Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-12-22

IOlal.s.. .l225
When in the grand crescendO passages
these six organists rose simultaneously from
their seats, and rcceding Il couple Of PAGES,
rushed forward i'll line, throwing their col
lectiye weight of over twelve hundred pounds
upon the pedals, the musical eXplosiOn--for
by no other name can it be desgnated-was
terribly grand. Through inadvertence the
root trapdoors of the Music Hall had NOT
been raised, and the first effect Of this great
defamation of sound was to lift the heavy tin
ROOF from the wall sockets some fifteen feet
into the air, holding it suspended there until
the immense volume OF sound had forced IL
passage beneath it. 1t is proposed to avert
similar accidents by placing an immense sound
escape chimney over the Music Hall, after
the style of draught chimney to a furnace ::
but DIR. Holmes, who has given much atLen-
ton to acoustics, suggests-perhaps not al
together Seriously-tlIat the condensed sound
+ thus vented may fall upon the city in solid
chunChS, doing damage
Outside the building the effects were quite
as remarkable. 1t was noticed that the spires
of the different churches in the city vibrated
over an arc of several degrees, the weather.
vanes upon them dipping and uscillating in
the most singular manner, from the same
cause. The walls Of houses throughout the
city were sensibly shaken, furniture displaced,
&c, causing many timd persons to rush to
the street, thinking it an earthquake. In the
towns Immediately adjoining Boston the con-
custom also was supposed to be an earth
quake. 1T Newburyport it was thought that
the sound Indicated heavy naval engage
ment of Boston harb0r. At Salem a Earring
conclusion and report was experienced, re-
SeuiOllng in sound heavy burden-train pass
ing over treStlework bridge. At Jamaica
Plains it was thought to proceed from Il thun-
der storm in the direction of Boston, and, Gu
riouSly enough, the barometer fell several de-
grees at that point; and the same fact was
noticed at Natick, Lynn, and as far distant as
Taunton.
The water receded from Boston harbor in
wave of considerable magnitude, and in its
retrOgrade and return Swamped, stranded and
keeled over several vessels, doing no little
damage to the commercial interests. Gold
fish in globes, and fish OF all kinds in aqua
ria, were instantly killed; and what, for a
time, was unexplainabe, was the fact that
they sank Immediately, until it was ascer-
tanned by DR.. Holmes that their bladders had
been burstby the conclusion; when, OF course,
being minus their floating apparatus, they
went down like lead. DIR. Holmes states also
the remarkable fact that numerous bodies of
drowned persons were brought to the surface in
the harbor and in Charles river by the same
concession. A singular effect was produced
by the pulsatiUn of sound from the crescendo
defamation passing along the telegraph lines
from Boston in various directions, and which
travelled distance Of from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred miles over some wires,
or until considerable bodies OF running water
were encountered, over which, from some
uneXplanabe cause in acoustics, the Eolian
tone-which is described as Il wild, uncanny
wail-would in no instance pass. DIR. Holmes
humorously notes that the same fact is record
ed of wtches-i. e., that they cannot pass
over streams of running water. Another
curious feature of this phenomenon was the
fact that musical tone sweled and contracted
in regular crescendOes and dminuendoes at
equal intervals along the wires. Thus at
Worcester, which is forty five miles from
Boston, the sound was barely perceptlble.
while at Springfield, just double the distance,
the tone approached to shrek in volume.
DR.. Holmes thus explains this interesting
fact 1t is well known among musicians that
the vibrations upon the strings of II violin
harp, or any Stringed instruments, do not
take the shape of single pulsation with it,
maximum expansion at the centre OF til,
string, but are divided along the string in
numerous stronger pulsatunS or crrscendOs
crossing each other at regular dlminurndO in
tervals, at which latter point the string is
nearly or quite motonesS The knowledge
OF this curious law OF vibration readily affords
solution, says DIR. Holmes, to the mystery o
the telcgraphic crescendo freaks noticed. DIR
Holmes, who, in company with Mayor Lin.
coin, delegation ofthe Boston city council
and body Of leading sayans Of the Harvard
persuasion, made an interesting pedestrian
tour through some eight or ten miles OF thu
ma n mines of the monster organ before it wa
set up, has written n graphic description 0
the trip. and of the organ as Il whole. Tn
party found no difficulty in walking quit
erect Though at least six miles Of the majo
pipes, and got through the smaller Eolial
tuOes quite comfortably on their hands am
knees. His description of the great inStru
ment has appeared in book form under til
GproPoS Of 'SOundings from the Atlantic"