§ 11 Vibration of Bells: Means of Rendering Them Visible
The vibrating segments and nodes of a bell are similar to those of a disk. When a bell sounds its deepest note, the coalescence of its pulses causes it to divide into four vibrating segments, separated from each other by four nodal lines, which run up from the sound-bow to the Fig. 77. crown of the bell. The place where the hammer strikes is always the middle of a vibrating segment; the point diametrically opposite is also the middle of such a segment. Ninety degrees from these points, we have also vibrating segments, while at 45 degrees right and left of them we come upon the nodal lines. Supposing the strong, dark circle in Fig. 77 to represent the circumference of the bell in a state of quiescence, then when the hammer falls on any one of the segments a, c, b, or d, the sound-bow passes periodically through the changes indicated by the dotted lines. At one moment it is an oval, with a b for its longest diameter; at the next moment it is an oval, with c d for its longest diameter. The changes from one oval to the other constitute, in fact, the vibrations of the bell. The four points n, n, n, n, where the two ovals intersect each other, are the nodes. As in the case of a disk, the number of vibrations executed by a bell in a given time varies directly as the thickness, and inversely as the square of the bell’s diameter.
Like a disk, also, a bell can divide itself into any even number of vibrating segments, but not into an odd number. By damping proper points in succession the bell can be caused to divide into 6, 8, 10, and 12 vibrating parts. Beginning with the fundamental note, the number of vibrations corresponding to the respective divisions of a bell, as of a disk, is as follows:
| Number of divisions | 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 | |
| Numbers the squares of which express the | } | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| rates of vibration |
Thus, if the vibrations of the fundamental tone be 40, that of the next higher tone will be 90, the next 160, the next 250, the next 360, and so on. If the bell be thin, the tendency to subdivision is so great that it is almost impossible to bring out the pure fundamental tone without the admixture of the higher ones.
I will now repeat before you a homely, but an instructive experiment. This common jug, when a fiddle-bow is drawn across its edge, divides into four vibrating segments exactly like a bell. The jug is provided with a handle; and you are to notice the influence of this handle upon the tone. When the fiddle-bow is drawn across the edge at a point diametrically opposite to the handle, a certain note is heard. When it is drawn at a point 90° from the handle, the same note is heard. In both these cases the handle occupies the middle of a vibrating segment, loading that segment by its weight. But I now draw the bow at an angular distance of 45° from the handle; the note is sensibly higher than before. The handle in this experiment occupies a node; it no longer loads a vibrating segment, and hence the elastic force, having to cope with less weight, produces a more rapid vibration. Chladni executed with a teacup the experiment here made with a jug. Now bells often exhibit round their sound-bows an absence of uniform thickness tantamount to the want of symmetry in the case of our jug; and we shall learn subsequently that the intermittent sound of many bells, noticed more particularly when their tones are dying out, is produced by the combination of two distinct rates of vibration, which have this absence of uniformity for their origin.
There are no points of absolute rest in a vibrating bell, for the nodes of the higher tones are not those of the fundamental one. But it is easy to show that the various parts of the sound-bow, when the fundamental tone is predominant, vibrate with very different degrees of intensity. Suspending a little ball of sealing-wax a, Fig. 78 (next page), by a string, and allowing it to rest gently against the interior surface of an inverted bell, it is tossed to and fro when the bell is thrown into vibration. But the rattling of the sealing-wax ball is far more violent when it rests against the vibrating segments than when it rests against the nodes. Permitting the ivory bob of a short pendulum to rest in succession against a vibrating segment and against a node of the “Great Bell” of Westminster, I found that in the former position it was driven away five inches, in the latter only two inches and three-quarters, when the hammer fell upon the bell.
Could the “Great Bell” be turned upside down and filled with water, on striking it the vibrations would express themselves in beautiful ripples upon the liquid surface. Similar ripples may be obtained with smaller bells, or even with finger and claret glasses, but they would be too minute for our present purpose. Filling a large hemispherical glass with water, and passing the fiddle-bow across its edge, large crispations immediately cover its surface. When the bow is vigorously drawn, the water rises in spray from the four vibrating segments. Projecting, by means of a lens, a magnified image of the illuminated water-surface upon the screen, pass the bow gently across the edge of the glass, or rub the finger gently along the edge. You hear this low sound, and at the same time observe the ripples breaking, as it were, in visible music over the four sectors of the figure.
You know the experiment of Leidenfrost which proves that, if water be poured into a red-hot silver basin, it rolls about upon its own vapor. The same effect is produced if we drop a volatile liquid, like ether, on the surface of warm water. And, if a bell-glass be filled with ether or with alcohol, a sharp sweep of the bow over the edge of the glass detaches the liquid spherules, which, when they fall back, do not mix with the liquid, but are driven over the surface on wheels of vapor to the nodal lines. The warming of the liquid, as might be expected, improves the effect. M. Melde, to whom we are indebted for this beautiful experiment, has given the drawings, Figs. 79 and 80, representing what occurs when the surface is divided into four and into six vibrating parts. With a thin wineglass and strong brandy the effect may also be obtained.43
The glass and the liquid within it vibrate here together, and everything that interferes with the perfect continuity of the entire mass disturbs the sonorous effect. A crack in the glass passing from the edge downward extinguishes its sounding power. A rupture in the continuity of the liquid has the same effect. When a glass containing a solution of carbonate of soda is struck with a bit of wood, you hear a clear musical sound. But when a little tartaric acid is added to the liquid, it foams, and a dry, unmusical collision takes the place of the musical sound. As the foam disappears, the sonorous power returns, and now that the liquid is once more clear, you hear the musical ring as before.
The ripples of the tide leave their impressions upon the sand over which they pass. The ripples produced by sonorous vibrations have been proved by Faraday competent to do the same. Attaching a plate of glass to a long flexible board, and pouring a thin layer of water over the surface of the glass, on causing the board to vibrate its tremors chase the water into a beautiful mosaic of ripples. A thin stratum of sand strewed upon the plate is acted upon by the water, and carved into patterns, of which Fig. 81 is a reduced specimen.