Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 129
Scan 129
The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871
8 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1A violin always yields some tones more brilliantly than others. Savart imagined that this might be owing to the curved form of the surface, some of it being non-vibrating, or that the sound-post happened to be placed at a nodal or quiescent point during some tones; but as the f holes in Savart's violin, as we shall presently see, were cut straight and rendered easy of vibration, he placed the sound-post near to one of them, that it might thus be the means (as was supposed) of conveying powerful vibrations from the breast to the back of the instrument.
3By pasting a slip of thin paper over one of the f holes, the sound is much enfeebled, we may therefore conclude that part of their purpose is to establish a communication between the external air and the internal air vibrating in the body of the instrument. Savart, at the time of these experiments, saw no reason for the f holes being fantastically curved, as a greater number of fibres were cut than if the holes were straight, so he adopted this latter method in his violin. Subsequent to this, however, he clearly perceived why the f holes were curved in the instruments of the old masters, for the more we may deviate from that form the worse the instrument becomes.
5The bass-bar claimed his attention also, for by its being placed under the internal surface of one side of the breast, it thus apparently maintained an unequal elasticity in both sides, so, to equalise this, he placed his bar exactly in the centre, running down the thickest part of the breast.
7He now directed his attention to the shape of the
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