The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-02-27


When in the grand crescendo passages these six
organists rose simultaneously from their seats.
and receding n couple of PAGES, rushed forward
in line, throwing their collective weight of over
loo lbs. upon the pedals, the musical explosion
for BY no other name can II be designated-was
terribly grand. Through inadvertence the roof
trap-doors 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 Is feet into the air, holding it
suspended there until the immense volume of
sound had forced a passage beneath it. It is
proposed to avert similar accidents by placing an
immense sound-escape chimney over the Music
Hall, after the style of the draught chimney to
q furnace but DIR. Holmes, who has given much
attention to acoustics, suggests-perhaps not al
together seriOusly-that the condensed sound
thus vented may fall upon the city IN solid CHUNKS,
doing damage.
Outside the building the effects were quite as
remarkable. 1t was noticed that the spires of
the different churches in the city vibratcd over
an arc of several degrees, the weather-vanes upon
them dipping and oscillating in the most singular
manner, from the same cause. The walls of the
houses throughout the city were sensibly shaken,
furniture displaced, &C., causing many timid
persons to rush to the street, thinking il an
earthquake.
In the towns Immediately adjoining Boston,
the conclusion also was supposed to be an earth
quake. At NewburypOrb it was thought that
the sound indicated Il heavy naval engagement
on Boston harbor. At Salem a EARRING concus-
sion and report was experienced, resembling in
sound a heavy burden train passing over a tressel-
work bridge. At Janaica. Plains 1t was thought
to proceed from a thunderstorm in the direction
of Boston, and curiously enough. the barometer
fell several degrees at that point; and the same
fact was noticed at Natick, Lynn, and as far
distant as Taunton.
The water re,eded from Boston harbor in a
wave of cons~1erable magnitude, and in its retro
grade 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
aquaria, were instantly killed and what, for a
time, was unexplainable, was the fact that they
sank Immediately, until it was ascertained by
DR.. Holmes that their bladders had been burst
by the conclusion when, of course being minus
their hoating-apparatus, they went down like
lead. DE-. Holmes states also the remarkable
fact that numerous dead bodies of drowned per-
sons were brought to the surface in the harbor
and in Charles river by the same conclusion.
\ singular effect was produced by the pulsation
OF sound from the crescendo defamation passing
along the telegraph lines from Boston in various
directions, and which travelled a distance OF
from $50 to 200 miles over some wires, or until
considerable bodies OF running water were en-
countered, over which, from some unexplainable
cause in acoustics, the Eolian = is
described as n wild, uncanny wail-would i'm no
instance pass. DIR. Holmes humorously notes
that the same fact is recorded of witches. e..
that they cannot pass over streams of running
water Another curious feature of this phe-
nomenon was the fact that musical tone swelled
and contracted in regular crescendoes and dimi-
nuendos at equal intervals along the wires.
Thus at Worcester, which is As miles from Bos-
ton, the sound was barely perceptible while at
Springfield, just double the distance, the tone
approached to a shrek in volume.
DIR. Holmes thus explain, this interesting fact.
1t - well known among musicians that the
vibrations upon the strings of a violin, harp. or
any other stringed instrument, do not take the
shape of n single pulsaticn with its maximum
expansion at the centre Of the string, but are
divided along the string, IN numerous smaller
pulsations or crescendoes, crossing each other at
regular diminuendo intervals, at which latter
point the string is nearly or quite motionless.
The knowledge of this curious law of vibration
readily affords a solution, says DR.. Holmes, to
the mystery of the telegrashic crescendo freaks
noticed.
DR.. Holmes, who, in company with Mayor
Lincoln, a delegation of the Boston city councils,
and a body of leading Swans of Harvard persua-
sion, made an interesting pedestrian tour through
some eight or ten miles of the main pipes of the
monster organ before it was set up, has written
a graphic description of the trip, and of the
organ as n whole. The party found no difficulty
in walking quite erect through at least six miles
of the major pipes, and got through the. smaller
Eolian tubes quite comfortably on their hands
and knees. His description of the great instru-
Inent has appeared in book form under the
apropos title OF SoundIngs from the Atlantic.