Die akustik

Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartel, 1802. First edition, 4to, pp. [2], xxxii, 310, engraved vignette portrait on title page, 11 folding plates; original marbled paper-covered boards, paper label on spine; binding and label rubbed, but a good, sound copy, unrestored; contained in a brown leather slipcase. "Chladni (1756-1827), professor of physics in Breslau, was the first to reduce the general association between vibration and pitch to a tabular basis, and thus to lay the foundation of the modern science of acoustics. His first results were first reported in New Discoveries in the Theory of Sound, 1787, and were greatly enlarged upon in Acoustics, 1802. He spread sand on plates made of metal and glass, which were fixed in clamps. He then applied a violin bow to the edge of each plate and recorded the patterns produced thereby in the sand. These figures are still known by Chladni's name" (Printing and the Mind of Man 288b). Chladni was from an early age interested in music, and was himself an amateur musician "who designed and constructed two keyboard instruments, the euphonium and the clavicylinder, both being variations of the glass harmonica" (see DSB for a detailed account of his life and experiements).