Fragments of Science: A Series of Detached Essays, Addresses, and Reviews. V. 1-2Tyndall, John
Science
Fragments of Science: A Series of Detached Essays, Addresses, and Reviews. V. 1-2
Tyndall, John
Chemistry; Physics; Science
In a paper published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1876,
Professor Osborne Reynolds refers to these echoes in the following
terms Without attempting to explain the reverberations and echoes
which have been observed, I will merely call attention to the fact
that in no case have I heard any attending the reports of the rockets,
[Footnote: These carried 12 oz. of gunpowder, which has been found by
Col. Fraser to require an iron case to produce an effective
explosion.] although they seem to have been invariable with the guns
and pistols. These facts suggest that the echoes are in some way
connected with the direction given to the sound. They are caused by
the voice, trumpets, and the syren, all of which give direction to the
sound; but I am not aware that they have ever been observed in the
case of a sound which has no direction of greatest intensity.' The
reference to the voice, and other references in his paper, cause me to
think that, in speaking of echoes, Professor Osborne Reynolds and
myself are dealing with different phenomena. Be that as it may, the
foregoing observations render it perfectly certain that the condition
as to direction here laid down is not necessary to the production of
the echoes.
There is not a feature connected with the aerial echoes which cannot
be brought out by experiments in the air of the laboratory. I have
recently made the following experiment: A rectangle, x Y (p. 331),
22 inches by 12, was crossed by twenty-three brass tubes (half the
number would suffice and only eleven are shown in the figure), each
having a slit along it from which gas can issue. In this way
twenty-three low flat flames were obtained. A sounding reed a fixed
in a short tube was placed at one end of the rectangle, and a
'sensitive flame,' [Footnote: Fully described in my 'Lectures on
Sound,' 3rd edition, p. 227.] f, at some distance beyond the other
end. When the reed sounded, the flame in front of it was violently
agitated, and roared boisterously. Turning on the gas, and lighting
it as it issued from the slits, the air above the flames became so
heterogeneous that the sensitive flame was instantly stilled, rising
from a height of 6 inches to a height of 18 inches. Here we had the
acoustic opacity of the air in front of the South Foreland strikingly
imitated. [Footnote: Lectures on Sound, 3rd ed, p. 268.] Turning off
the gas, and removing the sensitive flame to f, some distance behind
the reed, it burned there tranquilly, though the reed was sounding.
Again lighting the gas as it issued from the brass tubes, the sound
reflected from the heterogeneous air threw the sensitive flame into
violent agitation. Here we had imitated the aerial echoes heard when
standing behind the syren-trumpet at the South Foreland. The
experiment is extremely simple, and in the highest degree impressive.
Fig. 11.
*****
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