1883.] On the Sound-post and Strings of the Violin.^ 247 



;the 4th string side. This bar is regarded as strengthening the 

 belly, and also enabling it to respond better to the lower notes. The 

 touch-rod showed no difference in the general behavionr of this 

 violin, from a fine one by Stradiuarius containing a bass bar.* 



On the Proportional Thickness of the Strings. 



As the lengths of the strings are the same, we have only the two 

 conditions of weight and tension on which their pitch depends. It is 

 obvions that for eqnal pressure on the feet of the bridge, as well as for 

 more convenient fingering and bowing, the strings should be at the 

 same tension. They should, therefore, differ in weight, so as to give 

 fifths when brought to the same tension. The weights of the strings 

 must be inversely as the squares of the number of vibrations, which, 

 in the case of fifths, is as 3 to 2, namely, as 9 to 4. As the first three 

 strings are of the same material, it is more convenient to take their 

 diameters, which must be as 3 to 2, that is, each string in advancing 

 from the 1st string must be half as thick again as the string next to 

 it. In the case of the 4th string covered with wire, we must find the 

 weight of the 3rd string of gut, and take a 4th string of which the 

 weight is 9 to 4 for the 3rd string. 



A good average thickness of 2nd (A) string is '0355 inch. Then 

 the strings should be — 



1st = -0237 

 2nd = 0-0355 

 3rd = 0-0532 



A gut string 0*0532 inch in diameter weighs, when of the same 

 length as a 4th string, 0*98 grm., then the 4th = 2'20 grms. 



Ruffini sells sets of strings in sealed boxes, and these were found to 

 be in about the same relative proportion to each other as the sizes 

 indicated on the gauges sold by several makers. 



The measures of a set of Ruffini's strings were found to be — 



1st = '0265 inch. 

 2nd = 0-0355 „ 

 3rd = -0460 „ 

 4th = 1 -4100 grm. 



* In the " Early History of the Violin Family," Engel, speaking of the Crwth, 

 :says : — " Furthermore, the contrivance of placing one foot of the bridge through 

 the sound-hole, in order to cause the pressure of the strings to be resisted by the 

 back of the instrument, instead of by the belly, is not so extraordinary and peculiar 

 to the Crwth as most writers on Welsh music maintain. It may be seen on certain 

 Oriental instruments of the fiddle kind which are not provided with a sound-post. 

 For instance, the bridge is thus placed on the three-stringed fiddle of the modern 

 Greek, which is only a variety of the ordinary rabab, but which the Greeks call 

 lyra. Inappropriate as the latter designation may appear, it is suggestive, inasmuch 

 .as it points to the ancient lyra as the progenitor of the fiddle." — P. 28. 



