Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 82
Scan 82
The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1two tables when vibrating independently, they always vibrate synchronously when united. The limit is a very narrow one when anything more or less than a tone destroys their power of vibrating in unison. It appears certain that the sounds of a Violin proceed principally from the mass of air contained in the instrument, as no sounds of so great an intensity could be produced from vibrating plates equal in area to the tables of a violin, while there are other musical instruments whose sounds we know are produced by aerial vibrations, which, although containing a mass of air much less than that of a violin, produce sounds of equal intensity, such, for instance, as the flute, clarionet, or the reed pipe of an organ. The last is a very instructive example, and may tend to an explanation of the point in question. A reed pipe consists of a free reed in communication with a column of air above it. Now, it is not absolutely necessary that the free reed should be perfectly in unison with the mass of air above, within certain limits they will accommodate themselves the one to the other; but one remarkable fact is to be noticed, viz., the stiffer the reed the greater power it will have in forcing the air above to vibrate in unison with it. This appears to be the rôle of the tables of a violin, that is to force the vibrations of the air to accommodate themselves to the vibrations of the tables, and the ratios given by Savart as existing between the back, belly, and contained mass of air in the good violins he experimented upon, are no doubt such as to give the two tables sufficient stiffness to bring the mass of air into complete subjection. If this stiffness be decreased the air will have a ten-
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