Abstract
I MADE an experiment, some years ago, which would seem to support and illustrate Dr. Kœnig's theory of beats, as set forth by Prof. Silvanus Thompson in his lecture before the Physical Society, and reported in your issue of June 19. Taking two tuning-forks, each of which gave the middle C (256 vibrations), I weighted one of them so as to make it give one beat a second when sounded with the other. Then, sounding this fork, so weighted, with another giving the fifth above, G (384 vibrations), I heard distinctly three beats a second. I could only account for these beats by assuming that the weighted fork C produced a feeble twelfth, and that the fork G produced a feeble octave. These two overtones would, if present, give three beats a second, 255 × 3 = 765, and 384 × 2 = 768. But I could not show by any independent evidence that these overtones are really present when the tuning-forks are sounded; and, in fact, the general opinion is against such an assumption.
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MOLLOY, G. Dr. K"nig's Theory of Beats. Nature 42, 246 (1890). https://doi.org/10.1038/042246a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/042246a0
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