166 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



plementary to a paper on " Perfect Intonation," published in the 

 same journal for March, 1850. He describes a new key-board, in 

 \vliich all the sounds contained in the organ are represented, and 

 placed within control of the organist, without aid from pedals or 

 any interior mechanism, and which is practicable for any extent 

 of modulation or number of notes in the octave. It is uniform in 

 all keys, and the same succession of melodies or harmonies is fin- 

 gered the same in every signature. 



Beside the so-called triple diatonic scale, formed of the fifths 

 and thirds, or of the common chords of the key-note, dominant 

 and subdominant, and represented thus, considering the key-note 

 to make 48 vibrations in a given time : 



Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do 



Rel. vibrations, 48 54 60 64 72 80 90 96 



Intervals, 8:9, & : 10, 15 : 16, 8:9, 9 : 10, 8:9, 15 : 16 



he describes what he calls the double diatonic scale, in which the 

 subdominant harmony is suppressed, and the fourth and the sixth 

 of the scale are replaced by the perfect seventh and the ninth of 

 the dominant harmony, so that, if we still take Do as a starting- 

 point, we require a new Fa and La, for which formerly there have 

 been no names : represented thus : 



Fa Sol La Si Do Re Mi Fa 



Rel.vibrations, 48 54 60 63 72 81 90 96 



Intervals, 8:9, 9 : 10, 20 : 21, 7 : 8, 8:9, 9 : 10, 15 : 16 



In the last scale are five different intervals in place of tlrt? three 

 of the first scale, by which more variety is secured ; these two 

 scales contain all that belongs to the major keys ; the additional 

 ones required to complete the minor keys as well as those called 

 " accidentals" being afterwards considered. He gives a descrip- 

 tion of his complete enharmonic key-board, giving the lengths, 

 the five different colors, the elevations, and the lettering and mark- 

 ings. This system does away with the common equal and mean 

 tone temperaments, and gives the intervals practically perfect. 



INFLUENCE OF SOUND UPON FLAME. 



The following are extracts from a recent lecture by Prof. Tyn- 

 dall before the Royal Institution : 



"Pass a steadily burning candle rapidlj 7 through the air, you 

 obtain an indented band of light, while an almost musical sound, 

 heard at the same time, announces the rhythmic character of the 

 motion. If, on the other hand, you blow against a candle flame, 

 the fluttering noise produced indicates a rhjthmic action. When 

 a fluttering of the air is produced at the embouchure of an organ 

 pipe, the resonance of the pipe reinforces that particular pulse of 

 the flutter whose period of vibration coincides with its own, and 

 raises it to a musical sound. When a gas flame is introduced into 

 an open tube of suitable length and width, the current of air 

 passing over the flame produces such a flutter, which the reso- 

 nance of the tube exalts to a musical sound. Introducing a gas 

 flume into this tin tube 3 feet long, we obtain a rich musical 



