Russian citizens void, and according to Kuusela (1976, illustration appendix 2.5), Telefunken manufactured Tigerstedt’s vacuum tubes unlicensed during the war as radio tube RS 16 [6]. After the war, Germany compensated Tigerstedt for the use and his patent was reissued but, according to Kuusela (1981, 84), it was annulled again for some reason in 1922[7].
Tigerstedt relocated his laboratory to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1915, where he found employment and collaboration at the laboratory of the Danish sound film entrepreneurs Axel Petersen (1887–1971) and Arnold Poulsen (1889–1952) (Kuusela 1981, 65; Tigerstedt n.d. II/2, 185–187). The Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen (1869–1942) had already developed a method for recording sound on steel-wire (‘Telegrafon’) in 1898. Tigerstedt undertook the task of combining Poulsen’s steel-wire machine for sound with a moving picture machine[8]. A German application was filed on 10 June 1915 (T–20377) about improvements to the steel-wire sound recording system, so that it could be synchronised with images. Later, an English patent (No. 100748, application date 22 June 1916; Document 6) was awarded for the sound-and-image recording and projecting system with the steel wire and the image band running at different speeds, and therefore reducing distortion and improving quality. In the Eric Tigerstedt Collection, there is also a design for a patent application dated 9 December 1915 and written in Danish, for a method for recording both sound and image on a single steel wire or steel band [9].
The last applications and patents directly focusing on the ‘speaking image’ in the Eric Tigerstedt Collection relate to additional sound-on-disk methods. An application text (T–20399) dated 29 June 1915 describes a method for projecting sound and images, with a film projector and a gramophone, in which a mirror is placed in the horn that reflects the projected image. A similar combination of devices is described in an undated application, where the image is projected through the horn (T–19941). A further development received a French patent (No. 520066) as late as 1920, although the text refers to an original German application from July 1914.
Due to several financial and other personal difficulties, Tigerstedt decided to emigrate to the United States. After arriving in New York on 4 June 1923, he applied for work and created a list of 64 inventions as his job-seeking reference (Document 7). In October 1923 he had a meeting with Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931), who wrote a letter of recommendation for him for AT&T [10]. Once again, Tigerstedt ended up starting his own company, now called the Tiger Manufacturing Company, which had initial success selling radios and even a Cryptographone (Illustration 2) to Mexico (Kuusela 1981, 89; Sethi 2016, 103–104). But the business was soon halted, when Tigerstedt was first injured in a car crash in April 1924, and then hospitalised again in early 1925 for a tuberculosis infection, which led to his death on 20 April 1925.
Anand Kumar Sethi’s monograph The European Edisons (2016) lists Tigerstedt among the three most important European inventors, alongside Alessandro Volta (1745–1827) and Nikola Tesla (1856–1943). To fully appreciate such a role for Tigerstedt still requires additional research in the archives. As Tigerstedt’s inventions and patents were shared, ignored or purchased by others, it is not so straightforward to determine his contribution to the overall development of vacuum tube manufacturing or sound film photography in Germany, or to Petersen and Poulsen’s famous sound film system of the 1920s, or even to Lee de Forest’s Phonofilm endeavours or Western Electric’s soundfilm developments [11]. The missing pieces of the Tigerstedt story remain to be discovered, scattered around the world – possibly in Germany, Denmark, and the United States. The Finnish Museum of Technology in Helsinki contains an important collection, which deserves to be utilised, expanded and investigated further.
The documents published here are all part of the Eric Tigerstedt Collection of the Museum of Technology, Helsinki and are published with the Museum’s kind permission. The original spelling has been preserved for English-language documents, which have been kindly typed up by Anna Sbitneva; the translations from German are by Birgit Beumers. The texts refer to ‘figures’ in the drawings (Illustrations 3–8) attached to patents/applications.
Document 1: Application T. 19080, dated April 1913, Arrangement for the recording of sound waves / Attachment No. 1 Device for the recording of sound on film bands.
Document 2: German Patent No. 309834, issued 5 June 1913. Process of rendering sound recordings.
Document 3: Application from 10 June 1913. Method and arrangement for the synchronising the drive of phonographs and such, and cinematographs.
Document 4: Application No. 19236 from 1913 for a ‘Biograph’.
Document 5: German Patent No. 309536, dated 28 July 1914. Device for the recording of sound-waves on film stock and such.
Document 6: British Patent No. 100748, dated 22 June 1916. Improvements relating to the combined use of Kinematographs and Talking Machines.
Document 7: Job-seeking letter and list of 64 inventions, New York, 12 September 1923.
