The invention of the colourophone by P. P. Kondratsky can apparently be attributed to the early 1930s. Kondratsky was professionally engaged in colour science: he headed the chemical laboratory of the Proletarka factory in the city of Kalinin (currently Tver), and at the same time taught courses at the Institute for Advanced Training of Engineers and Technicians, organized by the Supreme Economic Council in Moscow and Leningrad. In 1932, his book “Fundamentals of Colouristics” was published, which was intended “to be a comprehensive practical guide for anyone who would like to work in the field of theoretical or applied colour science” (Kondracki, “Fundamentals of Colouristics,” 1932, p. VI). For the purpose of standardizing colour and colour composition in the harmonization of colours, he proposed a colour “keyboard” that “covers from 3000–4000 of the colour nuances accessible to the normal eye” and then, on its basis, developed a system for recording “colour notes” (Kondracki, “Fundamentals of Colouristics”, 1932, pp. 520). We read the description of the colour instrument colourophone he designed in the note “Colour and Sound” by M. Sergeev, published in the newspaper “Light Industry” in 1965: “The scientist’s wife played a Beethoven sonata. And he himself, hunched over, fingered the keyboard of a small device in the darkness. The screen scattered sometimes a soft, light, sometimes direct, exciting colour radiance. The chromatic range of colours according to the specially written score complemented, revealed and explained the composer in a different way. Musical perceptions merged with colours.”
Links to Third-Party Publications:
Kolganova O. V. Classification of domestic light and sound instruments of the first third of the twentieth century (From chromotrope to kinemachrome) // The Art and Science of Television. 2025. No. 21.3. pp. 61–117. https://tv-science.online/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TVstudies_21_3.pdfysclid=miluaxqjnz459787198; Kondratsky P. P. Fundamentals of colour statics / Research laboratory of the Kalinin Cotton Trust. Kalinin: State publication. Cotton and Paper Trust, 1932. 559 p.
