4. Pioneering French Sonochemistry

4.1 History of sonochemistry

Sonochemistry is based on essential earlier discoveries, such as Lazzaro Spallanzani's discovery in 1794 of how bats move, Francis Galton's design in 1883 of the ultrasonic whistle, which emitted an (ultra)sound to which only dogs reacted, and Jacques and Pierre Curie's discovery of piezoelectricity, enabling ultrasound to be produced in water. The Second World War brought the first industrial use of ultrasound for submarine echolocation. In the 1950s, ultrasound was also developed for cleaning applications in heavy industry, medical instruments, textiles and the food industry.