He sold several of them to physicists and linguists. The application to studying sound and speech was pretty obvious. But, eh, I have a background in linguist

He sold several of them to physicists and linguists. The application to studying sound and speech was pretty obvious. But, eh, I have a background in linguistics and you can squint at waveforms of speech all you want; you don't get too much out of it. Fundamental frequencies for vowels are revealed with some experience at interpretation, but that had been worked out already, by the late 18th century. I suppose it would have helped confirm it.