• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2012

The photophone, Alexander Graham Bell's device for transmitting sound through light was patented in 1880. It included the transmitter modulating and reflecting strong light like sunlight to a distant receiver which produced sound. In this working of the photophone, the discovery of the sound-emitting effect under illumination was very essential. Longing for being famous in the scientific community, Bell focused on presenting various methods for producing sounds and for maximizing the loudness by performing intensive research on the photoacoustic effect. Bell's scientific research on photoacoustics was successful in establishing himself as a scientist and laid a foundation of photoacoustic analysis. And his invention became a basis for other researchers' subsequent technologies like fiber-optic communication.