Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-11-14
ECHOES.
How They arc Causcd-Rcmarkabl K a bic
Examples.

SHOWN us, sound, like light, "may b(
/ reflected several times in succession
/ and rs the refracted light under these
circumstances becomes gradually fee
bier to the eye, so the successive echoes
become feebler to the eye. The re-
flectlon of echoes is also in part due tc
the fact that the rejecting surfaces are
at different distances from the hearer. >
Not only is sound in all respects re.
fiected and refracted like light, but il
may. like light, be condensed by suit.
able lenses.
For instance, q bell placed on an emf
nence in Heligoland failed, on account
of its distance, to be heard in the town.
A parabolic reflector, placed behind the
bell so as to reflect the sound waves in
the direction of the long, sloping street,
caused the strokes of the bell to be dis.
tincty heard at all times. Il is found.
too, that curved roofs and ceilings act
as mirrors upon sound, fact of inter.
est to the architect. In some apart
ments the singing of a kettle seems, in
certain positions, to come not from the
fire Oh which it is placed. but from the
ceiling; and so with the ticking of q
clock.
A rather remarkable instance of the
same thing is cited by Sir John Her.
schel. In one of the cathedrals in
Sicily the confessional was so placed
that the whispers of the penitents were
reflected by the curved roof and
brought to focus i'll distant part of
the edifice. The focus was discovered
by accident, and for some time the
person who discovered it took pleasure
IN hearing, and bringing his friends to
hear, utterances intended for the priest
alone.
WHISPERING CEREMONIES.
The whispering gallery Of st. Paul's
IS another well-known instance. Here
the taintest sound is conveyed from
one side to the other of the dome, but
is not heard at any intermediate point.
at Gloucester Cathedral, a gallery of
an octagonal form conveys whisper
seventy-five feet across the nave. while
the ticks of watch may be heard from
one end of the abbey church of st.
Albans to the other
While echoes whisper secrets in the
areas OF antique halls, in the windines
OF long corridors, in the melancholy
alsles OF arched cathedrals and ruined
abbeys, they are no less partial to cav
erns and grottoes, and reverberate with
loudest voice among the mountains
There are single and compound echoes.
Some repeat only one syllable aud
sounds of a certain pitch; others,
known as Pathological echoes, repeat
the same words many times in varied |
tones.
The reason of this is that thel echo |
ing body is far of, and there is time
for one reflection to pass away before |
another reaches the ear. Mission. in
his description of Italy, mentions an
echo in the vineyard of Simonetta, |
about two miles from Milan, which re-.
fleets q word twenty times over. Cas-
endi tells of another, near the tomb of !
Cecilia Metella at Rome, which re-
peated the first verse of the Eneid |
eight times aud third, near Cobleutz.
repeats seventeen times. There is a |
cul-de-sac called the Ochseuthal. near
Rosenlaui, in Switzerland, where the
echoes warble in q wonderful manner.
The sound of the Alpine horn, also, re-
bounding from the rocks of the Wetter.
horn or the Jungfrau, is, in the first
instance, heard roughly; but by sue
cessive reflections the notes are rem
dered more soft and flute like. the
general dim intuition of intensity giving
the impression that the source of sound
is retreatlng further and further into
the solitudes of ice and snow.
THE 1uRlE1 ECHO.
A very famous echo is that at Lurlei.
It is thus described by the author Of
the Rhine aud its Picturesque
Scenery: "An old soldier blows
q tantivy on his huge French hunting
horn. No sooner have the fine brassy
notes ceased than you hear them re-
Peated ON the opposite shores, SO dis
tinctly, too, that, though you know it
is but!an echo. you can hardly persuade
yourself that there is not some one
concealed on theitop of Lurlei imitat-
ing the (sounds. The next portion of
the entertainment is with the muskct;
and for this the old guard waits till the
air is perfectly still. Then directly q
lull ensues in the breeze, click goes
the trigger, and the report rattles
against tile wall Of the opposite rock
as it the crags were tumbling down in
q shower; and no sooner has it burst
upon the ear than you hear q second
explosion, and almost as loud as the
first, Gathering behind the summit of
Lurlei. '.''.
"This time, however, the echo does
not end here, for the moment after the
sound seems to be ascending the river
in q kind of small thunder peal, NUT.
tering along the opposite cliffs; then
comes pause as it leaps across the
stream, after which you catch it again
on the same side of the Rhine as your-
self, and ascending along the rocks in
fainter and faster peals, till it reaches
the vineyard aij Joining the Felsenbank,
by st. Goar; and the next instant, after
another pause, the ear detects it across
the river once more, where it ultimately
expires, will, q faint puff; just above
the ruins of Katz."
Visitors to Killarney will remember
the fine echo in the Gap of Dundee.
When trumpet is sounded in = Ger.
tain place in the Gap, the sonorous
waves reach the ear in succession after
one, two, three, or more, reflections
from the adjacent cliffs, and thus die
away in the sweetest cadences. One at
Park, near Oxford, repeats
seventeen syllables by day and twenty
by night; another at Shi ipley Church,
in Suxsex, does no fewer than twenty.
one syllables.
THE ULLEswATER ECHO.
We get more astonishing effects still
at Ulleswater, lying between the coun-
ties of Cumberland and Westn,oreland.
There used to he, and may be now, a
small vessel on the lake, mounted with
brass canon for the purpose of exciting
the echoes. A gunshot was distinctly
seven or eight times. It
first rose overhead in one vast peal
then suoduing a few seconds, it rose :
again in a grand interrupted burst on
the right.
Presently it rose on the lef., and
thus thrown from rock to rock in a sort
Of aerial perspective, it was caught
again perhaps by some nearer promon-
tory, and returning full on the ear,
you, after you thought all
was over, with rs loud peal as ut first.
The grnndest effect, however, was pro- {
auced by successive discharge of can.
non ut an interval of few seconds be- {
tween each. The effect of the first was {
not over when the echoes of the second, {
the third, or perhaps the fourth, be-
gan. Such a variety OF awful sounds,
mingling and commingiing, and at the
same moment heard from all sides. {
lno1o nuo imor;no A1,ok k1,o .,o.., co,,,, |