cc a A a 
THE 
PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE. 
I, On the musical Sounds of the Gases,—on the meteoro- 
logic Solution of Water in Aur,—Electricity, fc.,—on 
Water-Pressure Engines for Mines,—on the Confusion 
arising from various Meanings to the same Words and 
Marks used in Science. By Mr. Jonn Farey. 
To Mr. Tilloch. 
On the musical Sounds of the Gases. 
SiR, Asa principal aim of all those who make and com- 
municate to the public, the results of philosophical experi- 
ments, must be to have them extensively known, I shall 
offer no apology for sending you some calculations, on the 
results of a series of ingenious experiments by Messrs. F. 
Kirby and Arnold Merrick of Cirencesier, on the sounds 
of an organ-pipe, blown by eight different sorts of gases, 
compared with the lengths of a sounding string on a mono- 
chord, which I find recorded in a late number of Mr. 
Nicholson’s respectable Journal, vol. xxvil. p. 271. 
The whole string or unit of the monochord was made 
unison with C, an octave below the tenor cliff, or a fourth 
below the bass cliff, and thereon— 
Ist. When nitrous oxide (obtained from the nitrate of 
ammonia) was used, to blow the pipe, in a receiver filled 
therewith, the length of string was *112, as I infer, from a 
mean of four experiments, wherein the highest number was 
°115, and lowest 108: and which therefore (if the whole 
string vibrated 120 times in a second, see Dr. Rees's Cy- 
clopedia, Concert Pitch,) gave 1071-429 vibrations per se- 
cond, and produced a sound 1502 + 3f + 13m*, or 4 
* See the Table of Intervalsin your 28th volume, Plate V, p. 142, by help 
of which, any other comparisons of these intervals can be made, by simple 
addition or subtraction. 
Vol, 37. No. 153. Jan. 1811. A2 comma- 
