Who Discovered Ultrasonic Sound?

Who discovered ultrasonic sound? One of the earliest people on record who used ultrasonic sound was a man named Paul Langevin. So, was Langevin the one who discovered ultrasonic sound?  Perhaps, but there were some others who made important contributions as well.

Ultrasonic sound is actually sound waves that resonate at a higher frequency than the human ear can detect.  Ultrasonic sound, also known as ultrasound technology, is well known today by anyone who has seen an ultrasound image of an unborn baby, or who is familiar with a dog whistle or sonar detection of ships and objects underwater. 

So, who discovered ultrasonic sound?  Most people credit the first use of ultrasonic waves to a Frenchman named Langevin, who in 1917 created a device that could be used to detect submarines underwater by bouncing a high frequency sound wave off of their hulls and reading the echos as the sound waves bounced back. This early invention was the reason why Langevin is widely believed to be the person who discovered ultrasonic sounds.

Other Developments to Ultrasonic Sound

Although widely viewed as the person that invented ultrasonic sound, Langevin was not the developer of the modern ultrasound, by any stretch of the imagination, as the technology that he used in his experiments was nowhere near the complexity or accuracy of today’s ultrasound technology. 

Further developments in ultrasonic sound technology came during the 1920s, when a Russian scientist named Sergei Sokolov proposed a technique for measuring the hardness of, and looking for imperfections in, metals by using ultrasonic technology.  Even then, his experiments were mainly theoretical, as the technology did not exist to actually carry them out in any usable fashion.

Refinements to Ultrasonic Sound

In the 1940s, Floyd Firestone in America, Donald Sproule in England, and Adolf Trost in Germany all worked separately on developing and refining ultrasonic technology for communication as well as for detection of submarines and other military aspects. As such, each of these people deserve a mention when talking about the inventors of ultrasonic sound.

One such experiment done to refine ultrasonic sound showed the ability of ultrasonic waves to destroy the brain tissue of living organisms, so it was being tested even then as a weapon as well as for other uses.  It was not until the development of new ceramic conduction materials and other leaps forward in the 1950s that the ultrasound technology could move forward.

In the years since the earliest inklings that there were waves of sound that existed outside the spectrum that human beings were capable of hearing, there have been a number of developments and great and small leaps forward that have led us to the world we live in today, where sonar can detect underwater shipwrecks, where animals can use ultrasonic waves to navigate their movements and a new mother can see the face of her baby in three dimensional precision before he or she is even born.  The modest work of a few scientists such as Langevin, Sokolov, and others have led us to this point, and we are forever indebted to them for being among the people who invented ultrasonic sound.