CHAPTER XIV.Sound.
Besides the function which air discharges as the great agent in the changes of meteorology and vegetation, it has another office, also of great and extensive importance, as the vehicle of sound.
1. The communication of sound through the air takes place by means of a process altogether different from anything of which we have yet spoken: namely, by the propagation of minutevibrationsof the particles from one part of the fluid mass to another, without any local motion of the fluid itself.
Perhaps we may most distinctly conceive the kind of effect here spoken of, by comparing it to the motion produced by the wind in a field of standing corn; grassy waves travel visibly over the field, in the direction in which the wind blows, but this appearance of an object moving is delusive. The only real motion is that of the ears of grain, of which each goes and returns, as the stalk stoops and recovers itself. This motion affectssuccessivelya line of ears in the direction of the wind, and affectssimultaneouslyall those ears of which the elevation or depression forms one visible wave. The elevations and depressions are propagated in a constant direction, while the parts with which the space is filled only vibrate to and fro. Of exactly such a nature is the propagation of sound through the air. The particles of air go and return through very minutespaces, and this vibratory motion runs through the atmosphere from the sounding body to the ear. Waves, not of elevation and depression, but of condensation and rarefaction, are transmitted; and the sound thus becomes an object of sense to the organ.
Another familiar instance of the propagation of vibrations we have in the circles on the surface of smooth water, which diverge from the point where it is touched by a small object, as a drop of rain. In the beginning of a shower, for instance, when the drops come distinct, though frequent, we may see each drop giving rise to a ring, formed of two or three close concentric circles, which grow and spread, leaving the interior of the circles smooth, and gradually reaching parts of the surface more and more distant from their origin. In this instance, it is clearly not a portion of the water which flows onwards; but the disturbance, the rise and fall of the surface which makes the ring-formed waves, passes into wider and wider circles, and thus the undulation is transmitted from its starting-place, to points in all directions on the surface of the fluid.
The diffusion of these ring-formed undulations from their centre resembles the diffusion of a sound from the place where it is produced to the points where it is heard. The disturbance, or vibration, by which it is conveyed, travels at the same rate in all directions, and the waves which are propagated are hence of a circular form. They differ, however, from those on the surface of water; for sound is communicated upwards and downwards, and in all intermediate directions, as well as horizontally; hence the waves of sound are spherical, the point where the sound is produced being the centre of the sphere.
This diffusion of vibrations in spherical shells of successive condensation and rarefaction, will easily be seen to be different from any local motion of the air, as wind, and to be independent of that. The circles on the surface of water will spread on a riverwhich is flowing, provided it be smooth, as well as on a standing canal.
Not only are such undulations propagated almost undisturbed by any local motion of the fluid in which they take place, but also, many may be propagated in the same fluid at the same time, without disturbing each other. We may see this effect on water. When several drops fall near each other, the circles which they produce cross each other, without either of them being lost, and the separate courses of the rings may still be traced.
All these consequences, both in water, in air, and in any other fluid, can be very exactly investigated upon mechanical principles, and the greater part of the phenomena can thus be shown to result from the properties of the fluids.
There are several remarkable circumstances in the way in which air answers its purpose as the vehicle of sound, of which we will now point out a few.
2. Theloudnessof sound is such as is convenient for common purposes. The organs of speech can, in the present constitution of the air, produce, without fatigue, such a tone of voice as can be heard with distinctness and with comfort. That any great alteration in this element might be incommodious, we may judge from the difficulties to which persons are subject who are dull of hearing, and from the disagreeable effects of a voice much louder than usual, or so low as to be indistinct. Sounds produced by the human organs, with other kinds of air, are very different from those in our common air. If a man inhale a quantity of hydrogen gas, and then speak, his voice is scarcely audible.
The loudness of sounds become smaller in proportion as they come from a greater distance. This enables us to judge of the distance of objects, in some degree at least, by the sounds which proceed from them. Moreover, it is found that we can judge of the position of objects by the ear: and this judgment seems to be formed by comparing the loudnessof the impression of the same sound on the two ears and two sides of the head.[14]
The loudness of sounds appears to depend on theextentof vibration of the particles of air, and this is determined by the vibrations of the sounding body.
