The Helmholtz Theory of Hearing

Abstract

DR. E. W. SCRIPTURE, in his letter on the above subject in NATURE of April 22, p. 518, has dealt with the case in which the note is continuously changing, and shows that when this is so every resonance organ of the ear must act at every instant for every vibration of the voice. Now suppose a pure fundamental note (i.e. one without harmonics) to be started and continued. At the start it would, on the principle of the apparatus designed by Dr. Hartridge, cause all the resonance organs of the ear to act, and we should hear a certain quantity of sound. Then gradually all, except one, of the resonance organs would cease to act, and we should hear only by means of the one which was synchronous with the pure note, and if this were so, presumably the quantity of sound would then appear to us much less than at the start. Has such an effect ever been recorded? If not, there would appear to be something wrong with the hypothesis.