Timeline

550 BCE to Present

(Submissions courtesy of members of the Acoustical Society of America’s Physical Acoustics Technical Committee)

550 BCE: Pythagoras relates length of vibrating string to pitch.
1400s (late): Leonardo da Vinci identifies an early form of the principle of superposition, shows that sound has a finite velocity, and uses a tube to listen to underwater sound.
1636: Mersenne describes the first absolute determination of the frequency of an audible tone.
1638 (circa): Galileo explains the relation of pitch to frequency, consonance, dissonance, the frequency ratios corresponding to musical intervals, vibratory resonance, sympathetic vibrations, and the quantitative dependence of a the frequency of a vibrating string on it length, diameter, density, and tension.
1650: Kircher studies the acoustical horn and invents the loud-speaking trumpet. Additional studies were later done on horns by Morland in the 1670s.
1654 (circa): von Guericke and later Boyle & Hooke show that sound does not propagate in a vacuum.
1656: Viviani and Borelli measure the speed of sound in air to within 5% of its correct value.
1670s: Hooke uses a rotating toothed wheel to produce sound (siren) and anticipates the use of the stethoscope for diagnostic purposes (later developed by Laennec around 1816).
1686: Newton characterizes sound as pressure pulses transmitted through neighboring fluid particles. Computes the speed of sound in a gas by assuming condensation is proportional to pressure with the result being lower than the correct value by around 16%.
1740: Bianconi and de la Condamine independently demonstrate that the speed of sound is a function of temperature.
1747 (circa): Franklin uses a Leyden jar and a light cork ball to demonstrate oscillating electromechanical transduction and later adapts the device to ring a bell.
1765: Euler publishes model equation for finite-amplitude waves.
1808: Poisson finds an exact solution to describe the propagation of finite-amplitude waves.
1816: Laplace correctly computes the speed of sound in a gas by assuming adiabatic conditions.
1826: Calladon and Sturm measure the speed of sound in the water of Lake Geneva.
1828-29: Cauchy and Poisson derive solution for elastic wave propagation in thin plates. Poisson shows elastic vibrations consist of both dilatational and distortional waves.
1831: Faraday observes acoustically-stimulated gas streaming above a vibrating plate.
1845: Stokes relates attenuation of sound to the viscosity of fluids.
1849: Stokes, George G., “On the dynamical theory of diffraction.” The solution for a point load in an infinite elastic space is given. One of the first systematic studies of the excitation and propagation of elastic waves.
1850: Sondhauss studies heat-driven acoustic oscillations in tubes without flow.
1859: Rijke studies heat-driven acoustic oscillations in tubes with flow.
1860: Helmholtz publishes the theory of the resonator that now has his name.
1867: Toepler develops the schlieren method of sound visualization.
1868: Kirchhoff finds the spatial absorption for sound in a viscous, heat-conducting gas.
1870: Rankine publishes fundamental equations describing shock wave propagation (later also published by Hugoniot in 1889 and partially derived earlier by Stokes).
1877: The first edition of Rayleigh’s The Theory of Sound is published.
1877: Cuttris & Redding and Siemens independently file for patents for moving-coil electroacoustic transducers, thereby paving the way for the development of loudspeakers.
1880: Brothers Curie discover the piezoelectric effect.
1880: A. G. Bell uses photoacoustic effects to transmit sound by modulation of light.
1889: Rayleigh and Lamb independently derive solutions for propagation of elastic waves in plates.
1898: A. W. Duff publishes “The attenuation of sound and the constant of radiation of air.” Following a comment by Lord Rayleigh “On the cooling of air by radiation and conduction and on the propagation of sound,” (1899) Duff reports a second set of measurements in “The attenuation of sound,” (1900).
1904: Borne and subsequent researchers observe “abnormal” propagation in the atmosphere and thereby identify the existence of the stratospheric temperature inversion.
1904: Lamb, H. “On the propagation of tremors over the surface of an elastic solid.” First systematic effort to solve the problem of a load applied to an elastic halfspace. In the course of solving the problem the emergence of an elastic surface wave is shown.
1911: Love describes propagation of elastic waves in a layered half-space and identifies the horizontally-polarized shear horizontal wave later to bear his name.
