Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-11-05

This book demonstrates that sound is
corpuscular, being composed of infini-
tesimal particles of electrical matter,
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.
(See THE NEW PHYSICS, PIP. 177-1SO).
That sound makes body vibrate in
which it exists, is demonstrated by the
principle of unison vibration, VIII ere
sound conducted from a vibrating body
to a similar body not vibrating, will
make the latter vibrate. 1t follows
that it must have made the first, a pre-
cisely similar body, vibrate, when in it.
And we know that it did that is,
that the body vibrated 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, that it is made in, vi
brate whilst remaining in them. That
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 or bodies, receiving the shock
may be proven by conducting it through
any conductor las a 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
soa1d- 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 thi s
sound is made by shock, and always it
is composed of infinitesimal 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. This
action of sound, as shown by vibrating
plates, is very remarkable, and quite
similar to the action of odors, - as
camphor gum in water, - largely by
which action, odors We're proven to
be corpuscular although they, too, had
previously been claimed to be undula-
tory. (See THE New PHYSICS, PIP. 234-
249.
That sound is electrical was proven by
the great electrician Oersted, a hundred
years ago, and also by the German
physicist Ritter.
The sounding body is thrown in to
vibration by the electrical m aterial
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 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 a 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 infnitesimal 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
Published by American Publish
Arthur f. Bird, % Be