Posted by John Collins (194.164.232.108) on October 26, 2003 at 00:34:42:
In Reply to: Re: Sounds posted by Jeff on October 25, 2003 at 19:00:33:
Jeff, the scratching noises heard coming from the early wheels and probably the first one, were possibly caused by the fact that JB tried to muffle the sounds of his wheel by either wrapping the weights in soft leather or by covering the strike area in leather. Because of my own experiments I suspect that he wrapped the weights in something, because what I found was that the weights have a considerable lateral movement when in motion and this causes them to rub against the internal sides of the wheel. You can imagine that wrapping the weights in something soft would cause the scratching sounds. There is also the translation factor to bear in mind. Off hand I don't know which German word was translated as "scratching" but I do know that for every word translated there are a number of alternatives and it is a case of choosing that word which most seems to fit in to the meaning of the sentence. So instead of "scratching" the word might have been "rubbing" for instance.
As for the eight beats per revolution in the two way wheels I agree with you, I think that half of the noise was caused by the reverse mechanism, but I don't think that there was a mix of the two sounds on one wheel.
John C.
: John,
: Thanks for the reply. I have a metronome that sounds out 208 beats per minute. It is fast.
: Do you not find it surprising that the sounds of 8 weights falling per revolution was only of the two-directional wheel? I believe in your book (I have loaned my copy out) you said the viewers of the first wheels described scratching noises, but nothing was said of the sounds of weights striking the side. Certainly if they could hear scratching sounds they would have been able to hear 8 beats per revolution. Could the 8 beats have been caused by the backwards spinning of the duplicate device in the two-directional wheel? What I mean is, the one-directional wheel turning forwards made scratching noises, but if it was turned backwards by hand, maybe it would have made 8 beats per revolution.
: Jeff
: : Hi Jeff,
: : In my book I described the sound roughly as follows. Instead of 26 rpm assume 30 rpm. One revolution therefore every two seconds. Eight beats per revolution therefore 4 weights per second. Count out seconds by marking time saying one for each second then try counting to four in the one second gaps! Fast isn't it!
: : John C.
: :
: : : Hi Scott & All,
: : :
: : : Regarding the two direction machine: About 8 weights were heard to strike the side per revolution and the unloaded rpm was 26. It would probably not help with a solution, but it might be fun to listen to an audio file (wav) of 208 beats per minute. Maybe Scott or one of the readers could make and post such a file.
: : :
: : : Jeff