Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-08-20
FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1909.
THE NEW PHYSICS.
BY JOSEPH BATTELL.

UeSlIndl PARTICLES VI eleCIIICdl HldIIel,
which are produced by shock or fric
ton in the body struck. Sound includes
the principle of motion, which causes the
body, in which it is made, to vibrate, by
which vibration the sound is more or less
gradually thrown into the air, and
finds its way through the ears of
sentient beings to the auditory nerve,
thus producing the sensation of Sound
That sound makes body vibrate in
which it exists, is demonstrated by the
principle of unison vibration, where
sound conducted from a vibrating body
to similar body not vibrating, will
make the latter vibrate. 1t follows
that it must have made the first, pre-
cisely similar body, vibrate, when in it.
And we know that it did; that is,
that the body vbrated and always vi
brated when the sound was in it, and
always ceases to vibrate when the sound
leaves it. 1t would be impossible to
have stronger proof that sound makes
certain bodies, those that it is made in,
is, that sound is always moving, which
is true not only whilst it is in the body
in which it is made but through its
whole existence.
That,the sound is completed, whilst in
the body receiving the shock, may be
proven by conducting it through any
conductor (as spruce stick to the
teeth or bones of the head, and thence
to the auditory nerve; when it will be
perceived that it is precisely the same
kind of sound as that thrown off by the
sounding body into the air, and thus
conducted through the ear to the au
ditory nerve. In the first case the
sound that is heard does not enter the
air at all, but comes directly through
other channels from the vibrating body.
1t follows again that sound is a fluid,
which may flow through many channels,
and therefore is entirely Independent of
any particular conductor.
There could be no sound if there was
not proper material to make it of. This
is true of everything. Always this
sound is made by shock, and always it
is composed of infnitesimal particles of
electrical matter. That it is so composed
is proven; because it can be conducted
through the air and elsewhere, but not
seen or felt; because it spreads in the
air in every direction and may be heard
for long distances; because when sound
is made in vibrating plates covered with
water, it will be thrown from the plates
into the air through the water, its effect
upon which is most plainly visible. (See
THE New PHYSICS, PIP. 234249)
That sound is electrical was proven by
the great electrician Oersted, hundred
years ago, together with the German
physicist Ritter.
The sounding body is thrown into
vibration by the electrical m teri a !
produced by shock, thus acting as ma
chinery for mixing or shaping the diff
ferent sounds; each body thus determin-
ing the character of the sound emana-
ting from it, and always making the
same, or a similar sound. And as the
different machines of a saw-mill decide
the kind of lumber which it produces, so
do the different bodies of the world, act
ing as machinery, decide the character
of sounds.
In neither case, or in any case, does
the material of the machinery which
shapes or makes things become part
of the things made; and in no case does
the machinery make the material from
which the goods it manufactures are
made. In the case of sound, as we have
said, the material is nfnitesmal par
ticles of electrical matter, made by
shock. And bodies, millions of them,
act as machinery to manufacture from
this material, the different sounds.
For all sounds like everything else in
the material universe, are the product
of different forms of matter mixed in
different proportions, each made instant
ly and completely, and always the same
sound by the same body, but sounds
made in certain gases are always weak.
Or if shock takes place in vacuum
there will be no sound, evidently because
the material to make it is wanting
And indeed the intensity of sounds
always depends upon the density of the
air where they are made, which is &
demonstration that they are in part, il
not entirely, made from material in air
(See The New PHYSICS, PIP. 66-7l inclu
sive).
Again sound is far more intense wher