CHLADNI Ernst Florens Friedrich Traité d’acoustique.

Roberts & Trent, p. 71; DSB, III, 259. See PMM, 233b; Sparrow, 38; Norman, 481; Dibner, 150 (for the first edition 1802).

First edition of the French translation. Copy having belonged to Lacépède.

Chladni (1756-1827) is considered the father of modern acoustics. He was the first to establish the general relationship between vibration frequency and pitch in the form of a table, thus laying the foundations for modern acoustics. His experiments, in which he placed sand on metal or glass plates and then vibrated them with a bow, yielded astonishing results. The sand settled into different geometric shapes depending on the vibrations of the plates. These shapes are still known today by the name of their famous inventor, ‘Chladni figures’.

This French translation is entirely due to Chladni himself, who undertook it at the request of Napoleon I after the Emperor invited him to give a demonstration of his famous “acoustic figures” in Paris. Chladni’s studies were highly appreciated by his contemporaries and he exerted a strong influence on the research into the theory of elastic surfaces by the famous mathematician Sophie Germain.

The plates illustrate a variety of geometric shapes obtained during the experiments.

“Chladni demonstrated his patterns publicly in Paris in 1809 and was asked to repeat his performance for Napoleon, who then authorized the funds necessary for the translation and publication of Die Akustik into French. Chladni himself did the work of translation. The work was reviewed and the report signed by Prony, who discusses it in his Leçons de mécanique analytique. Chaldni’s work was also noted in Poisson’s Mémoire de l’élasticité des corps solides, and inspired a series of studies by Sophie Germain in mathematical theory of elastic surfaces” (Roberts & Trent).

“Chladni, 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 reported in ‘New Discoveries in the Theory of Sound’, 1787, and were greatly enlarged 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 & the Mind of Man).

“Except for a few publications on meteorites, Chladni devoted his research to the study of acoustics and vibration. He first described his early experiments using the sand figures in Endeckunger über die Theorie des Klanges. They were presented with additional observations in Die Akustik, which is also a general acoustics text containing very complete historical material. This appeared in French translation in 1809 (Traité d’acoustique) in which he gives an autobiographical summary in the introduction” (DSB III p. 258).

Important scientific provenance

Chladni offered this copy to his colleague, Count Étienne de Lacépède (1756-1825), senator, peer of France, and naturalist, as evidenced by the autograph note on the title page: “To His Excellency Mr. Count de Lacépède. Tribute from the author.”

Lacépède, author of Poétique sur la musique (Paris, 1783), began his scientific career under Buffon’s guidance at the Jardin du Roi in 1785. Highly regarded by Buffon, Lacépède was considered by his famous patron to be his successor. Another celebrity at the Jardin du Roi, Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton (1716-1799), “very absorbed by his teaching at the Collège de France, delegated his lectures at the Museum to his assistant, so that when the Museum was reorganized at the end of 1794, Lacépède became the first holder of the newly formed chair of ichthyology and herpetology, which still exists today” (Napoleon.org).

Other provenance : Jesuit college (library label on inner-cover, as well as rubber stamp and number on title).

Small occasional marginal waterstain in a few leaves, otherwise a very fine copy of important scientific provenance.