Paul Earls Sabine Explained

Paul Earls Sabine (22 January 1879 – 28 December 1958) was an American acoustic engineer and a specialist on acoustic architecture. Sound absorbing boards made of porous gypsum was sometimes known by the tradename Sabinite. He was a director at the Riverbank Laboratories until his retirement in 1947.

Sabine was born in Albion, Illinois, to Methodist pastor Charles and Rebecca Likely née McClure.^[1] He was educated at McKendree College (1899) before going to Harvard University from where he received a doctorate in 1915. He taught physics for a while and in 1919 he replaced his cousin Wallace Clement Sabine (who died from cancer) as director of the Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories (which later became a part of the Illinois Institute of Technology). He developed the work of his cousin and specialized in acoustic architecture and was a consultant for architects and involved in the design of the Radio City Music Hall, New York; Fels Planetarium, Philadelphia; and the House and Senate Chambers. He established relationships between total sound absorption,^[2] reverberation and the absorptive properties of materials while also innovating measurement,^[3] standards, and absorptive materials.^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]} A porous gypsum plaster to line walls and meant to absorb sounds was developed in 1924 by the Keasbey Mattison laboratories and marketed as Sabinite.^[9] During World War II he worked at the Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory. After his retirement in 1947 he moved to Colorado Springs and spent a lot of time on Christianity and its relationship to science which he wrote about in Atoms, Men and God (1953). He published the landmark book Acoustics and Architecture (1932).^[10] His son Hale Johnson Sabine (1909-1981) also became an acoustics specialist.^{[11] [12]}

External links

• Atoms, Men and God (1953)

Notes and References

1. Book: Harvard College. Class of 1903. 439–440. 1913.
2. Sabine. . Paul E. . 1920 . The Absorption of Sound by Rigid Walls . Physical Review . en . 16 . 6 . 514–518 . 10.1103/PhysRev.16.514 . 0031-899X.
3. Sabine . Paul E. . 1929 . The measurement of sound absorption coefficients . Journal of the Franklin Institute . en . 207 . 3 . 341–368 . 10.1016/S0016-0032(29)91450-2.
4. Sabine . Paul E. . 1929 . The measurement of sound absorption coefficients . Journal of the Franklin Institute . en . 207 . 3 . 341–368 . 10.1016/S0016-0032(29)91450-2.
5. Sabine . Paul E. . 1935 . What is Measured in Sound Absorption Measurements . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . en . 6 . 4 . 239–245 . 10.1121/1.1915742 . 0001-4966.
6. Sabine . Paul E. . 1938 . Effects of Cylindrical Pillars in a Reverberation Chamber . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . en . 10 . 1 . 1–5 . 10.1121/1.1915949 . 0001-4966.
7. Sabine . Paul E. . 1944 . The Problem of Industrial Noise . American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health . en . 34 . 3 . 265–270 . 10.2105/AJPH.34.3.265 . 0002-9572 . 1626184 . 18015962.
8. Sabine . Paul E. . 1922 . Diffraction Effects in Sound Absorption Measurements . Physical Review . en . 19 . 4 . 402 . 10.1103/PhysRev.19.402 . 0031-899X.
9. Book: Amber sound absorbing plaster . Keasbey & Mattison Co. . 1930 . 8.
10. Moyer . David L. . 2001 . Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . en . 109 . 5 . 2328 . 10.1121/1.4744170 . 0001-4966.
11. Sabine . Paul E. . 1936 . The Beginnings of Architectural Acoustics . The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . en . 7 . 4 . 242–248 . 10.1121/1.1915836 . 0001-4966.
12. 1959 . Paul E. Sabine . Physics Today . en . 12 . 2 . 60 . 10.1063/1.3060694 . 0031-9228.