Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1855-07-18
NO. so.
coNcKRT By UNSEEN MUSICIANS.


The Home Journal translates the following
from a French paper:
Imagine yourself in drawing room, one of
a numerous audience, all gazing intently upon
the sounding boards ofseveral solitary harps.
No one is near these .harpsi no human hand
touches their ringing cords-and yet you are
present at a delicious concert; you listen to a
thrilling harmony which seems to come from
these mute instruments, or to magically ex-
hale from some mysterious region. In
listening to this harmonious combination, one
believes that he distinctly hears the brilliant
tones of the violin, the rapid chords of the pi
ano, the clear and ringing tones of the clario-
net and hautboy, the grave and prevailing
voice Of the bass vio.
One seeks With ones eye and ones ear TO
discover the secret cause of this striking phe-
nomenon, but one sees only what had at
first seen-these instruments standing apart,
which seem to speak and sing of themselves,
without even receiving the gentle caresses of
the wind, which make the 4Eolian harp breathe
such indescribable things.
The impression which this mysterious music
made upon those present was such that many
persons could not bear tit made them ill.
y strange thing occurs. After severalpiec-
es of music have been played, the music ceas-
es Instantly, in the midst Of musical phrase.
A complete silence ensues. Then, in few
moments, the music is resumed without any
change taking place in the hall but enc, which
one would have supposed entirely foreign TO
the phenomenon, and it was this when the
music ceased, hand pressed lightly upon the
harp had broken its connection with small
strip of wood; when the music sounded again,
the connection had been restored.
Let us give the explanation of the mystery,
which is not one, but simply new demonstra-
tion of that well known property OF solid bod
les to transmit the waves of sound more quick
ly and with greater intensity than air. The
idea originated with the celebrated physician,
Wheatstone. The experiment was tested at
the Royal Polytechnic Institute of London,
under the supervision of its director, Mon
sieur Pepper.
The strips of wood of which we have spoken
are of pine, two centimetres in thickness. They
pass through the floor, into very deep cellar
beneath, where the lower end of them is fas-
tened to the instrument played upon by four
musicians, playing sometimes alone, some
times as quartette. Two were fastened to
the bridge of the violin and violincello, one
to the sounding-board of the piano, and the
fourth below the stop of the clarionet.
These strips Of wood, like tubes, transmit
the waves of sound from the instruments be-
low to the sounding boards of the harps above.
and thanks TO the power of vibration with
which the wood is endued to so great degree,
the resonance ofthe former is greatly increased.
The vibration OF the sounding boards can be
made apparent 10 the eye by the figures which
drawn upon them by sand when thrown
upon them.
Air and gas transmit the waves of sound
much less distinctly than water or solid bod
les. Liquids transmit sound four times faster
than air, and solid bodies twelve or fourteen
times quicker. This principle is the key to
the mysterious concert which we have de-
scribed.