Chladni, Ernest (Florens Friedrich)

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Chladni, Ernest (Florens Friedrich)

Chladni, Ernest (Florens Friedrich), eminent German acoustician; b. Wittenberg, Nov. 30, 1756; d. Breslau, April 3, 1827. At first a student and prof, of law at Wittenberg and Leipzig, he turned to physics and made highly important researches in the domain of acoustics. He discovered the “Tonfiguren” (tone-figures; i.e., the regular patterns assumed by dry sand on a glass plate set in vibration by a bow), and also invented the Euphonium (glass-rod harmonica) and Clavicylinder (steel-rod keyboard harmonica). To introduce his ideas and inventions, he made long journeys and delivered many scientific lectures. His earlier publications, Entdeckungen über die Thorie des Klanges (1787), Über die Longitudinal- schwingungen der Saiten und Stabe, and a series of minor articles in various periodicals, were followed by the important works Die Akustik (1802; 2nded., 1830; Fr. tr., 1809), Neue Beiträge zur Akustik (1817), Beiträge zur praktischen Akustik (1821), and Kurze tlber-sicht der Schall- und Klanglehre (1827).

Bibliography

W. Bernhardt, Dr. E. C., der Akustiker (Wittenberg, 1856).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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