Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 237 



1. The continuous portions become shortened; the vein resolves 

 itself into separate drops nearer the orifice than when not under the 

 influence of vibrations. 



2. Each of the masses, as they detach themselves from the extre- 

 mity of the continuous part, becomes flattened alternately in a ver- 

 tical and horizontal direction, presenting to the eye, under the influ- 

 ence of their translatory motion, regularly disposed series of maxima 

 and minima of thickness, or ventral segments and nodes. 



3. The foregoing modifications become much moi;e developed and 

 regular when a note, in unison with that which would be produced 

 by the shock of the discontinuous part of the jet against a stretched 

 membrane, is sounded in its neighbourhood. The continuous part 

 becomes considerably shortened, and the ventral segments are en- 

 larged, 



4. When the note of the instrument is almost in unison, the con- 

 tinuous part of the jet is alternately lengthened and shortened, and 

 the beats which coincide with these variations in length can he recog* 

 nized hy the ear, 



5. Other tones act with less energy on the jet, and some produce 

 no sensible effect. 



When a jet is made to ascend obliquely, so that the discontinuous 

 part appears scattered into a kind of sheaf in the same vertical plane, 

 M. Savart found, — 



a. That under the influence of vibrations of a determinate period, 

 this sheaf may form itself into two distinct jets, each possessing re- 

 gularly disposed ventral segments and nodes ; sometimes, with a 

 different note, the sheaf becomes replaced by three jets. 



b. The note which produces the greatest shortening of the con- 

 tinuous part, always reduces the whole to a single jet, presenting a 

 perfectly regular system of ventral segments and nodes. 



In the last memoir of M. Savart — a posthumous one, presented to 

 the Academy of Sciences of Paris by M. Arago in 1853*, — 'Several 

 remarkable acoustic phsenomena are noticed in relation to the mu- 

 sical tones produced by the efflux of liquids through short tubes. 

 When certain precautions and conditions are observed (which are 

 minutely detailed by this able experimentalist), the discharge of the 

 liquid gives rise to a succession of musical tones of great intensity 

 and of a peculiar quality, somewhat analogous to that of the human 

 voice. That these notes were not produced by the descending drops 

 of the liquid vein, was proved by permitting it to discharge itself into 

 a vessel of water, while the orifice was below the surface of the latter. 

 In this case the jet of liquid must have been continuous, but never- 

 theless the notes were produced. These unexpected results liave 

 been entirely confirmed by tlie more recent experiments of Prof. 

 Tyndallt. 



According to the researches of M. Plateau, all the phenomena 

 of the influence of vibrations on jets of liquid arc referable to the 

 conflict between the vibrations and the forces of figure (^"forces 



* Comptes Rendus for Aucust 1853. Also Phil. Mag. S. J. vol. vii. 

 p. 186, 1854. 

 t Phil. Mag. S. 4. vol. viii. p. 74, 1854. 



