46 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
can, of course, leave some of the goblets 
empty, where the requirements of pitch 
make it necessary; and you will find this 
requisite in the highest tones at least. In 
fact the greatest difficulty is to obtain a 
sufficient range or compass of tone, unless 
you have goblets of varied size, shape and 
thickness. But, having your entire scale 
completed in regular chromatic succession, 
it will be well to go over it carefully, and 
see that all the intervals are musically ac- 
curate; for unless it be tuned nicely, the 
whole affair will be a noisy failure. Per- 
haps, however, I am assuming too much 
for the average reader, when I expect him 
to be able to set a musical scale successfully 
by his ear alone; and indeed this seems the 
more probable when we remember that not 
one out of five hundred musicians can tune 
an instrument at all. But in cases where 
the ear is thus deficient, the goblets can be 
tuned nicely by any keyed instrument that 
is itself in tune. In which case he has only 
to start at the tone indicated by his lowest 
goblet, and tune the succeeding ones in 
unison with those of the ascending scale of 
the instrument. In any event it will be 
found a fine discipline for the ear. Where 
the experimenter finds it impossible even to 
tune in unison, he had better direct his 
efforts in other channels of course. I am 
not writing for him. 
Your tuning completed, the next oper- 
ation will be to arrange your goblets to the 
best advantage, both for quality of tone and 
convenience of manipulation. To this end 
it is perhaps better to place your goblets on 
a long, inverted empty box, made of thin 
material, securely fastened together. Place 
the whole on your table, with the goblets 
arranged in the same order as the keys on a 
piano, placing the half tones, or sharps, 
corresponding to the black keys, slightly in 
the rear of the main line or diatonic scale, for 
the convenience of the performer — being 
careful that no two goblets touch each other; 
also that they rest firmly on the box, in order 
to avoid jarring. If your scale extends to 
two octaves, it might be well to arrange 
your goblets in two separate lines perhaps. I 
Now your instrument is ready, and you 
may take your mallet and play any air with 
which you are familiar, from a Sabbath 
school song to an opera. And my word for 
it, you will be surprised and delighted at 
the beauty and capacity of this little home- 
made instrument. The tones are very pure, 
limpid and mellow, and free from that metal^ 
lie tendency so inseparable from all pianos. 
Of course much will depend upon the taste 
and skill of the performer, and some prac- 
tice will be required to play rapid passages; 
but it is certainly susceptible of much 
variety and musical effect when properly 
handled. Shakes, trills, turns, runs, etc., 
are all within its scope, and only await the 
player's skill. The tone may be varied by 
the use of either the padded or the wooden 
end of the mallet, as the case may require. 
The glasses should be tapped on the out- 
side, near the top. If it be desired to keep 
the instrument for any considerable length 
of time, it will be found necessary to re-tune 
it at intervals, as the tone changes by evap- 
oration of the water. And if the water is 
left in a long time in a warm room, the tone 
will become deadened and spoiled. By 
having a mallet in each hand, two parts can 
be played at once, after some practice, and 
the harmony is very pretty. If the whole 
is properly constructed and well tuned, it 
will be found wonderfully melodious and 
effective. H. Hendricks. 
Kingston, T. 
How to Read a Drawing. 
Continued from page 30. 
IN the previous article we saw that neither 
a perspective view nor a simple plan 
will enable those who are not very expert 
to determine the exact dimensions even of 
such a simple object as two blocks lying 
one on the other. 
Fig. 1 being a perspective view, and Fig. 
2 a plan of two blocks, it is evident that it 
requires a drawing like Fig. 3* to give the 
precise thickness of the blocks. Such a 
figure is called an elevation, and these two 
*rhe artist has, by mistake, drawn Fig. 3 with 
diagonallines, as if it were a sectiou. The shade 
lines should be perpendicular, like those in Fig. 6. 
