author
Floyd Rowe Watson
1872–1974
A pioneer in architectural acoustics, this American physicist helped shape how concert halls, theaters, and other public buildings sound. His long career joined laboratory science with practical design work, making him an important early voice in the study of sound.
1 Audiobook
Acoustics of auditoriums
by Floyd Rowe Watson
About the author
Born in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1872, Floyd Rowe Watson became an American experimental physicist best known for his work in acoustics and the acoustical design of buildings. He studied sound not just as a scientific subject, but as something that could improve real spaces where people listened, learned, and performed.
Watson taught physics at the University of Illinois and wrote books on sound and hearing, including Sound: An Elementary Textbook on the Science of Sound and the Phenomena of Hearing. He was also involved as an acoustical consultant on major building projects, and is especially remembered as one of the early researchers who helped turn architectural acoustics into a more exact science.
He lived an unusually long life, dying in 1974 at the age of 101. Today, he is remembered as one of the field's early pioneers, especially for bridging careful scientific research with the practical problems of designing spaces that sound better.