106 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



tliis method, which is more correct than the first, M. Helmholtz 

 found that the vowel A was characteristic by the fixed note 

 (sib)4 , O by (sib) 3 , E by (sib)s , and these results really appear 

 incontestable. As none of the tuning-forks arranged was suffi- 

 ciently acute for the vowel I, M. Helmholtz tried to determine 

 the characteristic note by the means already employed by M. 

 Bonders, and found it to be re 6 . If a tuning-fork be tuned for 

 this note, we ascertain, in fact, that it is increased whilst the 

 mouth passes from E to I, at least I have been able to assure 

 myself that the increase occurs before the mouth is exactly ar- 

 ranged for I. Hence the time characteristic of I must be higher. 

 By constructing tuning-forks more and more acute, I ascertained 

 that this note was approached; it was finally found to be (sib) G ; 

 with tuning-forks still higher it is immediately felt that the limit 

 has been passed. 



" For OU, M. Bonders has given fa 3 . This note can undoubt- 

 edly be strengthened by the mouth, but it is only in departing 

 very little from the position O, and one feels that the note for 

 OU must be much more grave. M. Helmholtz assigns fa 2 to OU. 

 However a tuning-fork, fa2 , does not resound before the mouth 

 arranged for OU, which M. Helmholtz accounts for by the small- 

 ness of the opening of the mouth ; but it seemed to me that this 

 smallness of the opening, while rendering a very energetic in- 

 crease impossible, must still admit an appreciable increase in the 

 intensity of the sound. Having, moreover, ascertained the sim- 

 ple ratios which exist between the notes of the vowels, O, A, E, 

 I, ascending by octaves, I thought that this law would extend to 

 the vowel OU. I verified this hypothesis circumstantially by 

 means of a tuning-fork, the pitch of which could be raised by 

 means of slides : 1 was thus able to assure invselt'that the charac- 



7 / 



teristic note of OU (as I ordinarily pronounce it) was really 

 (sib) 3 ; for the maximum of resonance always occurred between 

 440 and 460 simple vibrations. 



"For the pronunciation of the Germans of the North (to which 

 the experiments of M. Helmholtz also refer), the vowels are 

 then characterized as follows : 



OU O A E I 



(sib) 2 (sib) 3 (sib) 4 (sib) 5 (sib) 6 ; 



or, in round numbers of simple vibrations, 450, 900, 1800, 3, GOO, 

 7,200. 



" It seems to me more than probable that we must seek in the 

 simplicity of these ratios the physiological cause which makes us 

 find nearly always the same five vowels in the different lan- 

 guages, although the human voice can produce an indefinite 

 number, as the simple ratios between the numbers of vibrations 

 explain the existence of the same musical intervals among most 

 nations." Philosophical Mag. from Comptes Bendus. 



NEW MODE OF HEATING STONE-WARE VESSELS. 



Mr. J. A. Coffey has patented a new method of heating stone- 

 ware vessels and of obtaining regulated high temperatures, which 



