Tuba Stentoro-Phonica: An Instrument of Excellent Use, as Well at Sea, as at Land; Invented, and Variously Experimented in the Year 1670

Samuel Morland

London: Printed by W. Godbid, to be Sold by M. Pitt, 1671

[The Invention of the Speaking Trumpet: The Megaphone] Folio, 32 x 20 cm. Bound in later full sheep in period style.  Blind tooling to cover. Good binding and cover. Collated: [2], 1-14, [1] pp. Illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece of Morland engraved by P. Lombart(after Lilly), and five plates of trumpets and acoustical phenomena. Title-page printed in red and black, five-line passage printed in red on p. 12. Wing M2783; ESTC R30065; Gregory & Bartlett ii, 75.  

Samuel Morland was a noted polymath, diplomat, spy, engineer, and instrument maker.  He conducted a series of experiments in London in 1670-1 and attracted significant attention for his trumpet's ability to conduct sound over distances.  One of his larger models transmitted sound over a mile away. Morland, along with Kircher, are seen as the inventors of the megaphone.  In 1878 Thomas Edison revised these earlier designs to develop the megaphone.  A rare work on 17th century audio-engineering.