Books › The violin, how to make it, 1880 › scan 99
Scan 99
The violin, how to make it, 1880
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 93. See the scan on archive.org.
1Now we also know that the back or under surface of the Violin vibrates along with the breast, and that this vibration is communicated from the breast, by the sides, and partly by the sound-post. All Violinists are well aware that this small wooden peg or post, which is placed within the body of the Violin, and which partly helps to meet the increased pressure (on the breast where the right side of the bridge rests arising from the smaller strings), has a material influence on the tone of the instrument. If we take a rod of pinewood and place one end upon the lid of a vessel in which water is boiling, whilst we apply the other end closely to the ear, or insert it between the teeth, we hear the boiling with great distinctness, owing to the sound being conveyed more rapidly through the pine than the atmosphere, and it is precisely similar with the Violin; the sound-post, and, in a greater degree, the sides, conveying to the back with immense rapidity the vibrations which have been excited in the breast from the strings.
3It is essential that we choose the best place for the sound post, for we have seen that certain portions vibrate stronger than others, whilst others appear almost to remain stationary; thus we are led to suppose the proper place for the sound-post would be the former, viz., where the vibrations are the most intense, coming directly from the bridge, but another important use of the sound-post is in rendering the vibrations of the upper and under plates normal.
5A Violin always yields some tones more brilliantly than others. Savart imagined that this might be owing to the curved form of the surface, some of it being non-vibrating, or that the sound-post happened to be placed at a nodal or quiescent point during some tones; but as the f holes in Savart's Violin, as we shall presently see, were cut straight and rendered easy of vibration, he placed the sound-post near to one of them, that it might thus be the means (as was supposed) of conveying powerful vibrations from the breast to the back of the instrument.
7By pasting a slip of thin paper over one of the f holes, the sound is much enfeebled, we may therefore conclude that part of their purpose is to establish a communication between the external air, and the internal air vibrating in the body of the instrument. Savart, at the time of these experiments, saw no reason for the f holes being fantasti-
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.