2 4r 



SCIEXCE-GOSSIP. 



in all directions. Motion communicated to such a 

 body in any one direction produces a harmonic 

 vibration, and the resultant of two or more such 

 motions simultaneously communicated is a com- 

 pound vibration. 



The point to be remembered is this — that a 

 compound vibration is a continuous motion built 



curves or compound vibration figures. Their variety 

 is not only inexhaustible, but inconceivable, and they 

 affect almost the whole of nature in its most minute 

 and most stupendous particulars. In short, com- 

 pound vibration-figures are nothing less than the 

 alphabet of natural geometry — the very keys of 

 creation. But natural vibration-figures are gene- 



F-i- i. — j. w:--ell:p::: \ir ;= 



Fig. 3. — Twin-elliptic curves. 



up of any number 

 of separate mo- 

 tions. This is why 

 a simple wavy line 

 on a phonographic 

 "record " is equiv- 

 alent to anv num- 

 ber of simulta- 

 neous sounds. For 

 the same reason 

 the human ear- 

 mechanism can 

 embody any com- 

 bination of sounds 

 in one resultant 

 motion. Such 

 motions are sound- 



ly ._ 1 — _ ::--'. :: ::: : _: ' '-1. 



rail} 7 vastly more 

 complex than pen- 

 dulum or other 

 laboratory figures 

 can demonstrate. 

 In fact the}- are 

 chiefly intersection 

 figures resulting 

 from the overlap- 

 ping and intersec- 

 tion of various 

 svstems of com- 

 pound vibration. 

 It seems highly 

 probable that the 

 configurations of 

 the nebula? are 



Fig, -..—' 



Fig. 5.— Twin -elliptic curves. 



