Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/18

 exact mensuration. This species of sonorous cavity seems susceptible of but few harmonic sounds. It was observed, that a faint blast produced a much greater frequency of vibrations than that which was appropriate to the cavity: a circumstance similar to this obtains also in large organ pipes; but, several minute observations of this kind, although they might assist in forming a theory of the origin of vibrations, or in confirming such a theory drawn from other sources, yet, as they are not alone sufficient to afford any general conclusions, are omitted at present, for the sake of brevity.

It has been demonstrated, by M. and others, that any impression whatever communicated to one particle of an elastic fluid, will be transmitted through that fluid with an uniform velocity, depending on the constitution of the fluid, without reference to any supposed laws of the continuation of that impression. Their theorem for ascertaining this velocity is the same as Newton has deduced from the hypothesis of a particular law of continuation: but it must be confessed, that the result differs somewhat too widely from experiment, to give us full confidence in the perfection of the theory. Corrected by the experiments of various observers, the velocity of any impression transmitted by the common air, may, at an average, be reckoned 1130 feet in a second.

M. has also demonstrated, that all impressions are reflected by an obstacle terminating an elastic fluid,