Discussions
Earlier
textbooks on acoustics
suggest
carrying out odd experiments:
Seek
out an absolutely symmetrical garden
bordered
on all sides by a wall
(at
right angles)
seek
out the farthest corner
and
fire a pistol shot.
At
a certain point the sound is inaudible.
You
have then found the acoustic node,
and
it is invisible to the eye.
Let
three persons group themselves
at
certain angles
round
the completely smooth surface of a lake
and
shout ‘here’ to each other in turns
and
in a particular rhythm.
It
will not take long before ‘here’ will sound
from
all directions and continuously
and
the one person will not be able to distinguish
his
own voice from the others’ any longer.
What
a delightful antiphon!
And
a small electric clock
placed
under the hermetic bell-jar
from
which the air is extracted by a suction pump
will
indeed finally become inaudible.
In
that way all suspicions are confirmed
about
the defectiveness of the carrying medium,
its
strange capacity to act of its own accord.
Its
own accord, its own accord.
The
time that remains is always very brief.
Sound
is only produced by someone who is very lonely.
The
winter is very cold. All the boats lie still in the ice.
And
in clear weather the skates, the red sledges,
with
a sound like a tiny bell,
under
the ‘hermetic bell-jar’.
Quiet,
someone’s talking, is it you or me?
Echo,
delightful nymph with the garbled voice!
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