Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/9

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Dr. Young's Experiments and Inquiries

The frequency of vibrations constituting a given note. XIII. The vibrations of chords. XIV. The vibrations of rods and plates. XV. The human voice. XVI. The temperament of musical intervals.

I. Of the Quantity of Air discharged through an Aperture.

A piece of bladder was tied over the end of the tube of a large glass funnel, and punctured with a hot needle. The funnel was inverted in a vessel of water; and a gage, with a graduated glass tube, was so placed as to measure the pressure occasioned by the different levels of the surfaces of the water. As the air escaped through the puncture, it was supplied by a phial of known dimensions, at equal intervals of time; and, according to the frequency of this supply, the average height of the gage was such as is expressed in the first Table. It appears, that the quantity of air discharged by a given aperture, was nearly in the subduplicate ratio of the pressure; and that the ratio of the expenditures by different apertures, with the same pressure, lay between the ratio of their diameters and that of their areas. The second, third, and fourth Tables show the result of similar experiments, made with some variations in the apparatus. It may be inferred, from comparing the experiments on a tube with those on a simple perforation, that the expenditure is increased, as in water, by the application of a short pipe.