178 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Feb. 24, 1888. 



round. There is, however, a cause which not unfre- 

 quently changes the usual straight path of a sound, and 

 will either deflect it to the ground, or will tilt it upwards 

 where it is lost. The former result is produced by a 

 wind blowing in the direction in which the sound is 

 travelling, and the latter, by an opposing wind. Fig. i 

 represents the spherical waves of sound travelling 

 uniformly in all directions from the source A, the 

 direction being shown by the dotted lines. Now, 

 imagine a wind to be blowing, and that a number of 

 fine threads are floating vertically in the air. The fric- 

 tion of the ground will retard the wind near the surface 

 of the earth, and the air will therefore move more slowly 

 at low levels than at high. The threads would take the 

 shape shown in Fig. 2. The shape of the waves of 

 sound would be altered to that shown in Fig. 3. The 

 direction of the sound is always at right angles to the 

 front of the wave, as shown by the dotted lines, and if 

 the position of the surface of the sound wave is altered 

 from any cause, the direction of the sound will be altered 

 also. Precisely the same thing happens with light, as 

 was explained in Scientific News, Vol. i, page 86 (first 

 series). An observer at B would hear no sound, not be- 

 cause it has been blown away from him, but because 

 it is tilted over his head. 



The velocity of sound at freezing point is 1,090 ft. per 

 second. It is independent of the height of the barometer, 

 but a rise of temperature causes an increase of velocity 

 of about one foot per second for every degree. For 

 51 degrees Fah., which is about the mean temperature 

 in this country, the velocity is i,iii ft. per second, a 

 quantity which is very easily remembered. When the 

 air near the ground, on a warm day, is heated by the 

 hot soil, it is improbable that, since sound will travel 

 faster in the hot air, the direction will be tilted upwards, 

 and on a clear night the reverse will happen, for it is 

 known that the temperature is sometimes 14 to i8 degrees 

 lower on the ground than in the air, at the height of a few 

 feet. A brisk gale will only increase the velocity of sound 

 by about 3 per cent., and distances can often be measured 

 with considerable accuracy by timing the interval be- 

 ween the flash of a gun and the sound with a stop-watch. 

 — ••-;»s^»>^5itf-* — 



VOLAPUK. 



A VERY decided effort is now apparently being made 

 -^^ to establish an international language under the 

 above name. Probably never in human history was the 

 want of such a convenience more experienced than at 

 the present time. Thanks to speedy steamers and fast 

 trains, the barriers of distance and time have been so 

 broken down that, metaphorically speaking, the ends of 

 the earth have become near neighbours, and as a con- 

 sequence international intercourse has increased by leaps 

 and bounds. Commerce is, of course, the mainspring of 

 of the movement, and the want of a universal language 

 may be described as one of the great barriers. In a 

 country so devoted to commerce as ours, it is therefore 

 not very surprising to find that an honest attempt to re- 

 move this particular barrier should command consider- 

 able attention. If truth must be told, we were not 

 always so badly off for an intermediary language as at 

 present. Two or three centuries ago Latin was the 

 common language of intercommunication between the 

 well-educated of all European nations. In all the 

 universities, professorial orations and lectures were de- 

 livered in that language, so that students and professors 



from all countries met on common ground. Latin was 

 also the language of the Law and the Church. Now, 

 Unipora jinitanfur, and although the study of Latin is 

 still kept up in our schools, the great value of the 

 language as an intermediary vehicle has long departed. 

 It remains to be seen whether " Volapuk " is destined 

 to take its place in this particular direction. On this 

 point we confess we are very sceptical, for although 

 much has been done of late years in bringing about 

 international conformity in certain matters — such as 

 screw-threads, musical notation, telegraphic symbols, 

 chemical formulae, and maritime signals — these are mere 

 bagatelles in comparison with the task of establishing a 

 new language, to be governed by easy laws, and capable 

 of satisfying the varied wants of diverse nations, each of 

 whose vocabularies is constantly being increased by 

 fresh additions. As "Volapuk" seems to have really 

 made a start, however, and its students on the continent 

 are already said to number 500,000, the following infor- 

 mation in connection therewith may be of interest. 

 " Volapuk " is due to the Rev. J. M. Schleyer, of Con- 

 stance, who is stated to be able to speak and write 

 twenty-eight languages, and to be more or less acquainted 

 with an additional twenty-seven. The new language he 

 has devised is compounded of roots, arbitrarily formed,, 

 without any necessary affinity with any existing language, 

 though bearing more resemblance in sound and in print 

 to the Scandinavian than to the Latin groups. 



Each of the eight vowels and nineteen consonants has 

 one fixed sound, and among the improvements claimed 

 are brevity in spelling and in the various word inflexions, 

 together with economy in time and increased clearness. 

 The following are given as examples : — The word 

 " language " is piik ; the word Volapiik itself means 

 "world- language/' "I love" is lofob; "you love," lofous; 

 " she loves," lofof ; while the compound tense, " they 

 will have been loved," is rendered, through the help of 

 prefix and suffix, by pulofonis. As an example of the 

 conciseness of the new language is given the Volapuk 

 sentence of six words, " Itisevam eibinoni stabin giidikiln 

 tugas valik"' which represents the English sentence of 

 fourteen words, " The knowledge of one's self has 

 always been the best foundation of all virtues." The 

 weak point about the Volapiik language seems to be the 

 empirical nature of the words themselves ; they seem so 

 unsuggestive that, if the vocabulary becomes a large one, 

 and we are told that the dictionaries which have been 

 prepared for use in France and Germany already con- 

 tain 14,000 words, the tax upon the memory will be 

 very great. This strain might, to a very large extent, have 

 been avoided, if in the case of the more common words 

 some well-known word-root common to four or five of 

 the chief languages had been utilised. Thus gn might 

 well appear in the Volapiik vocabulary for the verb 

 " know " ; for those letters, or their literal equiva- 

 lents, occur in the Greek, Latin, French, English, etc., 

 representatives of the same word ; and with a little care 

 in selection this principle might be carried out with 

 respect to hundreds of words, to the great advantage of 

 Volapuk, not only from a mnemonic point of view, but 

 also philologicall}'. The English dictionary of the new 

 language is not yet published, so that we are unable to 

 say at present if this or any other principle is apparent 

 in M. Schleyer's labours. We confess we view the 

 experimental launching of this new language with much 

 interest, and trust it will initiate the solution of what is 

 at present a very inconvenient international problem. 