1917: Wente invents the condenser microphone.
1917: Lord Rayleigh publishes the first theoretical description of a collapsing cavity and uses the result to explain the erosion of high-speed ship propellers.
1917 (circa): Langevin observes numerous dead small fish and other marine animals in the vicinity of the transducers he built to begin studies leading to the detection of submarines.
1921: Cady discovers that quartz crystals can be used as stable electromechanical oscillators.
1924: Stoneley identifies the mode of wave propagation on solid-solid interfaces later to bear his name.
1927: W. Richards and A. Loomis publish the chemical effects of ultrasound.
1927: Wood and Loomis describe in detail their ultrasound studies including heretofore unfamiliar phenomena such as some chemical and thermal effects, acoustic production of emulsions and fogs, and biological effects.
1929: The beginning of disinfection using cavitation. Reduction in light emission from a suspension of Bacillus Fisheri in sea water. Bacteria were killed by sonication. “The destruction of luminous bacteria by high frequency sound waves” E.N. Harvey and A.L. Loomis.
1932: The diffraction of light by ultrasound is studied by P. Debye and F. W. Sears and (in a different publication) by R. Lucas and P. Biquard.
1933: Vern Knudsen makes the first accurate measurements of atmospheric absorption using vacuum tube technology in a reverberation room.
1933: H. O. Kneser develops the first theoretical model of the molecular relaxation part of atmospheric absorption considering only oxygen relaxation.
1933: Minnaert suggests flowing water noise associated with bubble motion.
1934: Discovery of sonoluminescence by Frenzel and Schules.
1934: L. V. King calculates the acoustic radiation force on a rigid sphere.
1935-36: E. Fubini-Ghiron works out the theory concerning the anomalies in the propagation of finite-amplitude acoustic waves.
1936 (circa): Pohlman develops an ultrasonic imaging method based on transmission using acoustical lenses and conversion of the resulting acoustical image into a visually observable image in the same volume of interest. In Germany, his image converting apparatus becomes known as ‘Pohlman cell.’ Used extensively near the end of WW2 in Germany when ultrasonic NDT material testing became essential in the selection of ammunitions for the flak defense of Berlin. Flaws in the brittle steel caused in that time a demoralizing decimation of artillery crews due to gun explosions at low temperatures, so that ultrasonically tested grenades had to be reserved for such conditions.
1937-39: L. Landau, G. Rumer, and A. Akheiser, the beginning of theory for attenuation of ultrasonic waves in solids due to interaction with thermal phonons.
1938: Pohlman introduces ultrasonic physiotherapy as a medical practice at the Charité in Berlin. His rule was that the power of the transducer should be limited to 5 W/cm^2, the transducer must be kept in motion, and insonifying the bone must be avoided (indicating knowledge that bone exhibits much greater absorption).
1939: Pohlman reports observing the linear dependence of the ultrasound absorption coefficient on frequency, and that different tissues exhibit different rates of energy absorption.
1939: Cagniardís thesis discusses the waves excited by a transient, point load embedded in one elastic halfspace that is in contact with a second.
1944: Peshkov observes second (thermal) sound in superfluid helium.
1945: Landau measures weak shocks at large distances from an explosion site.
1946: H. Eyring publishes his classic study of sound propagation in a jungle.
1946: Blokhintsev suggests that audible sound is scattered primarily by the inertial subrange of turbulence.
1946: Givens, Nyborg and Schilling report theory for a study of sound propagation through the scattering and absorbing medium that exists near the ground.
1947: Isador Rudnick publishes the pioneering work on sound propagation from a point source over a locally reacting acoustic impedance plane based in part, on prior research on propagation losses of EM waves by Sommerfeld (1909), van der Pol (1935) and Norton (1937).
1947: Scholte identifies the mode of wave propagation on solid-liquid interfaces later to bear his name.
1948 (circa): Hillary St. Clair levitates copper in a standing wave at atmospheric pressure using sound from a siren.
1948: C. Zener, introduced the concept of anelastic property of solids is introduced.
1948: M. Greenspan tracks propagation in gas from the hydrodynamic to the collisionless regime.
1949: Kyame provides full description of bulk wave propagation in piezoelectric crystals.
1950 (circa): M. Greenspan decreases the acoustic cavitation threshold in clean water to -200 atmospheres.
