Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/200

188 rubber tube with the mouth of the test-tube, placing the other end of the pipe to the ear. Then focus the intermittent beam upon the substance in the tube. I have tried a large number of substances in this way with great success, although it is extremely difficult to get a glimpse of the sun here, and when it does shine the intensity of the light is not to be compared with that to be obtained in Washington. I got splendid effects from crystals of bichromate of potash, crystals of sulphate of copper, and from tobacco-smoke. A whole cigar placed in the test-tube produced a very loud sound. I could not hear anything from plain water, but when the water was discolored with ink a feeble sound was heard. I would suggest that you might repeat these experiments and extend the results....

Upon my return to Washington in the early part of January, Mr. Tainter communicated to me the results of the experiments he had made in my laboratory during my absence in Europe.

He had commenced by examining the sonorous properties of a vast number of substances inclosed in test-tubes in a simple empirical search for loud effects. He was thus led gradually to the discovery that cotton-wool, worsted, silk, and fibrous materials generally, produced much louder sounds than hard, rigid bodies like crystals, or diaphragms such as we had hitherto used.

In order to study the effects under better circumstances, he inclosed his materials in a conical cavity in a piece of brass closed by a flat plate of glass. A brass tube leading into the cavity served for connection with the hearing-tube. When this conical cavity was stuffed with worsted or other fibrous materials the sounds produced were much louder than when a test-tube was employed. This form of receiver is shown in Fig. 1.



Mr. Tainter next collected silks and worsteds of different colors, and speedily found that the darkest shades produced the best effects. Black worsted especially gave an extremely loud sound.

As white cotton-wool had proved itself equal, if not superior, to any other white fibrous material before tried, he was anxious to obtain colored specimens for comparison. Not having any at hand, however, he tried the effect of darkening some cotton-wool with lampblack.