Harry F. Olson

Technically inclined from an early age, he built and flew model airplanes, constructed a steam engine and invented a wood-fired boiler that drove a 100-volt DC generator.

At RCA, Olson worked on a wide range of projects, which included developing microphones for the broadcasting and motion picture industries, improving loudspeakers, and making significant contributions to magnetic tape recording.

Like many engineers of the World War II generation, Olson also made significant contributions to military technology as well, particularly to the fields of underwater sound and anti-submarine warfare.

He also authored 135 articles and ten books including an interdisciplinary text charting the dynamical analogies between electrical, acoustical and mechanical systems.

Shortly after World War II, Dr. Olson conducted an experiment, now considered a classic, to determine the preferred bandwidth for the reproduction of music.

These imperfections included clicks and pops (from 78 rpm recordings), added noise (from AM radio broadcast static), hiss and harmonic distortion (from amplifier circuits), and non linear frequency response from primitive loudspeaker designs.

But when he introduced small amounts of nonlinear distortion, the subjects preferred a restricted bandwidth, thus demonstrating clearly the importance of high quality in audio systems.

[1] As a result of this experiment and the work of others, such as Avery Fisher and later Edgar Villchur, high fidelity sound recording, transmission, and reproduction equipment saw increased investment, development, and public acceptance in the following decades.

Both his mother and his wife were talented amateur artists — Lorene's paintings were displayed in Olson's RCA office for many years.