1950: Ludwig shows that the speed of ultrasound and acoustic impedance values of high- water-content tissues do not differ greatly from those of water, and that anisotropic structural features do not contribute greatly to these parameters.
1950: Fry, Wulff, Tucker and Fry explore the role of ultrasonically produced temperature changes in functional excised preparations and compare with other means of introducing heat, though temperature is not considered responsible for the observed effects.
1950s: Noltingk, B.E. and Neppiras, E.A. develop theory for cavitation bubble in ultrasound field.
1951: A. Kastler, the theory of interaction between ultrasonic waves and nuclear spins published.
1951: Fry, Tucker, Fry, and Wulff show that the observed functional effect in frogs exposed to ultrasound is not due to cavitation, as the endpoint was observed under a hydrostatic pressure sufficient to prevent its occurrence. The existence of threshold phenomena associated with ultrasound effects in biological systems is introduced here.
1951: Wulff, Fry, Tucker, Fry, and Melton produce ultrasonic effects on nerve activity and show that temperature increase is not responsible.
1952: Hueter reveals the much greater absorption exhibited by bone and its different frequency dependence, compared with soft tissues.
1952: Esche describes the first attempt to examine cavitation thresholds in mammalian blood and tissue near the megahertz frequency range.
1952: Lighthill founds the study of aeroacoustics.
1953: Carstensen, Li, and Schwan, in studies with blood and various blood proteins in solution, show that a major fraction of the absorption in biological materials occurs at the molecular level.
1953 and later: Lighthill, Batchelor, Obukhov, Monin, and others determine the scattering cross section for sound waves by turbulence.
1953: Kornhauser publishes the correct ray equations for sound propagation in a moving medium.
1953: Renaud reports the first acceleration of liquid-solid reactions using ultrasound.
1953: Mazoué, Chauchard and Busnel, using an in vitro rat preparation, further argue against the effects upon nerve as being of a thermal nature.
1954: Lehmann and Biegler explore biophysical events, in response to ultrasound exposure, occurring at, or otherwise involve, the ubiquitous biological membrane; mechanical events are attributed to a stirring effect depleting concentration gradients at the membrane surface and thermal events are attributed to affects on electric charges on membrane proteins.
1954: Musgrave begins publication of a series of studies on elastic wave propagation in bulk crystals.
1950s: Zarembo and Krasil’nikov experiment with nonlinear acoustics in solids.
1954: H. Bömmel and, independently, L. Mackinnon observe effect of superconductivity on ultrasonic attenuation. Results in accord with BCS theory.
1955 (circa): R. K. Cook uses infrasound to detect California surf at the Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC.
1955: Fry, Bernard, Fry, Krumins and Brennan show the kinds of localized effects that can be produced selectively in gray and white matter of cat brain in vivo when more sophisticated radiation techniques (focusing) are employed.
1955: K. Yosioka and Y. Kawasima analyze the long wavelength radiation force on compressible spheres opening up a wider range of applications of radiation pressure.
1956: A.V. Granato and K. Lücke, vibrating string model of dislocation damping in solids.
1956: Fry and Dunn show that precision data can be obtained with a suitable biological preparation.
1956: Biotís theory on a porous medium.
1956: Hueter, Ballantine and Cotter conclude, after a detailed study of dosage factors, that the mechanism(s) of cell destruction is a temperature-dependent mechanical effect originating at weak points in the tissue.
1956-59: W. G. Proctor, W. H. Tantilla, D. I. Bolef, M. Menes, experimental observation of interaction between nuclear spins and ultrasonic waves.
1957-59: K. N. Baranskii, H. E. Bömmel, E. H. Jacobsen, generation of microwave frequency in solids.
1956-60: H. E. Bömmel, R. W. Morse, and others find oscillatory magnetic field effects for ultrasonic attenuation in metals at low temperatures. Effects became an important method to study Fermi surfaces in metals.
1958: A. T. deHoop, Representation theorems for the displacement in an elastic solid and their application to elastodynamic diffraction theory. Doctoral Dissertation. Delft: Delft Technological University. The thesis shows how to form an integral equation for two- dimensional diffraction from a semi-infinite stress-free slit embedded in a infinite elastic space.
