Jantjabt 29, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



167 



Directly against these opinions of Boelim 

 we may place the equally authoritative one 

 of Victor C. Mahillon, of Brussels, the 

 head of the celebrated musical instrument 

 manufactory, and the Curator of the Mu- 

 seum of Instruments of the Belgian Royal 

 Conservatory of Music — containing one of 

 the most celebrated collections of musical 

 instruments in the world. Mahillon has 

 devoted his life to the study of musical 

 instruments, and is recognized the world 

 over as an eminent authority. In his 

 treatise, "Elements d'Aeoustique, musicale 

 et instrumentale, " one of the best works 

 on the acoustics of musical instruments, 

 he says: 



Theobald Boehm was the first, we believe, to try 

 to construct a flute upon scientific principles, 

 using a cylindrical tube, with rationally placed 

 holes; it was he who first tried to explain the 

 division of the air column of the tube. ... It is 

 to be regretted that this celebrated reformer of 

 the flute was not able to grasp the principle, 

 resulting moreover from his own theory, that the 

 air is the only vibrating body in the flute, as well 

 as in all other wind-instruments. It would have 

 been better had he not written the following lines, 

 which in our opinion, disfigure all of his work. 



Mahillon then quotes Boehm 's opinions 

 given above, and continues: 



One would almost refuse to believe, if it were 

 not written, that a man of the standing of Boehm, 

 who had revolutionized, from the foundation, the 

 principles which had existed for ages in the con- 

 struction of flutes, was not able to release himself 

 completely from such prejudices; nevertheless, he 

 held to this one blunder. 



In another place, Mahillon says: 

 This error is shared in by nearly all artists who 

 play wind instruments. The one who plays a 

 brass instrument will say that the thinner the 

 walls the more easy will be the production of 

 tone; the bassoonist is persuaded that all the 

 vibrations of hia instrument exist in the material 

 of the mouth piece. 



He describes the opinion of the clario- 

 netist and flutist at length, and continues : 



Who does not know the brilliant sound of the 

 cavalry trumpet? It would seem that if this 



same brilliancy were produced by an instrument 

 constructed wholly of wood, that this error whose 

 existence we regret, would disappear forever. But 

 it is not so. For more than ten years, we have 

 had occasion to make heard, almost every day, an 

 instrument constructed by Mr. C. Mahillon; it 

 possesses the exact proportions of a cavalry 

 trumpet, and gives exactly the same brilliancy as 

 the instrument of brass, so that it is impossible 

 to distinguish the one from the other. How much 

 trouble professors might spare their pupils, if, 

 being inspired by the revelations of science, they 

 would content themselves with teaching principles, 

 and abandon the prejudices which pass every day 

 from master to pupil. 



Albert Lavignac, professor in the Paris 

 Conservatory of Music, in his book, "Music 

 and Musicians," published in New York 

 in 1899, says: 



First we have to notice that the sonorous body 

 is the column of air contained inside the tube, 

 whose metal, wood, or other material, has no 

 ofiice whatever, except that of determining the 

 form and dimensions of the mass of air imprisoned 

 within it, which is itself, and itself alone, the 

 vibrating body. The recognition of this fact is of 

 the highest importance in understanding the sub- 

 ject. 



Lavignac then describes the experiments 

 of Mahillon with the wood trumpet, and 

 other experiments of the same import by 

 Sax, the instrument maker of Paris, with 

 brass clarionets; he also refers to paste- 

 board organ pipes and other instances, 

 which support his theory. 



The gentlemen quoted are by no means 

 alone in their opinions. The writer has 

 occasionally mentioned to some of his 

 scientific friends that he sometimes won- 

 dered whether the tone of a flute is affected 

 by the material of its tube. Many times 

 the answer has been: "Of course, you 

 think it is not." 



In direct opposition to the experiments 

 of Mahillon and Sax are those of Schaf- 

 hautl (of the University of Munich), who 

 throughout his life made many researches 

 on acoustical subjects, being influenced, no 

 doubt, by the problems which his friend 



