who knows, I say, but that it may be possible to discover the motions of the internal parts of bodies, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, by the sound they make; that one may discover the works performed in the several offices and shops of a man’s body, and thereby discover what instrument or engine is out of order, what works are going on at several times, and lie still at others, and the like; that in plants and vegetables one might discover by the noise the pumps for raising the juice, the valves for stopping it, and the rushing of it out of one passage into another, and the like? I could proceed further, but methinks I can hardly forbear to blush when I consider how the most part of men will look upon this: but, yet again, I have this encouragement, not to think all these things utterly impossible, though never so much derided by the generality of men, and never so seemingly mad, foolish, and fantastic, that as the thinking them impossible cannot much improve my knowledge, so the believing them possible may, perhaps, be an occasion of taking notice of such things as another would pass by without regard as useless. And somewhat more of encouragement I have also from experience, that I have been able to hear very plainly the beating of a man’s heart, and it is common to hear the motion of wind to and fro in the guts, and other small vessels; the stopping of the lungs is easily discovered by the wheezing, the stopping of the head by the humming and whistling noises, the slipping to and fro of the joints, in many cases, by crackling, and the like, as to the working or motion of the parts one among another; methinks I could receive encouragement from hearing the hissing noise made by a corrosive menstruum in its operation, the noise of fire in dissolving, of water in boiling, of the parts of a bell after that its motion is grown quite invisible as to the eye, for to me these motions and the other seem only to differ secundum magis minus, and so to their becoming sensible they require either that their motions be increased, or that the organ be made more nice and powerful to sensate and distinguish them.”
NOTE ON THE DIFFRACTION OF SOUND
The recent explosion of a powder-laden barge in the Regent’s Park produced effects similar to those mentioned in § 7. The sound-wave bent round houses and broke the windows at the back, the coalescence of different portions of the wave at special points being marked by intensified local action. Close to the place where the explosion occurred the unconsumed gunpowder was in the wave, and, as a consequence, the dismantled gatekeeper’s lodge was girdled all round by a black belt of carbon.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER I
The sound of an explosion is propagated as a wave or pulse through the air.
This wave impinging upon the tympanic membrane causes it to shiver, its tremors are transmitted to the auditory nerve, and along the auditory nerve to the brain, where it announces itself as sound.
A sonorous wave consists of two parts, in one of which the air is condensed, and in the other rarefied.
The motion of the sonorous wave must not be confounded with the motion of the particles which at any moment form the wave. During the passage of the wave every particle concerned in its transmission makes only a small excursion to and fro.
The length of this excursion is called the amplitude of the vibration.
Sound cannot pass through a vacuum.
A certain sharpness of shock, or rapidity of vibration, is needed for the production of sonorous waves in air. It is still more necessary in hydrogen, because the greater mobility of this light gas tends to prevent the formation of condensations and rarefactions.
Sound is in all respects reflected like light; it is also refracted like light; and it may, like light, be condensed by suitable lenses.
Sound is also diffracted, the sonorous wave bending round obstacles; such obstacles, however, in part shade off the sound.
Echoes are produced by the reflected waves of sound.
In regard to sound and the medium through which it passes, four distinct things are to be borne in mind—intensity, velocity, elasticity, and density.
The intensity is proportional to the square of the amplitude as above defined.
It is also proportional to the square of the maximum velocity of the vibrating air-particles.
When sound issues from a small body in free air, the intensity diminishes as the square of the distance from the body increases.
If the wave of sound be confined in a tube with a smooth interior surface, it may be conveyed to great distances without sensible loss of intensity.
The velocity of sound in air depends on the elasticity of the air in relation to its density. The greater the elasticity the swifter is the propagation; the greater the density the slower is the propagation.
The velocity is directly proportional to the square root of the elasticity; it is inversely proportional to the square root of the density.
Hence, if elasticity and density vary in the same proportion, the one will neutralize the other as regards the velocity of sound.
That they do vary in the same proportion is proved by the law of Boyle and Mariotte; hence the velocity of sound in air is independent of the density of the air.
But that this law shall hold good, it is necessary that the dense air and the rare air should have the same temperature.
The intensity of a sound depends upon the density of the air in which it is generated, but not on that of the air in which it is heard.
The velocity of sound in air of the temperature 0° C. is 1,090 feet a second; it augments nearly 2 feet for every degree Centigrade added to its temperature.
Hence, given the velocity of sound in air, the temperature of the air may be readily calculated.
The distance of a fired cannon or of a discharge of lightning may be determined by observing the interval which elapses between the flash and the sound.
From the foregoing, it is easy to see that if a row of soldiers form a circle, and discharge their pieces all at the same time, the sound will be heard as a single discharge by a person occupying the centre of the circle.
But if the men form a straight row, and if the observer stand at one end of the row, the simultaneous discharge of the men’s pieces will be prolonged to a kind of roar.
A discharge of lightning along a lengthy cloud may in this way produce the prolonged roll of thunder. The roll of thunder, however, must in part at least be due to echoes from the clouds.
The pupil will find no difficulty in referring many common occurrences to the fact that sound requires a sensible time to pass through any considerable length of air. For example, the fall of the axe of a distant wood-cutter is not simultaneous with the sound of the stroke. A company of soldiers marching to music along a road cannot march in time, for the notes do not reach those in front and those behind simultaneously.
In the condensed portion of a sonorous wave the air is above, in the rarefied portion of the wave it is below, its average temperature.
