Joseph T. Tykociner, a Polish-born electrical engineer, came to Illinois in 1921. The following June, he held a public demonstration of sound reproduced from motion picture film. Although university policies and industry indifference did not allow him to pursue his patents for sound movies, Tykociner continued his research at the university until retirement in 1946. He then devoted the next two decades to teaching and writing about "zetetics" the science of organizing information to plan research.