COKCERT-ROOM ACOUSTICS. 17 



several hours per day, until the faculty of doing this effectu- 

 ally and habitually was acquired. 



The popular notion that sound rises has probably originated 

 from the fact that in all our common experience the sounds are 

 produced near to some kind of floor, which reflects the sound 

 upward, and thus adds the reflected sound to that which is 

 directly transmitted, and thereby the general result is materi- 

 ally augmented. 



But if we would economize sound most effectively, we must 

 have not only a reflecting floor, but also a reflecting roof and 

 reflecting walls on all sides of the concert room. These arc 

 the conditions that were wanting in the original structure of 

 the Crystal Palace transept, for then the sound of the singer's 

 voice could travel upward to that lofty arch and sidewise in 

 all directions, almost as freely as in the open air. 



This defect has been remedied to a very great extent by the 

 velarium stretched across from the springing of the great arch 

 of glass and iron, and forming a ceiling to the concert room 

 part of the building. Beside this, a wall of drapery is 

 stretched across each side of the transept, and the orchestra 

 has its special walls, roof, and back. There are other minor 

 arrangements for effecting lateral reverberation ; that is, for 

 returning the sound into the auditorium proper instead of 

 allowing it to wander feebly throughout the building. 



The general result of these arrangements is to render that 

 portion of the building in which the reserved seats are placed 

 a really luxurious and efficient concert room, of magnificent 

 proportions ; but, very unfortunately and inevitably, these 

 conditions, which are so favorable for the happy eight or nine 

 thousand who can afford reserved seats, render the position of 

 the other half-dozen thousand outsiders more disappointing and 

 vexatious than ever. For my own part I would rather spend a 

 holiday afternoon in the mild atmosphere and the quiet, 

 soothing gloom of a coal-pit Than be teased and irritated 

 by a strained listening to the indefinite roar of a grand 

 choir, and the occasional dying vibrations of Sims Reeves' 

 "top A." 



I have in the above advocated reverberation as a remedy for 

 diffusion of sound. This may, perhaps, appear rather startling 

 to some musicians who have a well-founded dread of echoes, 

 and who read the words echo and reverberation as synonymous. 

 This requires a little explanation. As light is transmitted, 

 reflected, and absorbed in the same manner as sound, and as 



