Molecular Vibrations

Abstract

MR. CHAPPELL is certainly right in stating that “the noises in a belfry are most discordant.” He might have said (what no doubt he meant) that the sounds emitted by each single bell are most discordant. Every bell which is at all tolerable, possesses, it is true, one predominating note due to the thick part of the bow, where the clapper strikes, but there are also innumerable other notes, some of which may be harmonics, while the majority are not so at all. This is presumably often owing to flaws and other defects in casting, but there is another cause common to every case, which is due to the following fact:—