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Scan 272
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 258. See the scan on archive.org.
1course, the gradations from centre to circumference have to be very exactly calculated. These are the points where the genius of the artist is chiefly displayed, and which no theory can teach definitely for every case.
3The following experiments were also made by the same scientist, aided by Vuillaume. Of the fragments of several violins by Stradivari, pieces were taken from the woods of the backs and bellies, and cut parallel to the fibres of about the following dimensions, viz., 7 1/8 in. long, by 3/4 in. broad and about 1/10 in. thick. They were sprinkled with fine sand, and caused to vibrate by the action upon them of a violin bow. The sand immediately separated into two parallel lines at the sides, proving that the whole of each slip was in full vibration. The first of these, a piece of well-curled maple, taken from an instrument made by Stradivari in 1717, yielded the note A sharp (la, dièse). A second piece of maple from another violin of the same master, made in 1708, gave the same note. Then pieces representing the belly were taken. The first of these was a piece of pine from a Stradivari of 1724; the second, also of pine, from a Strad. of 1690; and a third piece of pine from a violin by the same maker, dated 1730. These three bits of pine all gave the note F (fa). Those notes, A sharp and F, were not what we now call by the same names, the pitch having risen considerably, but that has nothing to do with the experiments, which simply proved the extraordinary precision and accuracy which Stradivari displayed in the choice and handling of his wood, and also yielded evidence of an almost irrefragable kind,
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