Percussion cap

“ Give me a recipe to make percussion-caps.
In a Dutch book on military art I found, that for a newly-invented gun or musket the percussion-caps are attached to the cartridge by a thread. Why don’t the Americans have such muskets, haven’t they yet discovered how?
Why do people from other countries live in Loo-Choo?
Simoda on the horizon from the north pole in what degree? And in what degree to the east from London? a few days ago the masters of the Mississippi have been measuring, they must know. ”

“ Uniting plucked strings and percussion with instruments of sustained resonance results in the following: wind instruments, wood and brass, strengthen and clarify pizzicato strings, harp, kettle-drums and percussion generally, the latter lending a touch of relief to the tone of the wood-wind. Uniting plucked strings and percussion with bowed instruments does not produce such a satisfactory blend, both qualities being heard independently. The combination of plucked strings with percussion alone, is excellent ”

“ A percussion figure consists of linear cracks radiating from the point of impact, which in their number and orientation agree with the symmetry of the face. Thus on a cube face of a crystal of salt the rays of the percussion figure are parallel to the diagonals of the face, whilst on an octahedral face a three-rayed star is developed. By pressing a blunt point into a crystal face a somewhat similar figure, known as a “pressure figure,” is produced. Percussion and pressure figures are readily developed in cleavage sheets of mica (q.v.) ”

“ Instruments of concussion and percussion, like drums and cymbals, and also wind instruments of shell or horn, and rude forms of bagpipes, are inventions of most savage races; but the production of even the most elementary form of stringed instrument is a distinct advance, showing an understanding, however faint, of the use of vibration in developing and strengthening an original note. ”

“ But there can be no percussion without movement, and sound is not produced by the percussion of any kind of substance, as we have said, (since wool, however percussed, does not, while brass and smooth and hollow bodies—brass because it is smooth—do give out sound,) and hollow bodies create, by reflexion, many percussions after the first, owing to the medium within them having been set in motion and being unable to make its escape. ”

“ Instruments of percussion of definite sonorousness are chiefly met with in China, Japan, Burmah, Siam, and Java. They not infrequently contain a series of tones produced by slabs of wood or metal, which are beaten with a sort of hammer, as our harmonicon is played.
Stringed instruments without a finger board, or any similar contrivance which enables the performer to produce a number of different tones on one string, are generally found among nations whose musical accomplishments have emerged from the earliest state of infancy. ”

“ But my point is that the old springboard process of the Chinese and the springpole method that we’ve used till recently are fundamentally based on the same thing—the percussion process.”
“We’ve got a long way from that now, I imagine,” remarked Ned.
“We have and we haven’t,” replied Tom. “Percussion is still in common use in a great many wells, especially when they’re not supposed to go very deep and where the rocks are of comparatively soft stone. But where these conditions don’t exist, the rotary method is often employed. ”

“ The toothed bow of the left wing-case is the motor; the friction-nervure of the right wing-case is the point of concussion; the stretched membrane of the mirror is the resonator, to which vibration is communicated by the shaking of the surrounding frame. Our own music has many vibrating membranes; but these are always affected by direct percussion. Bolder than [263] our makers of musical instruments, the Decticus combines the bow with the drum. ”

“ In his third paragraph he claims that he has merely suggested that friction and percussion may often be one and the same thing; and immediately claims that in the case of the polished button rubbing a planed pine board, the force which overcomes and levels the undulations of the wood, is percussion, and that percussion is also the cause of the heat; the microscopic hills and hollows on the shining brass button skipping and jumping along the pine, produces little infinitesimal bumpings, and so pound out the heat. ”

“ Besides these various kinds of sound-producing means employed in musical performances, a few others less widely diffused could be pointed out, which are of a construction not represented in any of our well-known European specimens. For instance, some nations have peculiar instruments of friction, which can hardly be classed with our instruments of percussion. Again, there are contrivances in which a number of strings are caused to vibrate by a current of air much as is the case with the Æolian harp ”

“ To rouse the dormant action of cold skin and flabby muscle, percussion will be of the first importance, and will alternate with friction and manipulation. Percussion is in massage what faradization is in electricity, and will often answer the same purpose; manipulation, or deep-kneading, is to massage what the constant current is to electricity, and the ultimate effects of each are very much alike. ”

“ If the differential diagnosis between the dulness on percussion over the dull triangle and the flatness over the fluid be not carefully made by delicate, light percussion, the two may easily be confounded and the fluid be thought to have arisen to a much higher level than it has. In some cases, owing to greater thickness in the walls and coverings of the chest and adhesions, it may be more difficult to draw nice distinctions in percussion sounds. ”

“ The evolution of instruments of percussion requires but brief mention. Sound-producing apparatus devoid of definite pitch belongs to the initial attempts of primitive men to assist vocal expression of emotional feeling, to accompany religious orgies, or to encourage their warriors on the march. The modern orchestra includes the best of these primitive species, transformed into perfected types of genuine artistic value, and has also drawn into requisition various instruments originating in countries that are far apart. Most commonly used are the bass-drum, the cymbals, and the triangle. ”

“ If you merely rub the blade of a knife rapidly on a piece of wood, it will become hot enough to burn your hand.
Percussion is merely a more energetic kind of friction, and is often resorted to by the blacksmith to light his furnace. He places a nail or other piece of soft iron on his anvil, and beats it rapidly with the hammer, when it becomes actually red hot. The production of sparks by striking flint against steel, or two pieces of flint one against the other, are familiar instances of heat produced by percussion. ”

