patent no. 12,558 · sister c. petrosian · 1901
a container to hold quiet, by the half-ounce
a walnut box, four inches by six, lined seven times with wool felt cut to nest within itself. at the centre, a small cavity not larger than a thumbnail. one opens the lid, captures (so the patent claims) a portion of the prevailing quiet, and seals it with a cork stopper. the box may then be carried into noisier rooms and reopened.
petrosian was a recluse of the order of saint thekla and had access to a great deal of fresh silence. she filled her boxes in the cloister at four, the only hour she trusted, and posted them to acquaintances in the city. the boxes arrived weeks later containing, in every case, the noise of the journey: train, sorting-room, the apologetic footsteps of the postman. silence does not survive transport. it leaks at the corners and is replaced, in transit, by whatever happens to be passing.
petrosian acknowledged this in her later years. she continued to send the boxes anyway. the recipient, she wrote, may open the box in their own room and find a different quiet inside, which is, she believed, the only useful kind.
field-note · open in the smallest room of the house; close before leaving it.
apology machine · thinking chair · dust meter · silence · noise