Jean Henri Dunant

“ On the contrary, when the flame is sounding, that is to say, when the necessary vibrations for the production of sound are produced in the tube, its form is narrow, and large at the top. While the air of the tube vibrates, the flame is very steady. The carbon in a great measure is eliminated as if by some mechanical process.
"Sounding-flames proceeding from lighting gas are in effect enveloped in a photosphere which does not exist when the flame is merely luminous. In the latter case the carbon is burnt within the flame, and contributes in a great degree to its illuminating power. ”

“ The most unexpected applications of scientific principles are daily the result of the skillful efforts of learned men.
Without reckoning Prof. Tyndall, who is so well known and esteemed on the Continent, many other learned men, English, German, Austrian (like Shaffgotsche) , and Frenchmen, have already studied singing-flames, but no one had previously thought of studying the effects produced by two or several flames brought together, till M. Kastner, who, by means of delicate combinations and ingenious mechanism, has produced the pyrophone. ”

“ It is thus that the modest harmonica chimique, lumen philosophicum of natural philosophers has, in the pyrophone, attained to the character of a real musical instrument; this happy result supports the remark that the observation in Nature of the phenomenon of sound may conduct man, if not exactly to the invention of music, at least to endow the art with resources which increase its power. The sound of the pyrophone may truly be said to resemble the sound of a human voice, and the sound of the Æolian harp ”

“ This observation might be applied to the construction of a musical instrument, which will be a species of flute, working by singing-flames. Such an instrument, from a musical point of view, will be very imperfect, because the sound will not be so promptly or sharply stopped as when the phenomenon of interference is employed. If, instead of making the hole at the third, it is made at a sixth, the sound will not cease, but it will produce the sharp of the same note. In all these experiments I have clearly detected the formation of ozone while flames cause the air in the tube to vibrate. ”

“ In Germany, Goethe and Novalis, in France, Jean Paul, and many others, have eagerly appreciated the bond which unites natural harmonies to the most elevated instincts, and to the most ideal aspirations of the human soul. ”

“ The amount of carbon contained in the whole of the small flames will always be much less than the quantity of carbon corresponding to the two large flames necessary to produce the same sound. In this manner I have been able with separated flames to obtain sounds whose tones are as clear as those produced by hydrogen gas. When these, flames, or rather when the photospheres which correspond to these flames, are put in contact, the sound instantly ceases. ”

“ As soon as the fingers are removed from the keys the flames join, and the sound ceases immediately (Fig. 2) . These new experiments made by M. Kastner upon singing-flames should cause all makers of musical instruments to turn their attention to inventions connected with sound. If two flames of suitable size be introduced into a glass tube, and if they be so disposed that they reach one-third of the tube's height, measured from the base, the flames will vibrate in unison. This phenomenon continues as long as the flames remain apart, but the sound ceases as
soon as the two flames are united. ”

“ The pyrophone will have in the future a poetical mission to fill in the music of concerts. A great number of composers and musicians have already admired this new organ performing by the singing of flames, or rather by vibrations determined by means of the combustion of these flames. They think it will be of great advantage in cathedrals and churches, as the most extended compass can be given to the instrument. ”

“ It is difficult to prepare; it necessitates the use of gas-holders, whose size may he considerable. Besides, there is some danger in its use. I have therefore given up using hydrogen gas, and for a year I have experimented on the means of applying common illuminating gas to the pyrophone, which it is always easy to procure. In the first experiments which I attempted with two flames, with illuminating gas, in a glass tube, I was unable to obtain any sound, which proved unmistakably the presence of carbon in the flames. ”

“ To produce the sound in all its intensity, it is necessary and sufficient that the whole of the explosion produced by the particles of oxygen and hydrogen in a given time should be in agreement with the number of vibrations which correspond to the sound produced by the tube. ”

“ The British Review humorously remarks that the pyrophone will naturally be valuable in winter, and that in America it has already been recommended to families as a means of warming small apartments, and perhaps an economical stove may be added to it for the culinary exigencies of straitened households. ”