noun: the linear extent in space from one end to the other; the longest horizontal dimension of something that is fixed in place
Keely
"The maximum test was made to placing an iron weight of 580 lbs. on the extreme end of the long arm of the lever. To lift this weight required a pressure of 18,900 lbs. to the square inch counting the difference in the length of the two arms and the area of the piston. When Keely turned the valve-wheel leading from the receiver to the flexible tube and through it into the steel cylinder beneath the piston, simultaneously with the motion of his hand the weighted lever shot up against its stop a distance of several inches, as if the iron were cork. [Snell Manuscript - The Book, page 3]
The entire mechanical principal of Nature, by means of which its light illusions of motion are produced, is the consequent effect of such radial extensions. Because of it, the seeming multiplication and division of the universal equilibrium into the opposed electrical pressures of gravitation and radiation, which form the foundation of this universe of change, are made possible. (Fig. 3)
God's imaginings extend from rest to rest in His three-dimensional radial universe of length, breadth and thickness - to become the stage of space for His imagined radial universe of matter, time, change and motion. (Fig. 4)
Points of rest, further extended to other points of rest, form three reflecting planes of still magnetic Light which are at right angles to each other. (Fig. 4) From the center of these three mirror planes of zero curvature, God's givings are radially projected to six opposed mirror planes for reprojection as regivings, to unfold
page 220
and refold the forms of God's imaginings in the curved electric universe of His desiring. (Fig. 5)" [The Secret of Light, PART III: Omnipresence The Universe of Being Postulates and Diagrams, page 219-220]
Ramsay
dividing itself by 2 or 3 or 5, etc., up through the whole geometrical series of numbers, not keeping fixed at one thing; but while the whole length is vibrating the fundamental partial, it keeps shifting the still nodes along its length, and sometimes longer and sometimes shorter segments are sounding the other partials which clothe the chief sound. It has been commonly said that "a musical sound is composed of three sounds," for every ear is capable of hearing these three, and with a little attention a few more than these; but many will be startled when told that there are twenty-five sounds in that sound. Eighteen of them are simply the octaves of the other seven, all of these seven except one having one or more octaves in the sound. Four of the seven also are very feeble, the one which has no octave being the feeblest of all. Two of the other three are so distinctly audible along with the chief partial that they gave rise to the saying we have quoted about a musical sound being composed of three sounds.1 If the three most pronounced partials were equally developed in one sound, it could not be called one sound - it would decidedly be a chord; and when in the system they do become developed, they form a chord; but in the one sound they, the partials, having fewer and fewer octaves to strengthen them, fade away in the perspective of sound. The sharp seventh, which in the developed system has only one place, not coming into existence until the sixth octave of the genesis, is by far the feeblest of all the partials, and Nature did well to appoint it so. These harmonics are also sometimes called "overtones," because they are higher than the fundamental one, which is the sound among the sounds, as the Bible is the book among books. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 59]
In getting the length of a string, in inches or otherwise, to produce the scale of music, any number may be fixed on for the unit; or for the vibrations of the root note any number may be fixed on for the unit; but in the fractions which show the proportions of the notes of the scale, there is no coming and going here; this belongs to the invariables; there is just one way of it. Whatever is not sense here is nonsense. It is here we are to look for the truth. The numbers which express the quantities and the numbers which express the motions are always related as being of the same kind. The fractions bring their characters with them, and we know by this where they come from. 1/4 of a string gives a note 2 octaves above the whole string, no matter what may be its length; 2 has exactly the same character as 1; 2/4 gives the note which is 1 octave above the whole string; but in the case of 3/4 here is a new ingredient, 3; 3/4 of a string gives a note which is a fifth below the [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 75]
There is nothing extraordinary in this. It is another fact which gives this one its importance, and that is that the musical system is composed of three fifths rising one out of another; so this note by 3/4 becomes the root not only of a chord, but the root of all the three chords, of which the middle one is the tonic; the chord of the balance of the system, the chord of the key; the one out of which it grows, and the one which grows out of it, being like the scales which sway on this central balance-beam. Thus F takes its place, C in the center, and G above. These are the 3 fifths of the system on its masculine or major side. The fractions for A, E, and B, the middle notes of the three chords, are 4/5, 3/5, and 8/15; this too tells a tale; 5 is a new ingredient; and as 3 gives fifths, 5 gives thirds. From these two primes, 3 and 5, along with the integer or unit, all the notes of the system are evolved, the octaves of all being always found by 2. When the whole system has been evolved, the numbers which are the lengths of the strings in the masculine or major mode are the numbers of the vibrations of the notes of the feminine or minor mode; and the string-length-numbers of the minor or feminine are the vibration-numbers of the notes of the major or masculine mode. These two numbers, the one for lengths and one for vibrations, when multiplied into each other, make in every case 720; the octave of 360, the number of the degrees of the circle. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 76]
The simplest condition of quantities and motions is in a string where half the length is double the vibrations. Next in the order of simplicity is a [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 79]
pendulum where fourth the length is double the oscillations. A third condition in this order is in springs or reeds where half the length is four times the vibrations. If we take a piece of straight wire and make it oscillate as a pendulum, one-fourth will give double the oscillations; if we fix it at one end, and make it vibrate as a spring, half the length will give four times the vibrations; if we fix it at both ends, and make it vibrate as a musical string, half the length will produce double the number of vibrations per second. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 80]
D27 of the major scale; and the number 27 as string-length will give the vibrations of D26 2/3 in the minor scale, and so all through; they stand thus:-
