Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/683

Rh graver sounds. I doubt whether I am wise in trying to exhibit smoke jets to an audience, but I have a special means of projection by which I ought at least to succeed in making them visible. It consists in a device by which the main part of the light from the lamp is stopped at the image of the arc, so that the only light which can reach the screen is light which by diffusion has been diverted out of its course. Thus we shall get an exhibition of a jet of smoke upon the screen, showing bright on a dark ground. The jet issues near the mouth of a resonator of pitch 256. When undisturbed, it pursues a straight course and remains cylindrical. But if a fork of suitable pitch be sounded in the neighborhood, the jet spreads out into a sort of fan, or even bifurcates, as you see upon the screen. The real motion of the jet can not, of course, be ascertained by mere inspection. It consists in a continuously increasing sinuosity, leading after a while to complete disruption. If two forks slightly out of unison are sounded together, the jet expands and re-collects itself, synchronously with the audible beats. I should say that my jet is a very coarse imitation of Tyndall's. The nozzle that I am using is much too large. With a proper nozzle, and in a perfectly undisturbed atmosphere—undisturbed not only by sounds, but free from all draughts—the sensitiveness is wonderful. The slightest noise is seen to act instantly and to bring the jet down to a fraction of its former height.

Another important part of Tyndall's work on sound was carried out as adviser of the Trinity House. When in thick weather the ordinary lights fail, an attempt was made to replace them with sound signals. These are found to vary much in their action, sometimes being heard to a very great distance, and at other times failing to make themselves audible even at a moderate distance. Two explanations have been suggested, depending upon acoustic refraction and acoustic reflection.

Under the influence of variations of temperature refraction occurs in the atmosphere. For example, sound travels more quickly in warm than in cold air. If, as often happens, it is colder above, the upper part of the sound wave tends to lag behind, and the wave is liable to be tilted upward and so to be carried over the head of the would-be observer on the surface of the ground. This explanation of acoustic refraction by variation of temperature was given by Prof. Osborne Reynolds. As Sir G. Stokes showed, refraction is also caused by wind. The difference between refraction by. wind and by temperature variations is that in one case everything turns upon the direction in which the sound is going, while in the second case this consideration is immaterial. The sound is heard by an observer down wind, and not so well by an observer up wind. The explanation by refraction