Scan 95
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 79. See the scan on archive.org.
1itself above, below, and around in gradually widening circles.
3Just as in water waves there is no motion of the whole body of water, but only an up-and-down motion of small portions on the surface, so it is with sound-waves, whether they are produced in air, in water, or in the ground. Just like a motion through a row of elastic balls,* so the sound-wave travels from one particle of air to another, each one passing on its motion to the next, and then returning to a state of rest as before.
5The mode in which a violin string makes tremblings or waves in the air, and thus produces sound, will be made sensible to the eye by the following diagram:—
7A string, a, f, b, elastic throughout its entire length, is
9* It is a well authenticated fact that if a row of, say, a dozen billiard balls be placed on a billiard table, and another ball be gently rolled up to one end of the row, the ball at the other end will move away, without any perceptible motion of the intervening balls. Let the doubting reader try the experiment; seeing is believing. Ivory or bonzoline, hard as they are, are both elastic; and the motion of the ball rolled up at one end of the row is conveyed to the ball at the other end by the elasticity of the balls in the row. This little experiment is the best I know to convey to the mind an idea of the way in which one particle of air conveys its motion to the next, and thus causes sound (which is only the result of vibrations of air on the nerves of the ear) to travel, without any motion in the volume of air as a body. Indeed, the stiller is the air, the better does sound travel; for everybody knows how distinctly sounds can be heard on a quiet night when the air is absolutely at rest.—Translator.
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