3. Thepitch, or thedifferences of acute and grave, in sounds, form another important property, and one which fits them for a great part of their purposes. By the succession of differentnotes, we have all the results of melody and harmony in musical sound; and of intonation and modulation of the voice, of accent, cadence, emphasis, expression, passion, in speech. The song of birds, which is one of their principal modes of communication, depends chiefly for its distinctions and its significance upon the combinations of acute and grave.
These differences are produced by the differentrapidityof vibration of the particles of air. The gravest sound has about eighty vibrations in a second, the most acute about one thousand. Between these limits each sound has a musical character, and from the different relations of the number of vibrations in a second arise all the differences of musical intervals, concords and discords.
4. Thequalityof sounds is another of their differences. This is the name given to the difference of notes of the same pitch, that is the same note as to acute and grave, when produced by different instruments. If a flute and a violin be in unison, the notes are still quite different sounds. It is this kind of difference which distinguishes the voice of one man from that of another: and it is manifestly therefore one of great consequence; since it connects the voice with the particular person, and is almost necessary in order that language may be a medium of intercourse between men.
5. Thearticulatecharacter of sounds is for us one of the most important arrangements which exist inthe world; for it is by this that they become the interpreters of thought, will and feeling, the means by which a person can convey his wants, his instructions, his promises, his kindness, to others; by which one man can regulate the actions and influence the convictions and judgments of another. It is in virtue of the possibility of shaping air into words, that the imperceptible vibrations which a man produces in the atmosphere, become some of his most important actions; the foundations of the highest moral and social relations; and the condition and instrument of all the advancement and improvement of which he is susceptible.
It appears that the differences of articulate sound arise from the different form of the cavity through which the sound is made to proceed immediatelyafterbeing produced. In the human voice the sound is produced in the larynx, and modified by the cavity of the mouth, and the various organs which surround this cavity. The laws by which articulate sounds are thus produced have not yet been fully developed, but appear to be in the progress of being so.
The properties of sounds which have been mentioned, differences of loudness, of pitch, of quality, and articulation, appear to be all requisite in order that sound shall answer its purposes in the economy of animal and of human life. And how was the air made capable of conveying these four differences, at the same time that the organs were made capable of producing them? Surely by a most refined and skilful adaptation, applied with a most comprehensive design.
6. Again; is it by chance that the air and theearexist together? Did the air produce the organization of the ear? or the ear, independently organized, anticipate the constitution of the atmosphere? Or is not the only intelligible account of the matter, this, that one was made for the other: that there is a mutual adaptation produced by an Intelligence which was acquainted with the properties of both; whichadjusted them to each other as we find them adjusted, in order that birds might communicate by song, that men might speak and hear, and that language might play its extraordinary part in its operation upon men’s thoughts, actions, institutions, and fortunes?
The vibrations of an elastic fluid like the air, and their properties, follow from the laws of motion; and whether or not these laws of the motion of fluids might in reality have been other than they are, they appear to us inseparably connected with the existence of matter, and as much a thing of necessity as we can conceive any thing in the universe to be. The propagation of such vibrations, therefore, and their properties, we may at present allow to be a necessary part of the constitution of the atmosphere. But what is it that makes these vibrations become sound? How is it that they produce such an effect on our senses, and, through those, on our minds? The vibrations of the air seem to be of themselves no more fitted to produce sound, than to produce smell. We know that such vibrations do not universally produce sound, but only between certain limits. When the vibrations are fewer than eighty in a second, they are perceived as separate throbs, and not as a continued sound; and there is a certain limit of rapidity, beyond which the vibrations become inaudible. This limit is different to different ears, and we are thus assured by one person’s ear that there are vibrations, though to that of another they do not produce sound. How was the human ear adapted so that its perception of vibrations as sounds should fall within these limits?—the very limits within which the vibrations fall, which it most concerns us to perceive: those of the human voice for instance? How nicely are the organs adjusted with regard to the most minute mechanical motions of the elements?