Books › On the Function of the Sound-Post and on the Proportional Thickness of the Strings of the Violin, 1883 › scan 6
Scan 6
On the Function of the Sound-Post and on the Proportional Thickness of the Strings of the Violin, 1883
25 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1the 4th string side. This bar is regarded as strengthening the belly, and also enabling it to respond better to the lower notes. The touch-rod showed no difference in the general behaviour of this violin, from a fine one by Stradiuarius containing a bass bar.*
3On the Proportional Thickness of the Strings.
5As the lengths of the strings are the same, we have only the two conditions of weight and tension on which their pitch depends. It is obvious that for equal pressure on the feet of the bridge, as well as for more convenient fingering and bowing, the strings should be at the same tension. They should, therefore, differ in weight, so as to give fifths when brought to the same tension. The weights of the strings must be inversely as the squares of the number of vibrations, which, in the case of fifths, is as 3 to 2, namely, as 9 to 4. As the first three strings are of the same material, it is more convenient to take their diameters, which must be as 3 to 2, that is, each string in advancing from the 1st string must be half as thick again as the string next to it. In the case of the 4th string covered with wire, we must find the weight of the 3rd string of gut, and take a 4th string of which the weight is 9 to 4 for the 3rd string.
7A good average thickness of 2nd (A) string is 0·0355 inch. Then the strings should be—
91st = 0·0237
102nd = 0·0355
113rd = 0·0532
13A gut string 0·0532 inch in diameter weighs, when of the same length as a 4th string, 0·98 grm., then the 4th = 2·20 grms.
15Ruffini sells sets of strings in sealed boxes, and these were found to be in about the same relative proportion to each other as the sizes indicated on the gauges sold by several makers.
17The measures of a set of Ruffini's strings were found to be—
191st = 0·0265 inch.
202nd = 0·0355 ,
213rd = 0·0460 ,
224th = 1·4100 grm.
24* In the "Early History of the Violin Family," Engel, speaking of the Crwth, says:—"Furthermore, the contrivance of placing one foot of the bridge through the sound-hole, in order to cause the pressure of the strings to be resisted by the back of the instrument, instead of by the belly, is not so extraordinary and peculiar to the Crwth as most writers on Welsh music maintain. It may be seen on certain Oriental instruments of the fiddle kind which are not provided with a sound-post. For instance, the bridge is thus placed on the three-stringed fiddle of the modern Greek, which is only a variety of the ordinary rabáb, but which the Greeks call lyra. Inappropriate as the latter designation may appear, it is suggestive, inasmuch as it points to the ancient lyra as the progenitor of the fiddle."—P. 28.
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