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 61

Scan 61

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.

1Why is deal preferred for the construction of musical instruments to any other description of wood? The nature of deal, its feeble density, and, above all, its elasticity, causes it to be preferred to any other substance. Its resistance to flexion is greater than that of any other wood, and also than a great number of other substances, even metallic; it is equal to that of glass and steel. Thus, with a very feeble mass, we possess in deal, a substance having elasticity as great as that of glass or steel.
3Sound is propagated in deal with the same velocity as in these substances. If we take three rods of glass, steel, and deal, cut in the direction of the fibres, all three having the same dimensions, and cause them to vibrate longitudinally or transversely, so as to produce the same nodal division in each, we shall see that the sounds given by the three sensibly approximate. Thus, the velocity of sound in deal is as great as in glass, or steel, or as great as in any solid substance. The deal then offers the incontestable advantage of presenting a large surface with little mass, and possesses a great elasticity. A violin with tables of glass or steel, would be worth nothing, on account of its great mass, and the difficulty that would be experienced in causing it to vibrate. Violins have been constructed in glass, steel, brass, silver, &c. The sounds of such instruments were always found to be feeble and bad. In maple, the propagation of sound is much less rapid than in deal; it varies between 10 and 12 in the direction of the fibres, that in air being 1. Perpendicularly (to the fibres) it is between 4 and 5. In deal, the rapidity of propagation

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