THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 

 AND JOURNAL. 



30 th JUNE 1824. 



LXVII. An Account of some Experiments made in order to de- 

 termine the Velocity with which Sound is transmitted, in the 

 Atmosphere. By Olinthus Gregory, LL.D., Associate 

 Acad. Dijon, Honorary Member of the Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society of New York, of the New York Historical 

 Society, of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, fyc. Secretary 

 of the Astronomical Society of London, and Professor of Ma- 

 thematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.* 

 T^HE theoretical investigations of different philosophers, in 

 ■*■ order to ascertain the velocity with which sound is trans- 

 mitted through the atmosphere, however ingenious and ele- 

 gant some of them may be, seem to rest too much upon gra- 

 tuitous assumptions, to allow any cautious inquirer after phy- 

 sical truth to receive them unhesitatingly, except so far as 

 they may be confirmed by accurate experiment. Unfortunately, 

 too, the results of experiment present irregularities both for- 

 midable and perplexing ; since many of them cannot well be 

 imputed to any want of skill or caution in the conductors of 

 the inquiry. Feet per Second. 



Thus, Mr. Roberts assigns a velocity of . . . 1300 



Mr. Boyle 1200 



Mr. Walker and Duhamel 1338 



Mersenne in his treatise De Sonorum Natura, 



Causis et Effectibus 1474 



The Florence Academy . . . . .1148 

 Cassini de Thury {Mem. Paris. Acad. ann. 



1738) 1107 



Meyer 1105 



Derham 1142 



Muller 1109 



Pictet 1130 



Arago &c, from experiments in June 1822, 

 give 337"2 metres at the temperature of 

 + 10° centigrade 11 06-32 f. 



* From the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society forl824. 

 f This is the last result of which I had heard previously to the com- 

 mencement of* my own experiments. 



Vol. 63. No. 314. June 1824. 3 E The 



