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Of all the senses cultivated throughout the 19th century, it was the sense of hearing that experienced the most dramatic transformation, as the science of sound underwent rapid advancement. Lucas Thompson delves into a particular genre of popular acoustics primers aimed at children and amateurs alike, which reveal the pedagogical, ludic, and transcendental strivings of Victorian society…

In 1777, the German physicist Ernst Chladni, who would later be crowned the Father of Acoustics, designed an experiment that revolutionized our understanding of sound. After placing grains of sand on a thin metal plate and drawing a violin bow along one edge, Chladni watched in wonder as the sand danced and jiggled into surprising shapes — all perfectly even and symmetrical, but changing their formations depending on how the bow was used. In their beauty and complexity, these shapes (which the physicist himself cannily called “Chladni figures”) seemed to be arranged by invisible hands. In one simple and elegant experiment, sound had become visible.

Here at last was clear proof that sound was not produced by generating tiny particles of matter within air, as the dominant theorists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had insisted, but was instead the result of vibrations from waves. While earlier claims about the wave-like properties of sound (which in fact date back to Aristotle’s Physics) had fallen mostly on deaf ears, Chladni’s experiment provided undeniable evidence that sound was caused by waves that could move through both air and matter.

Chladni’s ingenious demonstration also showed that sound could be observed in a variety of new ways, and would no longer be consigned to the invisible aether. Moreover, it was an easy experiment to replicate for anyone who could get their hands on a copper plate, a violin bow, and some sand. In fact, it was so widely reproduced that, in 1901, Annie Besant and Charles Leadbetter, in their wonderful (and completely bizarre) theosophical study Thought-Forms, could write that Chladni figures were “already familiar to every student of acoustics”, being “continually reproduced in every physical laboratory”…

[Thompson recounts a number of the more fascinating examples of the “citizen science” that Chladni inspired, with excerpts– and lovely illustrations– from some of the books that resulted…]

… Nowadays, the term “pop-science” is often used disapprovingly, as though something important is always lost when genuine scientific research is translated into less nuanced terms that the public can comprehend. But the hard distinction between professional and amateur science in our own era — between expertise and general interest — was not yet fully present in the nineteenth century.

To read these surprising, delightful, and often beautiful popular science books is to be made aware of the enormous gulf that has opened up between professional scientists and the public. As science became increasingly specialized in the twentieth century, the public were no longer able to follow along with new findings, let alone have any hope of reproducing important experiments. It is difficult to imagine an amateur enthusiast recreating the latest research, regarding the quantum phenomena of sound, for example, or the way that spiders “listen” to their surroundings via vibrations in their webs, at home. Of course, contemporary publishers still put out science primers, textbooks, and explainers, but something vital has vanished. The frontier of scientific discovery has receded from view, moving far beyond what non-specialists can comprehend. These nineteenth-century popularizing books arose during a brief period in which even children could somewhat keep pace with scientific advancement. They offer a crucial window into what has been lost, and reveal how new understandings of sound filtered through Victorian culture and beyond…

Experimenting with sound in 19th-century popular science: “Hooked on Sonics,” from @publicdomainrev.bsky.social.

Keep an ear out for a chance to experience the remarkable 32 Sounds (exhibition schedule here).

* Alexander Pope

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As we listen, we might send sonorous birthday greetings to Mahalia Jackson; she was born on this date in 1911. A gospel singer and civil rights activist, she is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. Through a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S. During a time when racial segregation was pervasive in American society, she had considerable (albeit unexpected) success in her recording career, selling an estimated 22 million records and performing in front of integrated and secular audiences in concert halls around the world, making her one of the best-selling gospel music artists.

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