The paper is chiefly concerned with the important speech power quantities—frequency spectra, distributions of instantaneous, average, syllabic and peak amplitudes, etc.—as they obtain in actual speech for a large range of voices, talking levels, and subject matters. The analysis is not nearly so complete nor so fine‐grained as that which, in principle, can be derived from oscillographic records of individual speech sounds. Its advantage is in the speed with which data can be secured, under widely varying conditions and on a scale which warrants statistical conclusions. Some of the methods in use for measurements of this type are described. These include forms of apparatus developed prmarily for use in telephone plant work, as well as those developed for detailed laboratory investigations. The data discussed are mainly those obtained in the laboratory with an integrator and with a peak meter. The former gives the average value of the instantaneous sound amplitudes; the latter gives the magnitude and frequency of occurrence of the peak values. The distribution of average and peak amplitudes in the frequency spectrum is obtained in addition to their values in the entire sound wave. Illustrative results are given for samples of speech, music and noise.