Resonant Grains

New Books in the History of Science

In the 1950s, a schoolteacher named Carleen Hutchins attempted a revolution in how concert violins are made. In this episode, Craig Eley of the Field Noise podcast tells us how this amateur outsider used 18th century science to disrupt the all-male guild tradition of violin luthiers. Would the myth of the never-equaled Stradivarius violin prove to be true or could a science teacher with a woodshop use an old idea to make new violins better than ever?

We also learn about the mysterious beauty of Chladni patterns, the 18th century technique of using tiny particles to reveal how sound moves through resonant objects–the key to Hutchins’ merger of art and science.

In this episode, we hear the voices of:

• Quincy Whitney, Carleen Hutchins biographer and a former arts reporter for the Boston Globe.
• Myles Jackson, a professor of the history of science at Princeton.
• Joseph Curtin, a MacArthur-award winning violin maker.
• Sam Zygmuntowicz, an extremely renowned violin maker and creator of Strad3D.
• Carleen Hutchins herself.

You can subscribe to Craig Eley’s Field Noise podcast to hear the original version of this story.

This episode was edited by Craig Eley and Mack Hagood. Music is by Blue Dot Sessions and Marc Bianchi. The archival interview clips of Carleen Hutchins were provided by filmmaker James Schneider. The interview with Quincy Whitney was recorded by Andrew Parrella at New Hampshire Public Radio.

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