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 45

Scan 45

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.

1these instruments, say answering to C (512), is applied to the ear, and the other ear closed, then if the air contained in the violin thus to be experimented upon gives C, we have merely to blow with the mouth over one of the f holes, when the resonant sound will strike loudly upon the ear wherein we have placed the instrument. By having a scale of those tubes, we can easily ascertain what tone the air in our violin will give; they are sold under the name of "Helmholtz's Resonators."
3In the instruments of the ancient masters, it is surprising how carefully every element of the instrument had been studied, from which arose their vast superiority. In reference to the breast of the violin, I shall detail the following experiment, which will be found worthy of the amateur's notice. Having procured a piece of well seasoned and sonorous pine, a breast was formed out of it in the usual manner, adopting the plan of thickness according to the method used by Stradivarius. This plate, when thus finished—the f holes not as yet being cut—gave the note C. Subsequently the f holes were cut of the usual size and pattern, when the sound was found to be lowered a tone, being now B. A bass-bar having afterwards been glued on of a somewhat larger size than commonly employed, the plate gave the note D, but the bar having been reduced to its proper dimensions, the sound was lowered, and now the breast gave the same tone as originally, viz., C. We can now easily perceive that the bar perfectly compensates for the difference of tone arising from the cutting of the f holes, but at the same time we can raise or lower the tone very considerably, by altering

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