80 M. Savart on the Improvement of the Pipes of Organs. 



dependent altogether of the clanger of leech-birth in the hands 

 of such assistants. 



Art. XIV. — On the Improvement of the Pipes of Organs.* 

 By M. Felix Savakt. 



As the construction of organs has been hitherto abandoned 

 to a blind routine, I cannot conclude these researches better 

 than by pointing out some of their applications to the improve- 

 ment of organ pipes, whether they are open at both ends, or 

 open at one end and shut at the other. 



' It cannot be doubted, that much advantage is derived from 

 employing only pipes of similar forms ; for when we have once 

 determined the proper dimensions of a tube for producing the 

 best possible sound, it will be sufficient to construct the rest 

 according to the law, that the number of vibrations in a co- 

 lumn of air are reciprocally proportional to their linear dimen- 

 sions, provided that every thing being proportional in these 

 pipes, the intensity of the sound and the other qualities, 

 such as the loudness, the clearness, and the timbre, are in the 

 most suitable proportions. It is well known that ordinary or- 

 gans are far from presenting this result, and that the gi*ave 

 sounds in them are too weak in relation to the sharp ones. In 

 addition to this, the common pipes get out of tune with the 

 greatest facility, from variations of temperature, and particu- 

 larly from the derangement of the bottom, which is a moveable 

 piston. 1'ipes of a similar form are free from this inconve- 

 nience ; both because their dimensions may be determined with 

 the greatest precision, and because the ratios between the num- 

 bers of vibrations which they produce cannot be influenced by 

 variations of temperature, every thing going on, in each of 

 them, in an analagous and proportional manner. 



Since the direction of the port-vent and of the bevel have 

 an effect on the sound yielded by a pipe, the true length of a 

 column of air in vibration is not always the same as that of the 



* This paper is a translation and abstract of the practical part ofM. Sa- 

 vart's Nouvellts Recherches sur ks Vibrations de I' Air, in the Ann. de Chim. 

 Aout 1825. Tom. xxix. p. 419. . 



