Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/23

 be of the first impulse, it will appear, by pursuing the calculation a little further, that every one of the elastic bodies, except the last, receives an impulse in a retrograde direction, which ultimately impedes the effect of the succeeding impulse, as much as a similar cause promoted that of the preceding one: and thus, as sound must be conceived to consist of an infinite number of impulses, the motion of the last lamina will be precisely equal to that of the first; and, as far as this mode of reasoning goes, sound must decay in the duplicate ratio of the distance. Hence it appears, that the proposal for adopting the logarithmic curve for the form of the speaking trumpet, was founded on fallacious reasoning. The calculation of M. is left for future examination; and it is intended, in the mean time, to attempt to ascertain the decay of sound as nearly as possible by experiment: should the result favour the conclusions from that calculation, it would establish a marked difference between the propagation of sound and of light.

In order to ascertain the velocity with which organ pipes of different lengths require to be supplied with air, according to the various appropriate sounds which they produce, a set of experiments was made, with the same mouth-piece, on pipes of the same bore, and of different lengths, both stopped and open. The general result was, that a similar blast produced as nearly the same sound as the length of the pipes would permit; or at least that the exceptions, though very numerous, lay equally on each side of this conclusion. The particular results are expressed in Table . and in Plate IV. Fig. 28. They explain how a note may be made much louder on a wind instrument