Fig. 180. Construction of the Harmonograph. Fig. 181.
Fig. 182.—Method of constructing an Harmonograph.
Fig. 183.—The apparatus completed.
In considering the harmony of figs. 177 and 178,—the first of which corresponds to the octave, the second to the fifth, whilst fig. 179 corresponds to the disagreeable interval of the ninth,—one is almost tempted to put a certain faith in the fundamental law of simple ratios as the basis of harmony. At first sight this appears beyond doubt, but perhaps musicians would be hardly content with the explanation. M. Tisley’s Harmonograph, it will be seen, is a rather complicated apparatus; and I will now explain how it may be constructed by means of a few pieces of wood. I endeavoured to construct as simple an apparatus as possible, and with the commonest materials, feeling that it is the best means of showing how it is possible for everybody to reproduce these charming curves of musical intervals. Also I completely excluded the employment of metals, and I constructed my apparatus entirely with pieces of wooden rulers, and old cigar boxes. I set to work in the following manner: on the two consecutive sides of a drawing board I fixed four small pieces of wood (fig. 180), side by side in twos, having at the end a small piece of tin-plate forming a groove (fig. 181). In these grooves nails are placed which support the pendulums. The piece of wood is placed on the corner of the table, so that the pendulums which oscillate in two planes at right angles, are in two planes that are sensibly parallel to the sides of the table. The pendulums are made of a thin lath, with two small pieces of wood fixed to them containing some very pointed nails, on which the pendulum oscillates. Fig. 182 gives an illustration. The pendulums have a pin fixed in vertically, which passes through a piece of wood, and by means of a hinge connects the upper ends of the two pendulums. This contrivance of the pin is very useful, and if care is taken to make the hole through the hinge in the form of a double cone, as shown in fig. 182, c, it makes a perfect joint, which allows the piece of wood to be freely moved.
Fig. 184.—Details of mechanism.
To complete the apparatus, the heads of the two pendulums are united by the hinge, at the bend of which a slender glass tube is fixed, which traces the curves. The hinge is given in fig. 184, and to its two extremities are adjusted the two pins of the pendulum (fig. 183). The pendulums are encircled with round pieces of lead, which can be fixed at any height by means of a screw.