1958: Fry, Ades and Fry report the first demonstration of reversible functional changes in an in vivo preparation, viz., the lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat brain, was irradiated ultrasonically while cortical potentials, evoked by light flash, were monitored.
1959: Weissler reports first quantitative analysis of oxidation of iodide in water during ultrasonic irradiation.
1959: Carstensen and Schwan show that a small contribution to absorption in blood arises from viscous interaction between the intact cells and their environment. They also show that the absorption per wavelength and the velocity dispersion of hemoglobin solutions can be related through relaxation theory by assuming a broad distribution of relaxation times.
1959: Wiener and Keast observe refractive shadow zones for propagation near the ground.
1959: Maluyzhinets derives parabolic equation for acoustic beams.
1959-61: E. H. Jacobsen, E. B. Tucker, M. E. Browne, W. I. Dobrov, the interaction between electron spins and phonons observed.
1959-62: Zverev and Kalachev develop transmitters and receivers based on nonlinear sound- sound interaction (in USA-parametric antennas) (done in parallel with Westervelt in USA but declassified and published later in 1970).
1960: Dyer and Nyborg describe studies in which a localized divergent sound source is brought into contact with the cell wall and suggest that intracellular motions are related to acoustic streaming and can be explained in terms of acoustic streaming theory.
1961: Viktorov publishes monograph describing his extensive studies of Rayleigh and Lamb waves.
1961: Dunn and Fry measure the absorption and reflection of excised lung.
1961: S. A. Alíschuler, B. I. Kochelaev, A. M. Leushin, a more complete theory of interaction of ultrasonic waves and nuclear spins.
1961-62: Hutson and White provide theory of elastic wave propagation in piezoelectric semiconductors and, along with McFee, later describe ultrasonic amplification in CdS.
1961-67: T. O. Woodruff, H. Ehrenreich, H. Maris, P.G. Klemens develop a more complete theory of interaction of ultrasonic waves with thermal phonons.
1962: Dunn obtains evidence that the absorption coefficient, in vivo, increases with increasing temperature of the specimen.
1962: Hughes and Nyborg show that collapse-type cavitation is not a necessary condition for ultrasound to damage cells in suspension and macromolecules in solution; they speculate that such damage may “result from the shearing action associated with bubble-induced eddying and relative motions.”
1963: Tiersten publishes studies on thickness vibrations and wave propagation of piezoelectric plates.
1963: Westervelt publishes theory of the parametric array.
1963: Hawley, Macleod, and Dunn degrade DNA by backbone scission in aqueous solution in the absence of cavitation and suggest that the mechanism is relative motion between the solvent and the more dense molecule.
1964: Hawley and Dunn, using rotifers and ultrasound frequencies of 270 and 510 MHz and very low amplitude, show that biological effects are produced in the absence of cavitation and thermal processes.
1964: L. E. Hargrove, R. L. Fork, and M. A. Pollack introduce acousto-optic mode locking of lasers.
1965: Publication of a transducer technique that needs no physical contact or any coupling medium for transmission and reception of ultrasound in non-magnetic metals.
1965: Hrazdira examined the question of whether cellular damage (in suspension) was directly on the cell or indirectly by affecting the suspending medium.
1965: Shapiro and Rudnick observe fourth sound in superfluid saturated porous media.
1965: White and Voltmer invent the interdigital transducer for generation of surface acoustic waves.
1966: Pritchard, Hughes and Peacocke subject a solution of DNA to “stable cavitation” and, by applying the theory of acoustic streaming, the velocity gradient in the neighborhood of the bubble is calculated and a relationship between the number of breaks in the molecule and the calculated velocity gradient is obtained.
1966: Wilson, Wiercinski, Nyborg, Schnitzler and Sichel apply a special case of Embleton’s theory of the mean force acting on a rigid sphere to explain the attraction phenomenon of intracellular particles toward a vibrating needle source.
1967: Greenspan and Tschiegg measure tensile strength of water.
1967: Marsh first to develop Fast Fourier Program for underwater propagation through layered media.
1968: Nyborg details the biophysical action of a single bubble vibrating under the influence of an ultrasonic field.
1968: Macleod and Dunn conclude that the ultrasonic denaturation of enzymes (molecular weight approximately 60,000) in solution occurs only in the presence of cavitation.
