Tonograph: History and Key Facts

The tonograph (Italian: tonografo) is a device invented by Italian scientist Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi (1764-1852) and presented at the Terza riunione degli scienziati italiani (the "Third Meeting of Italian Scientists"), held in Florence in September 1841. Its purpose is to measure the intonation of the human voice by matching it with the modifiable sound generated by the device itself.

The original device was donated by its inventor Cagnazzi during the Third Meeting of Italian Scientists. After then, the instrument went lost, but in 1932 ca., thanks to the work of a scholar, it was found in a cellar and exhibited at the Museo Galileo, located in Piazza dei Giudici, Florence. The original device is now stored in the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Milan. A copy of the device, commissioned by Count Celio Sabini (from Altamura), is now displayed at the museum Archivio Biblioteca Museo Civico in Altamura.

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