Chladni Plates
name: label: maker
content: Koenig, Rudolph
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: This large and costly example consists of six brass Chladni plates of varying thicknesses—3 square and 3 circular—mounted on an iron stand. The Smithsonian Institution bought it in the 1860s, probably from Rudolph Koenig Paris.
label: Description
content: Ref: Rudolph Koenig, <i>Catalogue des Appareils d’Acoustique</i> (Paris, 1865), p. 25.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314581.3
label: catalog number
content: 314581.3
label: accession number
content: 205890
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sonorous figure plates
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 in x 40 in x 8 in; 38.1 cm x 101.6 cm x 20.32 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 1/8 in x 42 1/4 in x 8 1/2 in; 38.4175 cm x 107.315 cm x 21.59 cm