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 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.
label: Description
content: Ref: Rudolph Koenig, <i>Catalogue des Appareils d’Acoustique</i> (Paris, 1865), pp. 25-26.
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.314581.2
label: catalog number
content: 314581.2
label: accession number
content: 205890
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sonorous figure plates
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: 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
label: Measurements
content: 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