Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories (RAL), (often referred to as Riverbank or Riverbank Labs), is a

NVLAP The National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in USA, offers accreditation for testing and calibration laboratories across various fields. NVLAP evaluates ...

accredited acoustical testing agency founded by George Fabyan in 1913. The testing service remains a highly respected source of independent acoustical materials testing. RAL specializes in STC ( Sound Transmission Loss per ASTM E90), NRC (

Sound Absorption In acoustics, absorption refers to the process by which a material, structure, or object takes in sound energy when sound waves are encountered, as opposed to reflecting the energy. Part of the absorbed energy is transformed into heat and par ...

per ASTM C423), IIC ( Impact Sound Transmission per ASTM E492), and

Sound Power Sound power or acoustic power is the rate at which sound energy is emitted, reflected, Acoustic transmission, transmitted or received, per unit time. It is defined as "through a surface, the product of the sound pressure, and the component of the ...

(ISO 6926) testing. The current address for the company is 1512 Batavia Ave. Geneva, IL. This location also houses the Riverbank Acoustical Museum and Acoustical Library.

History

The acoustical laboratory building was funded and built by Colonel George Fabyan on his vast Riverbank Estate in Geneva, Illinois. Colonel Fabyan was a patron of obscure sciences, and references to his "Riverbank laboratories" exist as early as 1916. In 1913, Fabyan hired

Wallace Clement Sabine Wallace Clement Sabine (June 13, 1868 – January 10, 1919) was an American physicist who founded the field of architectural acoustics. Sabine was the architectural acoustician of Boston's Symphony Hall, widely considered one of the two or t ...

to help tune an acoustical levitation machine built according to specifications decoded from a Sir

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

work. Sabine ultimately convinced the colonel that the machine would never work, and the two became close friends. After hearing Sabine's complaints of the poor conditions of his acoustical test lab at Harvard, Colonel Fabyan agreed to build a state of the art reverberation chamber and test facility for Sabine to use on the property. Sabine died in 1919, shortly after the lab was constructed. The task of managing the Laboratory Operations was granted to his cousin, Paul Sabine, who refined the test methods and developed the lab into a successful business. After Paul retired, the lab operations were handed to Hale Sabine and the Armour Research Foundation of the Illinois Institute of Technology. The

Armour Research Foundation IIT Research Institute (IITRI),Greenbaum & Wheeler (1967), cover sheet (technical paper).McCormac; et al. (1967), p. i (book)."IITRI" (or "iiTRi") is used on cover sheets of technical paper documents in prior decades. also known historically and ...

(ARF) was renamed IITRI in 1963. IITRI funded a large expansion to the laboratory in the 1960s, which included a new

transmission loss Transmission loss (TL) in general describes the accumulated decrease in intensity of a waveform energy as a wave propagates outwards from a source, or as it propagates through a certain area or through a certain type of structure. It is a terminol ...

facility. In 2002, the technology and engineering divisions of IITRI (Including Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories) were spun off into a new company named Alion Science and Technology. Today, Alion conducts advanced acoustical testing operations in the facility for many prominent acoustical material manufacturers and government agencies. In the facility's early days, it also housed a cryptology team that worked to decipher codes from the works of Sir Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, and enemy military communications. Fabyan allowed the U.S. Government to use Riverbank Laboratories to their disposal during World War I and German and Mexican codes were deciphered there. Much of the cryptanalysis was done by

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Elizebeth Friedman. In 1993, the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA) recognized the work with a plaque reading "To the Memory of George Fabyan From a Grateful Government: In recognition of the voluntary and confidential service rendered by Colonel Fabyan and his Riverbank Laboratories in the sensitive areas of

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic se ...

and cryptologic training during a critical time of national need on the eve of America's entry into World War I." The building is recognized in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Notable staff

* William F. Friedman *

Elizebeth Smith Friedman Elizebeth Smith Friedman (August 26, 1892 – October 31, 1980) was an Americans, American cryptanalyst and author who deciphered enemy codes in both World Wars and helped to solve international smuggling cases during Prohibition in the United S ...

Agnes Meyer Driscoll Agnes Meyer Driscoll (July 24, 1889 – September 16, 1971), known as "Miss Aggie" or "Madame X'", was an American cryptanalyst during both World War I and World War II and was known as "the first lady of naval cryptology." Early years Driscoll ...

Elizabeth Wells Gallup Elizabeth Wells Gallup (1848 in Paris, New York Paris is a town in Oneida County, New York, United States. The town is in the southeast part of the county and is south of Utica. The population was 4,332 at the 2020 census. The town was named af ...

Gallery

File:Riverbank Laboratories (Geneva, IL) 01.JPG File:Riverbank Laboratories (Geneva, IL) 02.JPG File:Riverbank Laboratories (Geneva, IL) 03.JPG File:Riverbank Labs.JPG

References

{{commons category, Riverbank Laboratories (Geneva, IL) Laboratories in the United States Technology companies of the United States Companies based in Kane County, Illinois Geneva, Illinois Technology companies established in 1918 1918 establishments in Illinois Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Industrial buildings completed in 1912 Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Kane County, Illinois United States Army Signals Intelligence Service