Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-09-12
Facts About Riddles.

Charles Reade, the novelist, writes tc
to the Pail Mall Gazette as follows:
Under the head of Cremona Fiddles
for want of better, let me sing the
four.stringed instruments that were
made in Italy from about 1860 to 1850
and varnished with high colored yet
transparent varnishes, the secret OF
which, known to numberless families in
l745, had vanished off the earth by 1850,
and has now for fifty years baffled the
laborious researches of violin makers,
amateurs and chemists.
The modern orchestra uses four.
stringed instruments, played with bow;
the smallestis is the king; its construction
is a marvel of art; and, as we are too
apt to underrate familiar miracles, let
me analyze this wooden paragon, by way
of showing what great architects in
wood those Italians were who invented
this instrument and its fellows at Brescia
and Bologna. The violin itself, apart
from its mere accessories, consists Of a
scroll or head, weighing an ounce or two,
slim neck, thin back, that ought to
be made of Swiss sycamore, thin belly
of Swiss deal, and sides of Swiss syca-
more no thicker than sixpence. This
little wooden shell delivers an amount
OF sound that is simply monstrous; but,
to do that, it must submit to strain of
which the public has no conception.
Let us suppose two claimants to take
opposite ends of a violin-string, and to
pull against each other with all their
weight; the tension of the string so pro-
duced would not equal the tension which
is created by the screw in raising that
string to concert pitch. Consider, then,
that not one but four strings tug night
and day, like team of demons, at the
wafer-like sides Of this wooden shell.
Why does it not collapsed Well, it would
collapse with crash, long before the
strings reached concert pitch, if the
violin was not a wonder inside as we'll as
out. The problem was to withstand that
severe pressure without Gripping the
vast vibration by solidity. The inventors
approached the difficulty thus: they in
serted six blocks of lime or of some light
wood; one of these blocks at the lower
end of the violin, one at the upper and
one at each corner-the corner blocks
very small and triangular; the top and
bottom blocks much larger, and shaped
like capital d, the straight line of the
block lying close TO the sides, and the
curved line outwards. Then they
slightly connected all the blocks by two
sets of Innings; these Innings are not
above a quarter of an inch deep, l sup
pose, and no thicker than an old penny
piece, but they connect those six blocks |
and help to distribute the resistance.
Even so the shell would sucoumb in |
time; but now the inventor killed two
birds with one stone; he cunningly d.
Verted portion Of the pressure by the
very means that we're necessary to the
sound. He placed the bridge on the
belly of the 'EiGljn, and that raised the
strings out of the direct line of tension,
and relieved the lateral pressaFs at the
expense of the belly. But as the belly
S . weak Grch, it must now be strength
sned in its turn. Accordingly a bass-bar
vas glued horizontally 10 the belly,
inder one foot of the bridge. This bass
,ar is a very small piece of deal, about
he length and half the size OF an old
fashioned lead pencil, but, the ends being
apered of, it is glued on to the belly.
With a spring in it, and supports the
.ellg nagically. As proof ho= nicely all
hese things we're balanced, the bass,bar
'f Gasparo da Solo, the Amati, and Stra-
Iiuarins being o little shDrter and shall
over than q modern bass-bar, did admi-
ably for their day. yet will not do Eoy.
)ur raised concert pitch has clapped on
more tension, and straightway you must
emove the bass-bar even OF Stradiua-
ius, and substitute one q little longer
nd deeper, or our Cremona sounds like
strung frying-pan. EEn
Remove nov from the violin, which
or two centuries has endured this strain,
be finger board, tail-piece, tail.pin and