MUSICAL SOUNDS PRODUCED BY HIDROGEN GAS. 23 



5thly. That neither the experiments of Mr. Guyton, nor the 

 opinion maintained in the letter from Freyberg, are fufficient 

 to diminifh, in any degree, the value of the affiftance minera- 

 logy derives from chemical inveftigation. 



IV. 



A Memoir on the Mufical Sounds produced in Tubes by Hidrogen 

 Gas. Bead to the Society of Philofophy and Natural Hijlory 

 at Geneva. By G. Delarive *. 



IN a former meeting our learned colleague, Profeflbr Pictet, Profeflbr Pic- 

 communicated to the Society a feries of experiments on the mu- ^m*{\t*\t*te 

 fxcal founds produced in tubes by hidrogen gas, in which he de- by hidrogen. 

 veloped the various mufical phenomena which thefe tubes pro- 

 duce. He explained the effect which the length or width of 

 the tube, and the fituation where the hidrogen is burned, have 

 on the founds produced. As to the caufe of the found, he 

 gave only a few conjectures ; his inquiries not being directed 

 to that object. The purpofe of the prefent memoir is to difco- 

 ver this caufe. 



Profeflbr Brugnatelli is, I think, the firft who publifhed the Publication by 

 experiment I have endeavoured to explain f : It was invented Blu £ natcI1, » 

 by a German. I fhall here relate the principal circumftances. 



If a current of inflamed hidrogen gas be inclofed in a tube Description of 



of an elafric and fonorous material, fuch as glafs, metal, dry * he manner of , 



, r r r ,1 burning hidro- 



wood, &c. the tube after an interval of fome feconds, will gen in a tube, to 



produce a mufical found. If it is open at both ends, the found P^uce a mufi- 

 will be Itrong and full. It is poflible however to fucceed with 

 a tube hermetically clofed atone end, provided its diameter be 

 large enough to allow of a circulation of atmofpheric air fuffi- 

 cient to keep the gas in a ftate of combufiion. The condi- The tube muft 

 tions effential to the fuccefs of the experiment are, firft, That be elaft ic> 

 the tube be elaftic and capable of forming an echo, that is to 

 fay, capable of reflecting the undulations which proceed from the 

 fonorous point ; for no found will be produced with a tube of pafte- 

 board or paper : and jfecondly, The flame muft be produced by and the flame 



from hidrogen. 



• Journal de Phyfique, LV. 165. 



t Dr. Higgins difcovered it. See Phil. Journal, new feries, I. 



a current 



