SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, AUGUST 21, 1891. 



THE PRODUCTION OF MUSICAL NOTES FROM NON- 

 MUSICAL SANDS.' 



That I have succeeiied in producing musical notes from sand 

 that was never before musical, and am also able to produce similar 

 results from certain mute or " killed " musical sands which have 

 been temporarily deprived of their musical properties, has already 

 been announced in the Chemical News (vol. Ixiv. No. 1650). 



It is not necessary now to give the details of the numerous ex- 

 periments which led up to this discovery; it will be, perhaps, 

 sufficient for present purposes to state that in November, 1888, I 

 published a paper (read before the Bournemouth Society of Natu- 

 ral Science) in which I propounded a theory to account for the 

 cause of musical sounds issuing from certain sands. After giving 

 various reasons for my conclusions, I said: "It occurred to me, 

 then, that the music from sand was simply the result of the rub- 

 bing together of the surfaces of millions of perfectly clean grains 

 of quartz, free from angularities, roughness, or adherent matter 

 in the form of clinging fragments investing the grains, and that 

 these microlithic emissions of sound, though individually inaudi- 

 ble, might in combination produce a note sufficiently powerful to 

 be sensible to us." 



Having described numerous experiments, and drawn attention 

 to the hopeful results obtained from the "millet-seed" sand, my 

 paper concluded with the following: " From what I have now 

 told you, I think we may conclude that music may be produced 

 from sand if (1) the grains are rounded, polished, and free from 

 fine fragments ; (3) if they have a sufficient amount of ' play ' to 

 enable them to slide one against the other; (3) if the grains are 

 perfectly clean ; and (4) if they possess a certain degree of uni- 

 formity in size, and are within a certain range in size." 



On June 20 last I visited Studland Bay for the purpose of carry- 

 ing out some new experiments. I found that the musical patch 

 emitted tones louder and more pronounced than I had ever heard 

 them before. The best results were obtained by drawing a thick 

 deal rod, on to the end of which I had fixed a resonator, over the 

 surface of the sand ; sounds produced in this way were heard un- 

 mistakably for a considerable distance. The patch averaged 7J 

 yards in width, and ran parallel with the trend of the shore for 

 some hundreds of yards. The sand on the sea side of the patch 

 was fine, and emitted notes of a high pitch; that on the land side 

 was coarse, and emitted notes of a lower pitch. The rod drawn 

 across the patch gave, therefore, a great variety of pitch. Many 

 other interesting facts cannot now be referred to, but it is impor- 

 tant to state that some of this sand, when taken off the patch and 

 struck in a box, gave out notes as it did in situ. On trying this 

 sand subsequently at home, the coarse emitted distinct notes of a 

 low pitch, but the tine was mute. This was, so far as I know, 

 the first time that the Studland sand had been musical off the 

 patch. 



According to my theory, if the number of grains with the pol- 

 ished surfaces could be increased in this fine sand, the number of 

 vibrations would increase also, and so intensify the note, and 

 cause it to become audible; this could only be done, however, by 

 introducing a certain percentage of grains fulfilling the required 

 conditions. To obtain such grains and to introduce them gradu- 

 ally until the necessary number should have been added, would 

 have been a tedious process; and it occurred to me then that the 

 same result might be obtained if the sand were struck in a vessel 

 with a hard and polished interior. I placed, therefore, this fine 



' Cecil Carus-WilsoD, in Nature of Aug. 6. 



sand in a teacup, and, on striking it, found that it emitted a high, 

 shril! note (A in altissimo), which was far more intense than that 

 given when it formed a part of the patch. 



When polished grains of sand are in contact with the sides and 

 bottom of a glazed porcelain vessel, it is obvious that there are 

 numerous points of contact between two polished surfaces, — the 

 sand grains and the vessel, — and that on striking the surface of 

 the sand, the friction necessary to produce the vibrations of a 

 musical note is induced between these points. 



This I proved by placing the same sand in various vessels with 

 rough interiors, and by lining these glazed or polished vessels with 

 silk,, etc., but in no case would this sand emit notes unless the 

 grains were in direct contact with the glazed or polished surfaces. 

 This peculiarity is not in any way dependent upon the sonorous 

 properties of the vessel used, for it may be " deadened" with im- 

 punity, and the note will remain unaltered. 



The results of numerous experiments show that musical sand of 

 the Eigg type — i.e., sand possessing in gi-eat perfection the phys- 

 ical conditions necessary for the production of music — will be 

 musical in receptacles of whatever composition or form, though 

 in some of these it emits notes " under protest " only. 



Those sands which are of the Studland Bay type — i.e., having 

 the necessary physical conditions less perfectly developed, and 

 usually mute except in situ — will emit music only in vessels 

 possessing hard and glazed interiors, and, as a rule, of a certain 

 form; while some of the more " sulky " types of sand not only 

 need a vessel of hard and glazed interior, and definite form, but 

 also require a box, or small pedestal of wood (which I call a 

 "coaxer"), on which this vessel must stand before the notes 

 emitted become audible. A " sulky " sand was rendered far more 

 musical by being sifted, washed, and boiled, giving out, after this 

 treatment, notes without the aid of the " coaxer." 



After discovering what could be done with such simple appara- 

 tus, it occurred to me to try, under similar conditions, some of 

 my abandoned sands — those unmusical sands that had been, 

 during a period of four or five years, treated unsuccessfully for 

 music. 



One sand (an iron-sand composed of more or less polished 

 grains, quartz, and much dust formed of denser minerals) gave a 

 very hopeful " swish" (explained in my paper of 1888) in a cer- 

 tain porcelain vessel, and from this— by (1) sifting in sieves, to 

 eliminate the fine material, and to insure uniformity in size of 

 grain ; (2) rolling down an inclined plane of frosted glass, to sepa- 

 rate the rounded grains from the angular quartz ; and (3) boiling 

 in dilute hydrochloric acid, to cleanse the surfaces — I succeeded 

 in producing a sand that, in certain glazed vessels, emits musical 

 notes as clear as those emitted from any of my musical sands but 

 that of Eigg. This sand gives F in altissimo, but it soon becomes 

 " killed " because of the fine dust and loss of polish that is the 

 inevitable result of the attrition of the grains. There remains but 

 one thing to be done, and that is to produce a sand which, like 

 that of Eigg, will be musical in almost any receptacle, and I have 

 reason now to think that this will not be very difficult. 



It has not been possible here to record more than the merest 

 outline of what has been done, or to give instances of the inter- 

 esting caprioiousness of these sands ; it should be understood, 

 however, that no ordinary beach or cliff sand has the slightest in- 

 clination to "sing" under any of the " coaxing" methods at pres- 

 ent known to me. 



It is stated in Nature that Siam, following the example of 

 Japan, is commencing to Europeanize her institutions. The 

 founding of a university has been decided upon, and Professor 

 Haase of Konigsberg has accepted the appointment to the chair 

 of physics. 



