"Acoustic" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... falsetto voice by "acting in the same way as a hazel-nut can be made to act as a whistle, when the kernel has been extracted through a small hole in the shell," &c. I think, however, that the reader will, from the description given above, agree with me that the acoustic properties of the pockets of the voicebox cannot be very great, and that, at all events, there is a vast difference between their construction and that of a hazel-nut, either with or without the kernel. Then there is this additional difficulty, that even if one could whistle upon ...
— The Mechanism of the Human Voice • Emil Behnke
... was audible at one spot only. The acoustic properties of the veranda condensed and concentrated it within a narrow area, beyond which was silence. Chance had selected this aerial whirlpool ...
— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield
... The acoustic effect is due to the resonances generated by hollow spaces of the resonator, and Dr. Aikin, in his work on "The Voice," points out that we can study the resonances yielded by these hollow spaces by whispering the vocal sounds; but it is necessary to put ...
— The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song • F. W. Mott
... Tuning.—Electric resonance and electric tuning are very like those of acoustic resonance and acoustic tuning which I have just described. Just as acoustic resonance may be simple or sympathetic so electric resonance may be simple or sympathetic. Simple acoustic resonance is the direct reinforcement of a simple vibration and this condition is had when ...
— The Radio Amateur's Hand Book • A. Frederick Collins
... and the two clubs where speeches were made and hand shaking done. Still, I knew what I was to say at the meeting, and the composition of the audience I was to address. The hall is large, with good acoustic qualities, and in it I had spoken frequently. It is situated in the midst of a dense population of workingmen, and was so crowded that night in every part that many of the audience were compelled to stand in the aisles and around the walls. On entering I mentally ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... arch, unsupported by pillar or post, and is said to have but one counterpart on the globe. The walls are 12 feet thick, and there are 20 huge double doors for entrance and exit. The Tabernacle seats 13,462 people, and its acoustic properties are so marvelously perfect that a whisper or the dropping of a pin can be heard all over it. The organ is one of the largest and grandest toned in existence, and was built of native woods, by Mormon workmen and artists, at a cost of $100,000. It is 58 feet high, ...
— My Native Land • James Cox
... he answered with a smile. "A case of mistaken identity. My name is Jones." Then, continuing his speech to Patsy Doyle, he said: "There is no need to consider the acoustic properties of ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West • Edith Van Dyne
... what he was about," Lorimer remarked to Beatrix, as they took their seats. "Thayer can't complain of the acoustic effects of ...
— The Dominant Strain • Anna Chapin Ray
... can suppose the rest. If I have a criticism for Mrs. LOWNDES' otherwise admirable handling of the affair it is that she depends too much on the involuntary eavesdropper; before long, indeed, I was forced to conclude either that Lily possessed a miraculous sense of overhearing, or that the acoustic properties of the lonely house rendered it conspicuously unsuited for the maturing of felonious little plans. But this is a trifle compared with the delights of such a ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, May 12, 1920 • Various
... there are natural phenomena to which some one has given the name "acoustic shadows." If you stand in an acoustic shadow there is one direction from which you will hear nothing. At the battle of Gaines's Mill, one of the fiercest conflicts of the Civil War, with a hundred guns in play, spectators a mile and a half ...
— Can Such Things Be? • Ambrose Bierce
... which it was built up. The words astonished him so much that he forced his way out until he could see the Princess of Sant' Ilario's beautiful profile dark against the bright light of the street. She was still speaking, but he could no longer hear her voice, some acoustic peculiarity of the columns had in all probability been the means of conveying to him the fragment of conversation he had overheard. Avoiding recognition, he slipped away through an opening in the throng and just succeeded in reaching the gate as the first of the Montevarchi ...
— Sant' Ilario • F. Marion Crawford
... at the Gare du Nord may be crude, but its acoustic properties are superb. The noise which accompanied the arrival of the cortege was simply ear-splitting. I was in the very act of wondering whether, if I decided to retire, my legs would carry me, when, ...
— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates
... the sensation of sound (q.v.). The term "acoustics'' might, however, with advantage be reserved for the aspect of the subject more immediately connected with hearing. Thus we may speak appropriately of the acoustic quality of a room or hall, describing it as good or bad acoustically, according as speaking is heard in it easily or with difficulty. When a room has bad acoustic quality we can almost always assign the fault to large smooth surfaces on the walls, floor or ceiling, ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... but it seemed to come from a different point. I turned my ear to the wind, and in the succeeding moments I was more and more baffled. One bay sounded from below and next from far to the right; another from the left. I could not distinguish voice from echo. The acoustic properties of the amphitheater beneath me were ...
— The Last of the Plainsmen • Zane Grey
... towards him, and, by the air of an acoustic instrument, enabled Beethoven to hear a few words ...
— Music and Some Highly Musical People • James M. Trotter
... cerebro-spinal fluid may pass down the Eustachian tube into the pharynx. The escape of brain matter from the ear is exceedingly rare. Emphysema of the scalp sometimes results when the fracture passes through the mastoid cells. The facial and acoustic nerves and the maxillary and mandibular divisions of the trigeminal are frequently implicated. Deafness is a serious and not uncommon accompaniment of fracture of the middle fossa, as the fracture involves the labyrinth and ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles
... had a curious rumble in the dim stone room. Matthews wondered whether it were because the acoustic properties of a serdab in Dizful differ from those of a galley on the Karun, or whether there really ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... of minutes before replying, while the Lord of Rimini temporarily monopolised the acoustic possibilities ...
— Reginald • Saki
... Dome was almost everything; the four short arms being so constructed as to afford picturesque and varied vistas. Probably the acoustic properties would have been superior, and for the ordinary purposes of congregational worship there would have been less unused space. Hence it need take no one by surprise that some, although they recognise the superiority ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of St. Paul - An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch • Arthur Dimock
... stands just west of the Temple, is elliptical in shape, and, with its broad gallery running around the entire interior, except the end occupied by the organ loft and pulpit, it can seat about 9000 persons. Its acoustic properties are remarkable, and one of the duties of any guide who exhibits the auditorium to visitors is to station them at the end of the gallery opposite the pulpit, and to drop a pin on the floor to show them how distinctly ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... to answer "Yes" or "No" as he thought fit. This child of grace and persuasion was a wonderful musician. The Duke of Milan sent for him to play upon his lute and improvise Italian canzoni. The lute he carried was of silver, fashioned like a horse's head, and tuned according to acoustic laws discovered by himself. Of the songs he sang to its accompaniment none have been preserved. Only one sonnet remains to show of what sort was the poetry of Lionardo, prized so highly by the men of his own generation. ...
— Renaissance in Italy Vol. 3 - The Fine Arts • John Addington Symonds
... rock five hundred feet above, and climbed for a mile. It was a dead, flat place, without sound, for the footsteps of the burros and the man fell dully on the soft and sliding floor, and it seemed to have no acoustic properties. ...
— Tharon of Lost Valley • Vingie E. Roe |
