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half as long as the tube, the second harmonic by waves a third as long, and so on. The harmonic segments in an open and shut pipe are the same in number, but differently placed. In a shut pipe the two ends are nodes, but in an open pipe there is half a segment at each extremity, because the air at these points is neither rarefied nor condensed, being in contact with that which is external. If one of the ends of the open pipe be closed, its fundamental note will be an octave lower: the air will now divide itself into three, five, seven, &c., segments; and the wave producing its fundamental note will be twice as long as the pipe, so that it will be doubled back (N. 182). All these notes may be produced separately by varying the intensity of the blast. Blowing steadily and gently, the fundamental note will sound; when the force of the blast is increased the note will all at once start up an octave; when the intensity of the wind is augmented the twelfth will be heard; and, by continuing to increase the force of the blast, the other harmonics may be obtained, but no force of wind will produce a note intermediate between these. The harmonics of a flute may be obtained in this manner, from the lowest C or D upwards, without altering the fingering, merely by increasing the intensity of the blast and altering the form of the lips. Pipes of the same dimensions, whether of lead, glass, or wood, give the same tone as to pitch under the same circumstances, which shows that the air alone produces the sound.

Metal springs fastened at one end, when forcibly bent, endeavour to return to rest by a series of vibrations, which give very pleasing tones, as in musical boxes. Various musical instruments have been constructed, consisting of metallic springs thrown into vibration by a current of air. Among the most perfect of these are Mr. Wheatstone's Symphonion, Concertina, and Æolian Organ, instruments of different effects and capabilities, but all possessing considerable execution and expression.

The Syren is an ingenious instrument, devised by M. Cagniard de la Tour, for ascertaining the number of pulsations in a second, corresponding to each pitch: the notes are produced by jets of air passing through small apertures, arranged at regular distances in a circle on the side of a box, before which a disc revolves pierced with the same number of holes. During a revolution of the disc the currents are alternately intercepted and allowed to

pass as many times as there are apertures in it, and a sound is produced whose pitch depends on the velocity of rotation.

A glass or metallic rod, when struck at one end, or rubbed in the direction of its length with a wet finger, vibrates longitudinally, like a column of air, by the alternate condensation and expansion of its constituent particles, producing a clear and beautiful musical note of a high pitch, on account of the rapidity with which these substances transmit sound. Rods, surfaces, and, in general, all undulating bodies, resolve themselves into nodes. But in surfaces the parts which remain at rest during their vibrations are lines which are curved or plane according to the substance, its form, and the mode of vibration. If a little fine dry sand be strewed over the surface of a plate of glass or metal, and if undulations be excited by drawing the bow of a violin across its edge, it will emit a musical sound, and the sand will immediately arrange itself in the nodal lines, where alone it will accumulate and remain at rest, because the segments of the surface on each side will be in different states of vibration, the one being elevated while the other is depressed; and, as these two motions meet in the nodal lines, they neutralise one another. These lines vary in form and position with the part where the bow is drawn across, and the point by which the plate is held. The motion of the sand shows in what direction the vibrations take place. If they be perpendicular to the surface, the sand will be violently tossed up and down till it finds the points of rest. If they be tangential, the sand will only creep along the surface to the nodal lines. Sometimes the undulations are oblique, or compounded of both the preceding. If a bow be drawn across one of the angles of a square plate of glass or metal held firmly by the centre, the sand will arrange itself in two straight lines parallel to the sides of the plate, and crossing in the centre so as to divide it into four equal squares, whose motions will be contrary to each other. Two of the diagonal squares will make their excursions on one side of the plate, while the other two make their vibrations on the other side of it. This mode of vibration produces the lowest tone of the plate (N. 183). If the plate be still held by the centre, and the bow applied to the middle of one of the sides, the vibrations will be more rapid, and the tone will be a fifth higher than in the preceding case: now the sand will arrange itself from corner to corner, and will

divide the plate into four equal triangles, each pair of which will make their excursions on opposite sides of the plate. The nodal lines and pitch vary not only with the point where the bow is applied, but with the point by which the plate is held, which being at rest necessarily determines the direction of one of the quiescent lines. The forms assumed by the sand in square plates are very numerous, corresponding to all the various modes of vibration. The lines in circular plates are even more remarkable for their symmetry, and upon them the forms assumed by the sand may be classed in three systems. The first is the diametrical system, in which the figures consist of diameters dividing the circumference of the plate into equal parts, each of which is in a different state of vibration from those adjacent. Two diameters, for example, crossing at right angles, divide the circumference into four equal parts; three diameters divide it into six equal parts; four divide it into eight, and so on. In a metallic plate, these divisions may amount to thirty-six or forty. The next is the concentric system, where the sand arranges itself in circles, having the same centre with the plate; and the third is the compound system, where the figures assumed by the sand are compounded of the other two, producing very complicated and beautiful forms. Galileo seems to have been the first to notice the points of rest and motion in the sounding-board of a musical instrument; but to Chladni is due the whole discovery of the symmetrical forms of the nodal lines in vibrating plates (N. 184). Professor Wheatstone has shown, in a paper read before the Royal Society in 1833, that all Chladni's figures, and indeed all the nodal figures of vibrating surfaces, result from very simple modes of vibration oscillating isochronously, and superposed upon each other; the resulting figure varying with the component modes of vibration, the number of the superpositions, and the angles at which they are superposed. For example, if a square plate be vibrating so as to make the sand arrange itself in straight lines parallel to one side of the plate, and if, in addition to this, such vibrations be excited as would have caused the sand to form in lines perpendicular to the first had the plate been at rest, the combined vibrations will make the sand form in lines from corner to corner (N. 185).

