Abstract
In NATURE, vol. x. p. 223, Prof. Herschel describes some experiments recently made at the Newcastle College of Science, whereby sonorous vibrations are produced in tubes by means of heated wire-gauze instead of the ordinary gas flame. Interesting as are these experiments, they are, however, by no means new. The influence of heated wire-gauze in giving rise to vibrations of air within tubes was, I believe, first published by Prof. Rijke of Leyden. In Kœnig's catalogue for 1865, Rijke's tube is advertised (No. 27) and the method of experiment described. The readiest way of making the experiment is to cut a piece of the ordinary fine iron-gauze to the size of a sixpence or shilling, and press it some three inches up a glass tube of corresponding bore. Almost any length of tube over one foot may be employed, so that notes of varying pitch can be obtained. The gauze is easily heated by a little alcohol flame at the end of a bit of quill tubing. Employing platinum-gauze heated by an electric current, or a gas flame resting above the gauze, the sounds can be rendered permanent. By one or other of these methods no doubt many of your readers have, like myself, often repeated this experiment during the last six or seven years.
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BARRETT, W. Sounding and Sensitive Flames. Nature 10, 244 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/010244a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/010244a0
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