German physicist known as the father of acoustics. He set plates covered with a thin layer of sand vibrating and observed nodal lines. He calculated the velocity of sound by filling an organ pipe with different gases and listening to the frequency. In his investigations, he showed that the obliquity of fibers in the Scotch fir made the speed of sound 20% lower in the cross direction.

He was also a meteorite enthusiast. He wrote a book on the subject and assembled his own collection. He was one of the first people to claim that meteorites fell from the sky.

Additional biographies: Bonn