Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 42

Scan 42

The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871

4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.

1slabways, with the grain running from side to side, parallel to the centre of the tree, and those made, too, by Magini, as well as several of the Amati family, but let us take into due consideration their properties, fine, mellow, and silvery tone, but of no great power or intensity; and a few years afterwards, we find the illustrious Stradivarius changing his method of working, by cutting the backs and sides with the grain vertical, the plate of wood being a section cut from the centre to the outside of the tree, with the woody fibre running in straight lines from end to end, as seen on the surface. We find his violins thus changed in quality, still possessing their former ethereal purity and sweetness of tone, but now having also the required brilliancy and intensity of sound, which seems to penetrate into every corner of the largest music-hall. Such are the valuable acquisitions which the violins of Stradivarius possess—power along with brilliancy of tone.
3When the air is put into a state of sonorous vibration by any means, as by a note sounded on the violin, by drawing the bow across a string, a series of concussions are produced causing vibration of the string, which accumulate at the part resting on the bridge, these become transmuted, sending down vibrations through the bridge to the surface of the violin, thence slightly through the sound post, and more so through the sides, which, acting like so many tuning forks, transmit them to the back, and the whole body of air within increases the sound, by taking up the simultaneous vibrations; thus the original note is thereby strengthened in intensity. As subsequently stated we find in the best instru-

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