596 SCIENTIFIC RECOKD FOR 1885. 



a Vienna regiment and the pitch began to rise. In 1826 the London 

 Philharmonic Society adopted A 433. In 1859 France adopted A 435. 

 The English concert pitch is now based on A 454*7, the army pitch being 

 based on A 452. {J. Phys., November, 1885, II, iv, 506 ; Nature, May, 

 1885, XXXII, 9.) 



Ellis has presented a paper to the Society of Arts on the musical 

 scales of various nations, chiefly those of ancient Greece, Arabia, India, 

 Java, China, and Japan, giving the results of his endeavors to discover 

 the system by which they tuned. He concludes that there is not any- 

 thing among them approaching to a single '' natural " musical scale. 

 On the contrary, the systems, where systems can be said to exist, are 

 very diverse and often very capricious, and are always very imperfectly 

 carried out. This arises, probably, from harmony proper being un- 

 known, though ensemble playing is common. In the latter case unisons 

 are the rule, the effect being produced by diversity of quality of tone; 

 but certain effects are produced by admitting octaves, and rarely fourths 

 and fifths, but no more. Also a kind of polyphony may be remarked, 

 some instruments, especially those with tones of very short duration, 

 being allowed to discant while the others go on with the air. The in- 

 vestigation must go on for years, however, before the matter can be 

 fully decided. {Nature, March, 1885, xxxi, 488.) 



Xeeseu has reported to the Physical Society of Berlin the results he 

 had obtained in his experiments on sounding air columns, with the ob- 

 ject of determining the relation of Kundt's dust figures to the tone-pitch. 

 By means of an electric tuning fork, whose tone-pitch could be variously 

 modified by varying weights, the air was maintained in permanent vi- 

 bration in a glass tube closed at the bottom by a membrane. Many 

 measurements of the intervals separating the sand ribs were made, but 

 no relation between these values and the tone-pitch could be established. 

 He found, moreover, that the long-known wandering of the ribs in a 

 l)ermanently sounding tube stood in no demonstrable relation to the 

 vibrations of the air, being in the same tube directed in one way in one 

 place and another way at another place. The cause of the wandering 

 of the ribs could not be ascertained. As to their origin, observations 

 had been made at those spots in the tube where the wanderings of the 

 ribs issued in contrary directions, and where, consequently, there was 

 comparative rest. A very interesting phenomenon was observed on 

 taking the measurements of pressure in the sounding tube. A narrow 

 glass tube, open on both sides, with an oil index, the movements of 

 which were observed, acted as a manometer. No displacement of the 

 index was ever noticed, but out of the interior end of the manometrical 

 tube there appeared to issue a current of air impelling the cork sand a 

 long way. The strength of the apparent air current might be measured 

 by little mills, and when small radiometers with paper wings were in- 

 troduced into the sounding tube they fell into very lively rotation. If, 

 instead of full paper wings, the radionu-ters had small conical paper 



