Résumé
A discrete nonlinear system driven at one bend by a periodic excitation of frequency above the upper band edge (the "discreteness induced cut-off") is shown to be a means to (1) generate propagating breather excitations in a long chain, (2) reveal the bistable property of a short chain. After detailed numerical verifications, the bistability prediction is demonstrated experimentally on an electrical transmission line made of 18 inductance-capacitance (LC) celles. The numerical simulations of the LC-line model allow us also to verify the breather generation prediction with a striking accuracy.