Text: 16) It was stated (§10) that the sound of a vibrating string was in general compounded of a number of simple tones, and a well trained ear can detect a considerable number of them. If it were not for these harmonic components the tones of strings, pipes, of the human voice, or in short, of every instrument most generally used for the production of sound, would be flat and uninteresting like pure water. Each harmonic component is by itself a simple tone, and is due to the vibration of the corresponding segment of the string superposed upon that of the whole*. The same statement applies, mutatis mutandis to pipes, whether open or stopped. That the harmonics of different instruments greatly influence their several charcters is observable in the differene of the tones of a flute, and clarinet. A flute is an open pipe, a clarinet a stopped one end; in the former, therefore, the harmonics follow the order of the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and in the latter the order 1, 3, 5, 7; the intermediate notes being supplied by opening the lateral orifices of the instrument. * Society is an accurate analogy to this statement: The whole is made up of individualized whole tones of the individuals.

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Source: 125