Scientific American Supplement, No. 467, December 13, 1884Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 467, December 13, 1884
Various
Science -- Periodicals
We have here these luminous particles on this scale,[2] representing
portions of the air close together, dense; a little higher up, portions
of air less dense. I now slowly turn the handle of the apparatus in
the lantern, and you see the luminous sectors showing condensation
traveling slowly upward on the screen; now you have another
condensation; making one wave length.
[2] Alluding to a moving diagram of wave motion of sound produced by a
working slide for lantern projection.
This picture or chart represents a wave length of four feet. It
represents a wave of sound four feet long. The fourth part of a
thousand is 250. What we see now of the actual scale represents the
lower note C of the tenor voice. The air from the mouth of a singer is
alternately condensed and rarefied just as you see here.
But that process shoots forward at the rate of one thousand feet per
second; the exact period of the motion is 256 vibrations per second for
the actual case before you. Follow one particle of the air forming part
of a sound wave, as represented by these moving spots of light on the
screen; now it goes down, then another portion goes down rapidly; now
it stops going down; now it begins to go up; now it goes down and up
again.
As the maximum of condensation is approached, it is going up with
diminishing maximum velocity. The maximum of rarefaction has now
reached it, and the particle stops going up and begins to move down.
When it is of mean density the particles are moving with maximum
velocity, one way or the other. You can easily follow these motions,
and you will see that each particle moves to and fro, and the thing
that we call _condensation_ travels along.
I shall show the distinction between these vibrations and the
vibrations of light. Here is the fixed appearance of the particles when
displaced but not in motion. You can imagine particles of something,
the thing whose motion constitutes light. This thing we call the
luminiferous ether. That is the only substance we are confident of
in dynamics. One thing we are sure of, and that is the reality and
substantiality of the luminiferous ether. This instrument is merely
a method of giving motion to a diagram designed for the purpose of
illustrating wave motion of light. I will show you the same thing in a
fixed diagram, but this arrangement shows the mode of motion.
Now follow the motion of each particle. This represents a particle of
the luminiferous ether, moving at the greatest speed when it is at the
middle position.
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