ACOUSTICAL INSTRUMENTS. 105 



through the kind co-operation of Mr. W. Chappell, to present for 

 exhibition a series of ancient Egyptian pipes, reproduced in fac- 

 simile from those found in Egyptian tombs, preserved in the 

 British Museum and Continental collections, with reeds complete, 

 and to give a fair approximation to the scale on which they must 

 have been played. 



The applications of acoustical theory to music proper can only 

 be very partially treated in a scientific exhibition. But the great 

 discoveries of Helmholtz as to quality or timbre cannot be 

 omitted. Apparatus for the illustration of the effect of " overtones " 

 will be shown ; as will be "also several systems of true intonation 

 as opposed to equal temperament. The chief defect of most of 

 the former is the great complication of the key-boards. This is, 

 however, ingeniously overcome in the Harmonium of Mr. Ellis, 

 constructed according to the plan proposed in his paper on 

 Duodenes, read before the Royal Society. In this instrument the 

 usual twelve keys to the octave are retained, and the various notes 

 are introduced by means of stops opening different combinations. 

 Apparatus for illustrating the effect of heat and electricity on 

 vibrating bodies is also exhibited. 



The whole subject may be appropriately summed up in the 

 following propositions : 



i. The respective influence of scientific apparatus on the art of 

 music, and vice versd. 



At the very outset we meet with the monochord of Pythagoras, 

 a machine which at once yielded immense practical results to 

 music. We then enter into a long period during which instru- 

 mental appliances grew, but without design, and without theory. 

 The discoveries of new or improved instruments were purely 

 technical, often ' fortuitous ; although every new member added 

 was a piece of mechanism open to scientific analysis. 



During the last century a return has been made to apparatus 

 essentially scientific, for the explanation of what had been musically 

 invented, and soon after we find, 



