Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-02-18
Rainbow Music.

THE LATEST NEW YORK SENSATION STRANGE
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE Music OF THE FU-
TIRE.
Bainbridge Bishop, an artist of New Rus
STA, Essex county, n. Y. "a few miles back
of WestporD, patented in January, 1877, the
invention of a color organ, which he has
lately perfected by the building of an instru-
ment, now on exhibition in New York.
From his youth the idea Of harmony and re-
ciprocal correspondence between color and
music has been a favorite subject of thought.
For the past five or six years he has been
working to produce an instrument which
should practically carry out his ideas. lie
does not claim that il is Il complete success,
but that in time he will be able to make one
that is The working of his present ins,ru-
ment is interesting and novel and shows
that when brought 10 perfection, if possible,
an ingenious application of laws hitherto not
perfectly understood may be put TO various
semi practical purposes. One of these would
be to furnish 10 deaf people some substitute
for music, which is one of the greatest of
pleasures to those not similarly unfortunate.
In short, to impress upon the brain. by medi-
um of the retina of the eye, what is generally
done by the tympanum of the ear. Mr..
Bishop, though he Acknowledges that he
cannot find any arbitrary connection between
the laws governing harmony in music and
color, claims TO show that there is a
correspondence in harmony between the two.
That is To say he attempts 10 play
harmony in color on the ground glass
screens which surmount his organ. cores
bonding with, and suitable in shading for
bass and treble, to any piece of music which
he PLAYS on the latter The reproduction of
the colors of the spectrum, which he pro-
duces by the use of their corresponding keys,
is almost perfect. He has divided these
colors into semi-tones, being obliged to add
red to the violet edge TO fill out the number
of the requisite ones. lie has arranged his
complementary music color octave as fol
lows: C. red G sharp, orange red ID,
orange ; ID sharp, orange yellow Il, yellow;
F, ycllowish green F sharp, green; G,
blush green q sharp, green y violet
blue 4 sharp, violet b, violet red, and c,
light red The color organ is of five octaycs
At either side of long, upright, triangular
boxed space, which contains the me-
chanism, are single plates of ground
glass, which constitute the expoSi-
ton surfaces. These are perpendicu-
lar TO the top Of the ergan, and make ohtuSe
angles with the edges of the box. Arranged
inside the woodwork, along the line where
il Joins the glass are small windows contain
Ing panes of various colored glasses. These
only admit light which vibrateS to Il certain
pitch, thus producing the various colors; rs
in the tubes of II reed organ the air vihrateS
TO certain pitch, according to the size of
the opening and of the tube itself. Each
note, as played on the keys of the organ be-
low. drops a little shutter or light valve away
from Il pane of colorcd glass, allowing the
light to pass through for greater or less
time and he displayed On the glass screen,
deep in color near the opening and gradually
fading away along the surface When
series of adjacent organ keys is touched the
blending of colOrs at the outer edge OF the
screen is very harmonious The difficulty
of procuring all the necessary shades of glass
interferes in few instances. The instru-
ment is placed with lis back To the light,
which passes first through white curtain
Others are placed back of the ground glass
surfaces, falling concavely, from the edge
of the line of the colorcd windows
to the outer edge of the former. This con-
centrates the culOrs on tho glass exposition
surfaces.
There was, Mr. Bishop thought, dis
tinct relation bctweea sound apd color. Not
merely the relation implied by the vibrations
that produce colored rays and the vibrations
that produce tones, hut something absolute
a color for a tone He found that science
had noted an increased number OF vibrations
rs YOU ascend the musical scale and also IN
creased vibrations AS You ascend the prs
matte scale from red to violet. hut how II
strike the line where the red would mean
certain note and how to divide noes and
color when the starting point was found
added to his cugitations AT last he struck
an idea in the rainbow. The red should he
the fundamental do, and he would 10 the
best he could TO divide the color scale into
the chromatc He was n painter, and some
thing told him that all colors were best dis
played ON n sympathetic gray. In the long
Adirondack Winters he built his instrument
with his own hands. lie is not a mechanic
he is not Il musician hut he has done all
this 50 that it fairly develops his idea.
Fernando Wood, who died at Hot Springs
Arkansas, Sunday night, was Of Quaker an
cestry and was born in Philadelphia, June
II, 1872 lie began life in the employment
of cigar maker in his native city, but soon
obtained clerkship in counting house.
Early in life he removed To New York, and
became identified with the shipping interest
as n shipowncr and successful merchant re