Text: 24) The vibration of plates is not, musically speaking, a subject of much interest, as the only instruments which depend upon it directly for the production of their sounds, are gongs and cymbals, and the same may be said of membranes. Chladni was the first to show the positions of the lines of nodes on a plate, by clamping it horizontally in a vice, and causing it to vibrate by passing a violin bow over one edge, having previously sprinkled it with a little sand. The lines of nodes being those parts of the plate which, like the nodes of a string (§13), are not thrown into vibration, remain covered with the sand which collects there from the vibrating portions, and in this way very curious and interesting figures are produced.

See Also: HARMONICS, RATES OF

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