“ From the Roman lituus and buccina devolved side by side the trombe and Zinken of the Middle Ages. Experimental development through the stages of bent tubes, slide mechanism, finger holes, removable crooks, chromatic valves, perfected the valve-trumpet, the bugle-horn, the slide-trombone.
Instruments of percussion are the parents of all other instruments. Certain species subsequently became distinctly characteristic of certain distinct races; those most effective are now incorporated in the modern orchestra. ”

“ He increased the variety and usefulness of the instruments of percussion, forming out of them a new family of instruments to balance the families of the strings, brass, and wood-wind. In the score of the Second Symphony he calls for six timpani, bass and snare-drums, a high and a low tam-tam, cymbals, a triangle, glockenspiel, three deep-toned bells, in the chief orchestra; besides a bass-drum, triangle and cymbals in the supplementary. In the Eighth Symphony, the instruments of percussion form a little band by themselves. ”

“ Opportunity for obtaining pure tone-color in independent harmony from each family of the brass is effected by employing four horns, by the union of two trumpets and two cornets, by adding to the three trombones a bass-tuba, and by making further requisition for two opheicleides, which together with the bass-tuba are capable of independent deployment. The strings are reënforced by two harps. The array of instruments of percussion would appear rather formidable; nevertheless, they are never used aggressively. ”

“ We have now to look to something slightly resembling the principle of the violin or of the organ, in order to secure the additional sostenuto effect for which we are searching. Having to deal with a piano in practically its existing form, we obviously require to take special account of the fact that the note is begun by percussion, and that any attempt to bring a solid substance into contact with the wire while still vibrating, with the object of continuing its motion, is likely to produce more or less of a jarring effect. ”

“ As in the bass drum, these and the vellums are tightened or slackened by means of cords and leather braces, or by a system of rods and screws. Across the lower head are stretched two or more catgut strings called snares, which produce a rattling sound at each stroke on the upper head, owing to the sympathetic vibration of the lower head which jars against the snares. The upper head, set in vibration by direct percussion from the sticks, induces sympathetic vibrations in the air contained within the resonating receptacle, and these vibrations are communicated to the lower head. ”

“ The Christmas Night 180, 13th bar—'Cellos glissando.-117-
Use of percussion instruments for rhythm and colour.
Whenever some portion of the orchestra executes a rhythmic figure, percussion instruments should always be employed concurrently. An insignificant and playful rhythm is suitable to the triangle, tambourine, castanets and side drum, a vigourous and straightforward rhythm may be given to the bass drum, cymbals and gong. The strokes on these instruments should almost invariably correspond to the strong beats of the bar, highly-accented syncopated notes or disconnected sforzandi. ”

“ Two varieties of indirect percussion are illustrated in Figs. 28 and 29. The first is practiced by the Wintuns of California and other tribes. The drawing is made from a very careful description by B. B. Redding. The second is derived from the observations of George Catlin. According to Catlin, the point is sometimes carried to a finish by the indirect stroke, two persons being employed in the operation, as shown in Fig. 29. As a rule, however, the method of manipulation was changed at the proper stage from percussion to pressure.
75
Fig. ”

“ The trombones, trumpets and tuba are occasionally tacet for long periods, the percussion is seldom employed, and practically never all together, but in single instruments or in two's and three's. In national dances or music in ballad style, percussion instruments may be used more freely.
After a long rest the re-entry of the horns, trombones and tuba should coincide with some characteristic intensity of tone, either pp or ff; piano and forte re-entries are less successful, while re-introducing these instruments mezzo-forte or mezzo-piano produces a colourless and common-place effect. ”

“ The percussion instruments, including kettledrums, bass drums, and cymbals, are the least important of all the musical instruments; and are usually of service merely in adding to the excitement and general effect of an orchestra. ”

“ The instruments used are chiefly of the percussion type and are powerful sound producers. Amongst them are drums, cymbals, tom-toms, gongs and bamboo dulcimers. Stringed instruments are represented by a few squeaky one-stringed fiddles and an instrument that resembles a zither. A terrible wind instrument is sometimes employed when it is desirable to produce a sound that can be calculated to rival that of the bagpipes when played by a zealous but unmusical amateur. ”

“ Likewise some negro tribes in western and central Africa have certain instruments of percussion which are constructed on a principle somewhat reminding us of the teponaztli. The method of bracing the drum by means of cords, as exhibited in the huehueil of the Mexican Indians, is evidently of very high antiquity in the east. It was known to the ancient Egyptians.
Rattles, pandean pipes made of reed, and conch trumpets, are found almost all over the world, wherever the materials of which they are constructed are easily obtainable. ”

“ As regards instruments of percussion, a kind of drum deserves special notice on account of the ingenuity evinced in its construction. The Mexicans called it teponaztli. They generally made it of a single block of very hard wood, somewhat oblong square in shape, which they hollowed, leaving at each end a solid piece about three or four inches in thickness, and at its upper side a kind of sound-board about a quarter of an inch in thickness. ”

“ Personally I have found that by light percussion I can limit with much accuracy the upper, right, and left borders of the heart.
There is much to be gained by using light percussion. Strong blows set in vibration not only the underlying structures, but also more or less of the chest wall. ”

“ Score-readers will often find the parts for those instruments of percussion which are without musical pitch, such as triangles, cymbals, bass-drums, etc., written not on a stave, but on a single line. ”

“ These instruments have neither strings, nor holes, nor keys. They are simply beaten, or shaken.
In his definition of percussion instruments Gevaert subdivides them into two groups: Autophonic Instruments, and Membrane Instruments. Autophonic Instruments are those in which the tone is produced by the vibration of solid bodies (made of metal or wood) , and which are of a nature sufficiently elastic to keep up the vibratory motion that has been given to them by the blow from the performer. These include instruments of definite pitch, such as bells, glockenspiel and celesta ”