1968: McAllister invents the acoustic atmospheric sounding (sodar).
1969: Pickar and Adkins observe third sound in atomically-thin films of superfluid helium.
1969: P. C. Waterman introduces the T-matrix formulation of acoustic scattering.
1969: Hawley and Dunn show that beyond a molecular weight corresponding to approximately 100; monomer units of random coil polymers in solution, ultrasonic absorption becomes independent of molecular size.
1969: Khokhlov and Zabolotskaya develop the model equation for nonlinear acoustic beams.
1969: Kojima and Rudnick use Doppler shift to measure the decay time of superfluid persistent currents.
1969: Joe Piercy defines the role of nitrogen molecular relaxation in atmospheric absorption.
1970: Delaney and Bazley develop a pioneering empirical model for the acoustic impedance of porous materials that was widely used for evaluation of sound propagation over an absorbing ground plane.
1970: Rooney demonstrated “single-bubble hemolysis;” i.e., hemolysis produced by micro- streaming near a single vibrating bubble.
1970: Farnell describes the propagation of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in crystals and demonstrates that no forbidden directions exist, work that is later important for the development of SAW devices.
1970: Fry, Kossoff, Eggleton and Dunn show that threshold for irreversible structural changes produced by focused ultrasound, in vivo, have only a very small dependence upon frequency in the low-megahertz range (includes data from Lele and Pond).
1970: Williams, Hughes and Nyborg, inspired by the Rooney findings (1970), develop a system employing a transversely oscillating wire to determine the critical shear stress of hemolysis.
1970: Ravitz and Schnitzler show that irreversible changes can occur in tissue in the absence of heat and transient cavitation.
1970: Robert Apfel experimentally measures the homogeneous nucleation threshold (tensile strength) of liquids.
1970: Clarke and Hill discovered the rotation effect:” when a cell suspension in a test tube is exposed to a beam of ultrasound, effects on the cells (attributed to cavitation activity) are greatly increased if the tube is rotated slowly about its axis.
1971: Coakley, Hampton and Dunn demonstrate a strong correlation between ultrasonically produced cavitation evens and cell survival, though the data do not rule out a non-cavitational contribution to cell death.
1971: Zabolotskaya, Khokhlov, and Kuznetsov develop the equation for nonlinear acoustic beams with dissipation, now called the KZK equation.
1971: Pauly and Schwan find that approximately two-thirds of the total absorption in liver arises at the macromolecular level.
1971: Coakley and Dunn show that transient cavitation will degrade DNA in solution but, at ultrasonic amplitudes where transient cavitation is not detectable, greater denaturation of the molecule occurs.
1971: H. H. Demarest and O. L. Anderson make breakthrough advances leading to Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy.
1972: Ostrovsky, Soustova, and Sutin develop parametric generators of sound in a resonator with water; later, in a metallic resonator, 1978.
1972: Farnell and Adler publish extensive study of surface acoustic waves in layered crystalline half-spaces.
1974: Lemons and Quate invent the modern scanning acoustic microscope, first suggested by Sokolov in the 1940s.
1974: Dyson, Pond, Woodward, and Broadbent announce their production of blood flow stasis as a clear demonstration of what might be a pure mechanical effect, without contribution from thermal or cavitation processes.
1974: R. A. Lemons and C. F. Quate introduce high-frequency scanning acoustic microscopy.
1976: I. Ohno publishes a major paper on the vibrational frequencies of rectangular parallelepipeds.
1977: Achenbach, J. D. and Gautesen, A. “Geometrical theory of diffraction for 3D elastodynamics.” The solution to a plane wave striking a semi-infinite stress-free slit, at an arbitrary angle is given. The solution involves one of the earliest splittings of a matrix Wiener-Hopf kernel. The solution to this canonical problem allowed the widespread use of the geometrical theory of diffraction to elastic-wave problems.
1977: T. G. Wang, H. Kanber, and I. Rudnick study the torques on cylinders in intense sound fields.
1978: Exploration of the claimed effects of intense ultrasound on the plastic deformation dynamics of metals (aborted the dislocation resonance concept).
