Establishing acoustics as a science

CHLADNI, Ernst Florens Friedrich.

Entdeckungen über die Theorie des Klanges.

Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1787.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #001759

4to (212 x 176 mm). [4], 77 [1] pp.; 11 folding engraved plates bound at end. Contemporary quarter calf, rebacked spine lettered and decorated in gilt, remnant of paper sticker to front board. Text browned throughout, occasional minor brown spotting, tiny burnhole in p.3/4, upper inner hinge strenghtened, plates less browned and slightly foxed. Provenance: Dr. v.F. (armorial bookplate to front pastedown), illegible ink signature and pencil annotations on flyleaf. Still very good copy. ----

PMM, 233a; Dibner Heralds of Science 150; Norman 480; Sparrow Milestones of Science 39; DSB III, 258ff - RARE FIRST EDITION of this important work which established acoustics as a science. Chladni was the first to work out the quantitative relationships governing the transmission of sound and its velocity in different media. The vibrations of strings had been studied in the seventeenth century but not the vibrations of plates. Chladni devised a method of making the vibrations visible by spreading sand on the plate and running a violin bow across the edge. The study of 'Chladni figures', as they are now known, using plates of different sizes, shapes and materials and clamped in different places enabled Chladni to develop the principles of acoustics and advance the understanding of wave forms in general.

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