1865.] 



Squire on the Quality of Musical Sounds. 



593 



12th, or 

 higher 

 5th of 



:sa 



.S^ 2 



— -j-C^ — 



S>-<=2- 



="-22- 



Jf e' f g' a' b' c" d" e" f" g" a" b" c'" d'" e'" f" g"' a"' b'" c"" d"" e"" 



264 



396 



'2640 



It is obvious from these tables, tbat if a vibrating body makes, for 

 example, 132 oscillations per second, it will produce the note c, 

 and, for anything tbat appears to tbe contrary, this effect is quite 

 independent of the nature of tbe vibrating body ; tbe greater or less 

 violence of tbe vibration will merely affect its loudness, so tbat tbe 

 simple undulatory theory of sound offers no explanation of what has 

 hitherto been a mystery — its quality. This we must seek in some 

 modification of the phenomenon. The table contemplates the case 

 of a vibrating body ; a string, for example, vibrating in regular periods 

 in a pendulum-like way as a whole, and provided it does this in 

 practice, it is clear that all sounds of similar pitch would be alike, 

 whatever their source. But a closer examination of the vibrations of 

 elastic bodies discloses some peculiarities of motion, which must 

 seriously modify the effect. If we suppose a string stretched with a 

 certain tension between two fixed points (A, B, Fig. 1), and that it is 

 caused to vibrate as a whole, which may be done by plucking it at the 



no. 1 



point a, it will vibrate as in Fig. 2, producing a certain note— say 

 C. But if instead of plucking it at a the finger be gently laid on that 



