ABSTRACT
First became clearly identified as a distinct branch of physics in the seventeenth century. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) proposed that the “Acoustique Art” should embrace both the investigation of the nature and causes of sound (speculative natural philosophy) and the practical harnessing of its effects (operative natural magic). The broad program of experimental inquiry he sketched out in the New Atlantis (1627) and Sylva sylvarum (1627) proved a compelling model for later natural philosophers. In England the first documented use of the term “acoustics” was by Narcissus Marsh in 1684, while in France Joseph Sauveur (1653-1716) first proposed a new science of acoustique in 1701.
