The telephone industry drove development of technologies for measuring hearing.

Evidence

Although Wundt was able to control the sound intensity in his experiments, the introduction of telephone receivers and sound level meters made measurements of the perception of sound intensity more feasible. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention formed the basis of the technology that allows us to precisely and accurately control and manipulate sound today. Along with Western Electric, its precursor company, Bell Telephone Labs (commonly called Bell Labs), focused on the research and development of telephone-associated equipment. The contributions of Bell Labs after its formation in 1925, in particular, have been integral to the fields of psychoacoustics and audiology. Much of their work involved the development of technologies that are now used to assess and to characterize hearing. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 78

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to engineering-driven science and to later chapters on intensity measurement.