e 
. 
Influence of Musical Sounds on a Jet of Coal-gas, 65 
te 
relation to the musical tones produced by the efflux of liquids 
through short tubes. en certain precautions and conditions 
are observed (which are minutely detailed by this able experi- 
mentalist), the discharge of the liquid gives rise to a succession 
of musical tones of great intensity and of a peculiar quality, some- 
what 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 have 
been entirely confirmed by the more recent experiments of P’ 
Tyndall.* 
According to the researches of M. Plateau, all of the phe- 
homena of the influence of vibrations on jets of liquid, are re- 
ferable to the conflict between the vibrations and the forces of 
Sigure (* forces Jiguratrices”). If the physical fact is admitted,— 
and it seems to be indisputable,—that a liquid cylinder attains a 
limit of stability when the proportion between its length and its 
lameter is in the ratio of twenty-two to seven, it is almost a 
physical necessity that the jet should assume the constitution indi- 
cated by the observations of Savart. It likewise seems highly 
of all kinds of vibrations. It must be confessed, however, that 
Plateau’s beautiful and coherent theory does not appear to em- 
race Savart’s last experiment, in which the musical tones were 
roduced by a jet of water issuing under the surface of the same 
‘quid, It is rather difficult to imagine what ageney the “forces 
of figure” could have, under such circumstances, mm the pro- 
duction of the phenomenon. This curious experiment tends to 
_ corroborate Savart’s original idea, that the vibrations which 
produce the sounds must take place in the glass reservoir itself, 
he that the cause must be inherent in the phenomenon of the 
ow. 
To apply the principles of Plateau’s theory to gaseous jets, we 
molecu- 
the law of Mariotte and of Gay-Lussac,—especially in the case 
ee 
+ Regnault —clearly prove, that the hypothesis of the non- 
existence of cohesion in aeriform bodies is fallacious? Do not 
: the expanding rings which ascend when a bubble of phosphu- 
* Philosophical Magazine, 4th series, vol. viii, p. 74, 1854. 
ts _ SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXV, NO. 73.—JAN., 1888. 
