134 Dr. Young's Experiments and Inquiries 



they were made audible, and were found, in one experiment, to 

 recur 8.3 times in a second. By lightly pressing the chord at 

 one-eighth of its length from the end, and at other shorter ali- 

 quot distances, the fundamental note was found to be one-sixth 

 of a tone higher than the respective octave of a tuning-fork 

 marked C : hence, the fork was a comma and a half above the 

 pitch assumed by Sauveur, of an imaginary C, consisting of 

 one vibration in a second. 



XIII. Of the Vibrations of Chords. 

 By a singular oversight in the demonstration of Dr. Brook 

 Taylor, adopted as it has been by a number of later authors, 

 it is asserted, that if a chord be once inflected into any other 

 form than that of the harmonic curve, it will, since those parts 

 which are without this figure are impelled towards it by an 

 excess of force, and those within it by a deficiency, in a very 

 short time arrive at or very near the form of this precise curve. 

 It would be easy to prove, if this reasoning were allowed, that 

 the form of the curve can be no other than that of the axis, 

 since the tending force is continually impelling the chord to- 

 wards this line. The case is very similar to that of the New- 

 tonian proposition respecting sound. It may be proved, that 

 every impulse is communicated along a tended chord with an 

 uniform velocity ; and this velocity is the same which is inferred 

 from Dr. Taylor's theorem ; just as that of sound, determined 

 by other methods, coincides with the Newtonian result. But, 

 although several late mathematicians have given admirable 

 solutions of all possible cases of the problem, yet it has still 

 been supposed, that the distinctions were too minute to be actu- 

 ally observed ; especially, as it might have been added, since 



