Chladni Plates
Chladni Plates
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- Description
- Ernst Chladni (1756-1827) was a German musician who studied the physics of sound. The Chladni Plate, one of his key inventions, was a flat piece of metal covered with a fine layer of sand; when a bow was drawn along one edge of the plate, the sand arranged itself in such a way that the nodal patterns became apparent.
- This example consists of two circular brass plates held in an iron clamp. The Smithsonian Institution bought it in the 1860s, probably from Rudolph Koenig Paris.
- Ref: Rudolph Koenig, Catalogue des Appareils d’Acoustique (Paris, 1865), pp. 25-26.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- sonorous figure plates
- maker
- Koenig, Rudolph
- place made
- France: Île-de-France, Paris
- Measurements
- overall: 4 3/4 in x 10 1/4 in x 7 3/4 in; 12.065 cm x 26.035 cm x 19.685 cm
- overall: 4 3/4 in x 10 1/2 in x 7 7/8 in; 12.065 cm x 26.67 cm x 20.0025 cm
- ID Number
- PH.314581.2
- catalog number
- 314581.2
- accession number
- 205890
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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