Sound / by John Tyndall.

  • Tyndall, John, 1820-1893.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sound / by John Tyndall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    151/464 (page 113)
    then, a tension, of one-fourth doubles, a tension of one- ninth trebles, and a tension of one-sixteenth quadruples the number of ventral segments. In general terms, the number of segments is inversely proportional to the square root of the tension. This result may be deduced by reasoning from our first and third laws, and its realisation here confirms their correctness. Thus, by a series of reasonings and experiments totally different from those formerly employed, we arrive at the self-same laws. In science, different lines of reason- ing often converge upon the same truth ; and if we only follow them faithfully, we are sure to reach that truth at last. We may emerge, and often do emerge, from our reasoning with a contradiction in our hands; but on re- tracing our steps, we infallibly find the cause of the con- tradiction to be due, not to any lack of constancy in nature, but of accuracy in man. It is the millions of experiences of this kind which science furnishes that give us our present faith in the stability of nature. HARMONIC SOUNDS OR OVERTONES. § 9. Timbre; Klangfavbe; Clang-tint. We now approach a portion of our subject which will subsequently prove to be of the very highest importance. It has been shown by the most varied experiments that a stretched string can either vibrate as a whole, or divide itself into a number of equal parts, each of which, vibrates as an independent string. Now it is not possible to sound the string as a whole without at the same time causing, to a greater or less extent, its subdivision; that is to say, superposed upon the vibrations of the whole string we have always, in a greater or less degree, the vibrations of its aliquot parts. The higher notes produced i