Glatzel, Bruno. 1911. Handbuch der Phototelegraphie und Teleautographie. Leipzig: Nemnich.
Kellogg, Edward W. 1967. “History of Sound Motion Pictures.” In Technological History of Motion Pictures and Television. An Anthology from the Pages of the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, edited by Raymond Fielding, 174–220. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press. (Originally published in The Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers vol. 64, June, July & August 1955).
Kuusela, Pertti A. M. 1976. Puoli vuosisataa filmiäänitekniikkaa Suomessa [Half a Century of Sound Film Technology in Finland]. Helsinki: Suomen elokuvasäätiö.
Kuusela, Pertti A. M. 1981. E. M. C. Tigerstedt “Suomen Edison”. [E. M. C. Tigerstedt – Finland’s Edison]. Helsinki: Insinööritieto.
Pozner, Valérie. 2014. “To Catch up and Overtake Hollywood: Early Talking Pictures in the Soviet Union.” In Sound, Speech, Music in Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema, edited by Lilya Kaganovsky and Masha Salazkina, 60–80. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Sethi, Anand Kumar. 2016. The European Edisons: Volta, Tesla, and Tigerstedt. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tigerstedt, Göran n.d.. “E. M. C. Tigerstedtin elämänvaiheita.” [The Life and Times of E. M. C. Tigerstedt], unpublished manuscript, Volume I (6 notebooks) & Volume II (4 notebooks), Eric Tigerstedt Collection, Museum of Technology, Helsinki, Finland.
Tyne, Gerald F. J. 1994. The Saga of the Vacuum Tube. Berkeley Heights: Prompt Publications.
Wiio, Osmo A. 1969. “Suomen Edison’ Eric M. C. Tigerstedt.” Eripainos Linkki-lehdestä 4: 1–4.[Finland’s Edison, Eric M. C. Tigerstedt].
[1] The descriptions of his life have become very anecdotal, at times even miraculous. This effect is particularly strong in the two main monographs depicting Tigerstedt’s life and inventions (Kuusela 1981; Sethi 2016).
[2] The summaries are based on Kuusela (1981, 104).
[3] Kellogg (1967) describes the first experiments using ultraviolet light with sound film dating to the 1930s
[4] A digitised version of one of Tigerstedt’s sound recordings is available online, courtesy of the Finnish Audiovisual Institute (KAVI): https://vimeo.com/233788946.
[5] There are different interpretations of what the contents of this presentation actually were; even in Göran Tigerstedt’s memoirs, there are two contradicting versions. KAVI suggests that the digitised audio film clip could be from this event (see previous footnote).
[6] This information is important in relation to Tyne’s (1994, 276–277) brief description of Tigerstedt as a Russian inventor working in Denmark, whose version of the vacuum tube was never commercially manufactured. Tyne’s account features descriptions of Telefunken’s RS15 and RS17 tube types (1994, 259; 441), but nothing on RS16.
[7] Göran Tigerstedt (n.d., II/3, 27–28) writes that the US version of the patent (No. 1212163) was contested on the basis of Lee de Forest’s patent. Other sources state that it was Lee de Forest himself who contested it (Wiio 1969, 2). There is no mention of this, however, in the online patent registries in connection with the US patent.
[8] There is a letter in the archive from Valdemar Poulsen from 1936, in which he states that he did indeed meet with Tigerstedt in 1915 in Denmark, but the overall nature of their collaboration remains somewhat unclear. Sethi (2016, 94) does not distinguish between the two Poulsens, Valdemar and Arnold. It is very likely that this confusion originates from Göran Tigerstedt’s manuscript.
[9] The archive includes Norwegian engineer Kaye Weedon’s unpublished investigations on the matter, which include a letter from the Danish patent office stating that there is no evidence of such an application having been submitted in Tigerstedt’s name. This would explain the fact that the application includes only a date, but no application number. Weedon considers that this invention could possibly be seen as the precursor to VHS recording, the priority of which would be extremely important, if officially attributed to Tigerstedt.
[10] The letter is contained in the Eric Tigerstedt Collection but also published in Kuusela (1981, 90).
[11] Sethi (2016, 108) writes that in the United States, Tigerstedt actually met with Lee de Forest, who then went on to develop his own sound film system, and also (101) that Western Electric approached Tigerstedt in 1918 to licence his cinematography patents.
This is an author’s preprint version of the article that has been published in Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema 2020, Vol. 14, No. 2, 190–216, https://doi.org/10.1080/17503132.2020.1742414