Bulletin No. 15. The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. Contents: On the Mechanical Theory of the Vibrations of Bowed Strings and of Musical Instruments of the Violin Family with Experimental Verification of the Results; Part I

An adequate theory of the excitation of strings by bowing is only possible when the communication of energy from the string to the instrument through the supports and the effect of the yielding of these supports on the free periods of the string are taken into account and a cosideration of the forced vibrations of the instrument is thus the first step in the dynamical theory. [...] The relation between the frequency of the string and the natural frequency of the instrument is shown to be of great importance as is illustrated by the phenomenon of the wolf-note." Section III discusses the modus operandi of the bow in broad outline and it is shown that the velocity of the bowed point on the string is not necessarily a constant quantity either in the forward or backward motio [...] In Section XII the treatment is extended to the case in which the instrument on which the string is mounted has any number of free periods of vibration and the relation between the pressure and speed of bowing and the mode of vibration elicited is discussed with reference to (a) the position of the bowed point (b) the frictional properties of the bow (c) the finite width of the bow (d) the dy [...] From the mode of costruction of the positive and the negative waves it is obvious that the number of discontinuities in a wave-length of either of the two waves is the same and is equal to the total number of discontinuities actually on the region of the string at any instant during the vibration. [...] 31 dominant harmonic and far more powerful than the fundamental when the point of application of the bow is close to the centre of the string but the difference becomes less and less marked as the bow is removed farther from the centre; when the bow is applied at a distance 1/3 from the end of the string the octave and the fundamental are present in the same proportion in the second type of vibr