Text: 22) The vibrations of straight rods may be either longitudinal or transversal. The former have not been generally employed for the production of musical sounds; the latter are such as take place when a tuning fork is struck, or when a musical box or triangle is played. In the case of a curved rod the vibrations are more complicated, but there is one interesting case, namely, that in which the curved rod takes the form of a circular ring. In this case the fundamental tone is obtained by suspending it horizontally by four strings attached at equidistant points in the circumference, and by lightly tapping it midway between any two. If the number of vibrations then given be 2n per second, those of the successive harmonics are proportional to 3nˆ6, 4nˆ13, 5nˆ22, etc.

See Also: RESONATING RINGS; HARMONICS, RATES OF

Source: 125