190 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Tomlinson and a gentleman who had given a great deal of attention to 

 the subject. Mr. Tomlinson, on being supplied with one of Cagniard de la 

 Tour's instruments for measuring vibrations, the Sirene, satisfied himself 

 that he could regulate this instrument, which every one knew was very diffi- 

 cult to keep at the same pitch, so as to ascertain what was 512 vibrations 

 per second; and he made certain tuning-forks, of which he (Mr. Hullah) 

 had seen and tried hundreds, and he had never found the slightest discrep- 

 ancy in them, except on that morning, for the first time in his life. He 

 tried two of those forks with the greatest care again and again that morn- 

 ing. He placed one of them upon a hot plate, and allowed it to remain 

 until it became heated, when he found that the pitch was considerably 

 lowered. This was nothing new; but the extraordinary part of the matter 

 was, that the fork had never since recovered its former pitch, and there was 

 still some little discrepancy between it and the fork which had not been 

 heated. He thought a uniform pitch was so highly to be desired that what- 

 ever the pitch might be whether the highest ever conceived or the lowest, 

 he would vote for it for the sake of uniformity though he certainly should 

 prefer, and do his best to bring about, the adoption of a pitch considerably 

 lower than that at present in use. 



Mine. Goldschmidt (Jenny Lind) was of opinion that if the present pitch 

 were adhered to, all the voices would be more or less spoiled, and that was 

 one of the reasons why we had so few really good singers. For her own 

 part, there was a considerable amount of music that she could not think of 

 singing at the present pitch; and music which she sang with the greatest 

 ease about tAvelve years ago, when the pitch was lower, she would not now 

 attempt. If the raising of the pitch went on as it had hitherto done, the 

 human voice would lose its beauty and strength; and she did not consider 

 it was proper to tax the voice to that extent. In her opinion, the standard 

 of the pitch ought to be regulated by the human voice. 



M. Goldschmidt did not suggest that they should adopt the French pitch 

 merely because it was French, but chiefly because it Avas the pitch of the 

 Philharmonic Society and of Broadwood thirty years ago. As it was adopted 

 by France, why should we not also adopt it, especially as it was the good 

 old pitch of olden times ? 



Mr. Hullah would be glad to hear, from Mr. Walker, what would be about 

 the expense, in round numbers, of lowering the pitch of an organ worth 

 2000 a quarter of a tone. 



Mr. "Walker, at a rough guess, should say perhaps 50. 



Mr. Hullah could assure the meeting that he was not bigoted to any pitch, 

 but would vote for any upon which they could all agree. The difference 

 between the pitch which had been designated his and the French, was ten 

 vibrations per second. The French pitch was 522 vibrations per second; 

 his was 512. He thought if it were an open question to decide between the 

 two pitches, they were so near that it would be wise to decide in favor of the 

 lower pitch. He would put on record a remarkable expression which was 

 used some time since by Sir George Smart, in reference to this subject. He 

 said: "It is not the Philosopher who has settled the pitch; God Almighty 

 has settled the pitch in making the human voice." 



Dr. Arnott suggested that as inconvenience had been experienced from 

 the rise of the pitch of the organ in the course of an evening's performance, 

 an apparatus might be connected with the bellows of the organ cornmuui- 



