234 Mr. Wheatstone on the 



performer, whether the wire be applied to the reed above or 

 below. 



The resounding instrument may, as in the experiments 

 above detailed, be either a harp, a piano-forte, or a guitar. 

 It is a singular effect to hear the sounds of a wind-instrument 

 thus reproduced by a sounding-board. 



8. 



The experiments I have made with respect to other classes of 

 wind-instruments have not been equally successful. It is not 

 possible to communicate the vibrations of the air to a solid 

 conductor without an enormous loss of intensity : if, however, 

 the intermediation of other bodies which enter readily into 

 vibration, from the agitations of the air, be employed, the 

 transmission may in some measure be effected. Thus, if the 

 end of the conducting-wire be placed in the most strongly 

 vibrating part of the column of air in a flute, there is but little 

 perceptible transmission of sound ; but if the wire touch the 

 side of the instrument, it will more readily transmit the sounds, 

 as the side is susceptible of entering into vibration. Even in 

 this latter case, the sounds are scarcely audible, unless the ear 

 be held close to the resounding instrument. 



In a similar manner, the sounds of an entire orchestra 

 may be transmitted, viz. by connecting the end of the con- 

 ductor with a properly constructed sounding-board, so placed 

 as to resound to all the instruments. The effect of an ex- 

 periment of this kind is very pleasing; the sounds, indeed, 

 have so little intensity as scarcely to be heard at a distance 

 from the reciprocating instrument ; but on placing the ear close 

 to it, a diminutive band is heard, in which all the instru- 

 ments preserve their distinctive qualities ; and the pianos and 

 fortes, the crescendos and diminuendos, their relative con- 

 trasts. Compared with an ordinary band, heard at a dis- 

 tance through the air, the effect is as a landscape seen in 

 miniature beauty through a concave lens, as compared with 

 the same scene viewed by the ordinary vision through a murky 

 atmosphere. 



