Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 13.djvu/302

288 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, 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 siren, 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 cause me to think that, in speaking of echoes, Prof. 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 laboratory. I have recently made the following experiment: A rectangle, 22 inches by 12, is crossed by 23 brass tubes, each having a slit along it from which gas can issue. In this way, 23 low, flat flames are obtained. A sounding reed, fixed in a short tube, is placed at one end of the rectangle, and a sensitive flame at some distance beyond the other end. When the reed sounds, the flame in front of it is violently agitated, and roars boisterously. Turning on the gas, and lighting it as it issues from the slits, the air above the flames becomes so heterogeneous that the sensitive flame is instantly stilled by the aërial reflection, rising from a height of 6 inches to a height of 18 inches. Here we have the acoustic opacity of the air in front of the South Foreland strikingly imitated. Turning off the gas, and removing the sensitive flame to some distance behind the reed, it burns there tranquilly, though the reed may be sounding. Again lighting the gas as it issues from the brass tubes, the sound reflected from the heterogeneous air throws the sensitive flame into violent agitation. Here we have imitated the aërial echoes heard when standing behind the siren-trumpets at the South Foreland. The experiment is extremely simple, and in the highest degree impressive.



N the year 1871, three kilns were built on lot 54, Jay Tract, town of Wilmington, Essex County, New York, for the purpose of burning wood into charcoal, to be used in making iron in the Catalan forges, on the Ausable River. At the time these kilns were built, the side of the mountain upon which they are located was covered with a heavy