1978: Daigle, Piercy, and Embleton observe turbulence-induced decorrelation of direct and ground-reflected sound energy outdoors.
1978: Rudnick uses 3rd sound to verify Kosterlitz Universality in 2-D phase transitions.
1978: Flax, Dragonette, Uberall, and Gaunaurd analyze the scattering by elastic objects in water using resonances.
1979: J. D. Maynard, G. A. Williams, S. J. Putterman, and I. Rudnick discover Fifth sound in superfluid helium.
1979: Marston and Apfel publish the excitation of capillary modes of levitated drops using modulated radiation pressure.
1980: Crum measures the growth of bubbles by rectified diffusion.
1980: N. Rott publishes his theory of thermoacoustics.
1980: Muir and Carstensen discuss importance of nonlinear effects in tissue.
1981: Plona measures the slow compressional wave.
1982: P. Riesz finds evidence for radicals production in an ultrasound field.
1982: Determination of human threshold of hearing and of equal loudness curves for free field airborne ultrasound (Basis for International Standard IEC 61012).
1982: Kojima and Wheatley observe superfluidity in 3He using 4th sound.
1983: Patent on first thermoacoustic refrigerator issued to Wheatley, Swift and Migliori.
1983: Raspet, et al adopt the FFP program to propagation in a layered atmosphere over an impedance plane.
1983: Full understanding of wave interaction with ground surface evolves from several investigators including Attennborough, Bass, Raspet, Lee, Hayek, etc.
1983: J. D. Maynard and E. G. Williams patent Nearfield Acoustic Holography.
1984: H.E. Bass, L.C. Sutherland, J. Piercy and L. Evans publish the detailed theory of sound absorption supported by an extensive review of available laboratory and field measurements.
1984: Wang flies on Shuttle STS-24 to conduct acoustic levitation experiment (1st ASA member in space).
1984: Junru Wu, Robert Keolian and Isadore Rudnick observed “nonpropagating hydrodynamic solitons.”
1986: Suslick publishes first determination of temperature during sonochemical reaction.
1988: Discovery of stable single-bubble sonoluminescence by Felipe Gaitan.
1988: Moldover et al. at NIST use a spherical, argon-filled acoustic resonator to re-determine the universal gas constant R with a standard uncertainty of 1.7; parts per million. CODATA recommends their result in 1998.
1988: Marston gives a geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) for elastic wave contributions to the scattering by smooth elastic objects in water.
1989: Holland and Apfel propose an index to gauge the likelihood of cavitation. It is adopted as the Mechanical Index by the FDA and all commercial clinical ultrasound scanners are required to display it.
1989: White and Gilbert introduce numerical solution of the parabolic equation to atmospheric acoustics.
1989: K.W. Commander and A. Prosperetti publish “Linear pressure waves in bubbly liquids: Comparison between theory and experiments.”
1990: Suslick and Grinstaff report sonochemical preparation of protein microspheres, a synthesis of ultrasonic echo contrast agents.
1991: E. Flint and K. Suslick determine the temperature inside a cavitation bubble.
1999: Moldover et al at NIST combine acoustic and microwave resonances to measure the errors of the International Temperature Scale of 1990 from 217K to 303K with a relative standard uncertainty of 2.5×10^-6.
1991: Putterman and Barber observe picosecond flashes from stable single-bubble sonoluminescence.
1996: McCall and Guyer publish the first paper on the Preisach-Mayergoyz model of hysteretic elastic nonlinearity.
1996: Based on experimental findings of Holt and Gaitan (1996), Lohse and Hilgenfeldt predict that dissociation of diatomic species is occurring in single bubble sonoluminescence. The hypothesis is later proved by Matula and Crum (1998), Ketterling and Apfel (1998), and quantified by Didenko and Suslick (2002).
1996: TenCate and Shankland publish first observations of “slow dynamics” in complex materials.
1997: Field, Johnson, Beresnev, and Zeng prove that elastic nonlinear behavior takes place in strong ground motion.
1997: Development of acoustic compressor and achieving macrosonic pressures in air in shaped resonators.
1999: Backhaus and Swift publish thermoacoustic-Stirling engine.
2002: Taleyarkhan et al. report in Science evidence of nuclear emissions during acoustic cavitation in deuterated liquids. To date, unconfirmed.