SOUND.
Essential Character and Medium of Transmission.
Sounds are products of vito-magnetic conditions and changes. They result from action or force expended upon the vito-magnetic element of the atmosphere. If such action or force be directly expended upon the air, or, more accurately, upon this vito-magnetic constituent of the air, it is propagated in accordance with the laws that govern the transmission of the vito-magnetic or electrical fluid through the air. If it be expended upon a lengthened wire, then, as sound, it is transmitted according to the laws of magnetic transmission through wire.
The recent experiments in connection with the telephone have demonstrated the fact that sound may be communicated through hundreds of miles of space without occupying any appreciable length of time—in this respect being precisely like the ordinary action of the magnetic current. It is most philosophical therefore to conclude that it is the same element that is concerned in both instances. If we were to distinguish between the actions of the telephonic wire and the telegraphic wire we should say that there is no difference in the medium of communication, which is in either case the vito-magnetic fluid; but that in the former the normal fluid is affected simply, while in the latter an artificial and extraordinary amount of fluid is induced so as to produce strong magnetic effects. In the telephone wire we have an affection of the fluid; in the telegraphic wire a pulsation, so to speak.
In the production of sound, vibrations (erroneously called waves), have an important agency, but they have no act or part in its conveyance.
The varying intensities of sound, and the distance to which it reaches, are in direct ratio with the kind of force applied in its production, the character of the resistance offered and the medium of communication employed.