M. Savart's experiments on the vibrations of flat glass rulers are highly interesting. Let a lamina of glass 27in.56 long, 0.59

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of an inch broad, and 0·06 of an inch in thickness, be held by the edges in the middle, with its flat surface horizontal. If this surface be strewed with sand, and set in longitudinal vibration by rubbing its under surface with a wet cloth, the sand on the upper surface will arrange itself in lines parallel to the ends of the lamina, always in one or other of two systems (N. 186). Although the same one of the two systems will always be produced by the same plate of glass, yet among different plates of the preceding dimensions, even though cut from the same sheet side by side, one will invariably exhibit one system, and the other the other, without any visible reason for the difference. Now, if the positions of these quiescent lines be marked on the upper surface, and if the plate be turned so that the lower surface becomes the upper one, the sand being strewed, and vibrations excited as before, the nodal lines will still be parallel to the ends of the lamina, but their positions will be intermediate between those of the upper surface (N. 187). Thus it appears that all the motions of one half of the thickness of the lamina, or ruler, are exactly contrary to those of the corresponding points of the other half. If the thickness of the lamina be increased, the other dimensions remaining the same, the sound will not vary, but the number of nodal lines will be less. When the breadth of the lamina exceeds the 0.6 of an inch, the nodal lines become curved, and are different on the two surfaces. A great variety of forms are produced by increasing the breadth and changingthe form of the surface; but in all it appears that the motions in one half of the thickness are opposed to those in the other half.

M. Savart also found, by placing small paper rings round a cylindrical tube or rod, so as to rest upon it at one point only, that, when the tube or rod is continually turned on its axis in the same direction, the rings slide along during the vibrations, till they come to a quiescent point, where they rest. By tracing these nodal lines he discovered that they twist in a spiral or corkscrew round rods and cylinders, making one or more turns according to the length; but at certain points, varying in number according to the mode of vibration of the rod, the screw stops, and recommences on the other side, though it is turned in a contrary direction; that is, on one side it is a right-handed screw, on the other a left (N. 188). The nodal lines in the

interior surface of the tube are perfectly similar to those in the exterior, but they occupy intermediate positions. If a small ivory ball be put within the tube, it will follow these nodal lines when the tube is made to revolve on its axis.

All solids which ring when struck, such as bells, drinking glasses, gongs, &c., have their shape momentarily and forcibly changed by the blow, and from their elasticity, or tendency to resume their natural form, a series of undulations take place, owing to the alternate condensations and rarefactions of the particles of solid matter. These have also their harmonic tones, and consequently nodes. Indeed, generally, when a rigid system of any form whatever vibrates either transversely or longitudinally, it divides itself into a certain number of parts which perform their vibrations without disturbing one another. These parts are at every instant in alternate states of undulation; and, as the points or lines where they join partake of both, they remain at rest, because the opposing motions destroy one another.

The air, notwithstanding its rarity, is capable of transmitting its undulations when in contact with a body susceptible of admitting and exciting them. It is thus that sympathetic undulations are excited by a body vibrating near insulated tended strings, capable of following its undulations, either by vibrating entire, or by separating themselves into their harmonic divisions. If two chords equally stretched, of which one is twice or three times longer than the other, be placed side by side, and if the shorter be sounded, its vibrations will be communicated by the air to the other, which will be thrown into such a state of vibration that it will be spontaneously divided into segments equal in length to the shorter string. When a tuning-fork receives a blow and is made to rest upon a piano-forte during its vibration, every string which, either by its natural length or by its spontaneous subdivisions, is capable of executing corresponding vibrations, responds in a sympathetic note. The same effect will be produced by the stroke of a bell near a piano or harp. Some one or other of the notes of an organ are generally in unison with one of the panes or with the whole sash of a window, which consequently resounds when those notes are sounded. A peal of thunder has frequently the same effect. The sound of very large organ-pipes is generally inaudible till the air be set in

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