Books › The violin, how to make it, 1880 › scan 31
Scan 31
The violin, how to make it, 1880
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 25. See the scan on archive.org.
1blade of an oar is thinned away and a flexibility given it to damp the jar of its stroke. The floor of a room weighted with furniture does not vibrate as when devoid of weight, the sound of the foot is fuller in it, music in the room has a steadier quality than when it is empty, and thus we can reason that this graduated thickness of wood in the Violin prevents an uncertainty and shivering, under the variety of forms of vibration which course through it — it steadies the tone — therefore we can work with this aim in view and rely on our touch and ear, without dependence upon the callipers of another man. We would thus discover how our wood attains a well-balanced sonority. Then we have to consider how the parts have to be related to each other. The belly is connected with the back by the sides, through which the vibrations pass, and then both back and belly simultaneously excite the resonance of the enclosed body of air. Any amateur can easily prove by experiment that a smooth interior surface aids much in the clearness of sound from a pipe or cavity, for a ragged or spongy interior influences the tone emitted — it makes it dingy and foggy.
3A story is told of an American who once observed that a Violin accidentally injured was much improved after repairs, and better than it had been in its original condition. He attributed this in a great measure to the amount of surface covered with glue, and, acting on the impulse of the moment, he determined on making an instrument entirely of glue. The Violin thus fashioned proved of marvellously fine tone, and showed the sonorous properties of the material to be of no mediocre quality. It was too costly and troublesome a fancy probably to be repeated, and too fragile a mode of construction to be adopted for manufacture. The foregoing must be taken, however, cum grano salis, as barometric changes would in all probability be an insurmountable impediment, causing variations in resonance with every change of weather; but be this as it may, we know that hard gutta-percha and vulcanite make flutes of the purest quality of tone. Numerous scientific experiments unmistakably indicate the value of a smooth surface in aiding the production of a clear, free tone.
5Ranking foremost amongst all the learned men who thus investigated the theoretical construction of the Violin, and
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