Lengths 30 26 2/3 24 22 1/2 20 18 16 15 Vibrations
Vibrations 24 27 30 32 36 40 45 48 Lengths
[Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 88]
suspended at two-thirds of the one-third, i.e, one-ninth of the whole length above the center of oscillation, one-ninth above balances two-ninths below; the oscillating part is thus as it were, one-ninth shorter than at the center of oscillation, and gives rise to the center of velocity. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 93]
Whatever interval is sharpened above the tone of the open string, divide the string into the number of parts expressed by the larger number of the ratio of the interval, and operate in that part of the string expressed by the smaller number of it. For example, if we want to get the major third, which is in the ratio of 4:5, divide the string into five parts and operate on four. The lengths are inversely proportional to the vibrations. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 100]
Fig. 1 - The pendulums in this illustration are suspended from points determined by the division of the Octave into Commas; the comma-measured chords of the Major key being S, 9, 8, 9, 5; T, 9, 8, 5, 9; D, 8, 9, 5, 9. The pendulums suspended from these points are tuned, as to length, to swing the mathematical ratios of the Diatonic scale. The longest pendulum is F, the chords being properly arranged with the subdominant, tonic, and dominant, the lowest, center, and upper chords respectively. Although in "Nature's Grand Fugue" there are 25 pendulums engaged, as will be seen by reference to it, yet for the area of a single key 13 pendulums, as here set forth, are all that are required. It will not fail to be observed that thus arranged, according to the law of the genesis of the scale, they form a beautiful curve, probably the curve of a falling projectile. It is an exceedingly interesting sight to watch the unfailing coincidences of the pendulums perfectly tuned, when started in pairs such as F4, A5, and C6; or started all together and seen in their manifold manner of working. The eye is then treated to a sight, in this solemn silent harp, of the order in which the vibrations of sounding instruments play their sweet coincidences on the drum of the delighted ear; and these two "art senses," the eye and the ear, keep good company. Fig. 2 is an illustration of the correct definition of a Pendulum Oscillation, as defined in this work. In watching the swinging pendulums, it will be observed that the coincidences [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 104]
are always when they have returned to the side from which they were started. The Pendulographer, also, when writing the beautiful pictures which the musical ratios make when a pen is placed under the control of the pendulums, always finds his figure to begin again when the pendulums have finished their period, and have come for a fresh start to the side from which the period began. This confirms our author's definition of an oscillation of a pendulum. Fig. 3 is an illustration of the correct definition of a Musical Vibration, as also given in this work. Although the definition of an oscillation is not identical with that of a vibration, yet on account of their movement in the same ratios the one can be employed in illustration of the other as we have here done. Fig. 4 is a uniform rod suspended from the end as a pendulum; it will oscillate, of course, at a certain speed according to its length. In such a pendulum there are three centers related in an interesting way to the subject of Music in its three chords - subdominant, tonic, and dominant, which roots are F, C, and G. The center of gravity in the middle of the rod at 2, suspended at which the rod has no motion, corresponds to F, the root of the subdominant, in which there is the maximum of musical gravity. The center of oscillation at 3, which is one-third of the length of the rod from the end, is like the root of the tonic whose number is 3 in the genesis of the scale from F1. In this point of suspension the oscillations are the same as when suspended from the end at 1. The point at 9 is at a ninth from the center of oscillation. Our author discovered that, if suspended at this point, the pendulum had its highest rate of speed. Approaching the end, or approaching the center of oscillation from this point, the rate of speed decreases. Exactly at one-ninth from the center of oscillation, or two-ninths from the end, is this center of velocity, as Ramsay designated it; and it corresponds in some sort also to the root of the dominant G, which is 9 in the genesis of the scale from F1; its rate of vibration is nine times that of F1. The dominant chord is the one in which is the maximum of levity and motion in music. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 105]
dual system, as the strings are shortened the vibrations of course are more, and as the strings are lengthened the vibrations are fewer. This is household lore now; but the new insight and the deeply interesting order of Nature is that the major and the minor contain each other and respond to each other in this striking way; and while manifesting such diversity of character are so essentially one. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music,page 119]
Fig. 3. - This is a set of pendulum lengths for three octaves, given merely to assist any tyro who might wish to try them, but might find difficulty in calculating them. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 120]
The curved lines enclose the three chords of the major mode of the scale, with the ratio-numbers for the vibration in their simplest expression, counted, in the usual way in this work, from F1, the root of the major subdominant. The chords stand in their genetic position of F F C A, that is F1 by 2, 3, and 5; and so with the other two. The proportions for a set of ten pendulums are then placed in file with the ten notes from 1 to 1/2025 part of 1. Of course the one may be any length to begin with, but the proportions rule the scale after that. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 121]
Hughes
"Comparing wave-lengths of light with wave-lengths of sound—not, of course, their actual lengths, but the ratio of one to the other—the following remarkable correspondence at once comes out:—Assuming the note C to correspond to the colour red, then we find that D exactly corresponds to orange, E to yellow, and F to green. Blue and indigo, being difficult to localise, or even distinguish in the spectrum, they are put together; their mean exactly corresponds to the note G: violet would then correspond to the ratio given by the note A. The colours having now ceased, the ideal position of B and the upper C are calculated from the musical ratio." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, On Colours as Developed by the same Laws as Musical Harmonies2, page 19]
1872.—"It gives me great pleasure to write to you on this subject. Music deals more with the imaginative faculty than any other art or science, and possessing, as it does, the power of affecting life, and making great multitudes feel as one, may have more than ordinary sympathy with the laws you work upon. You say 'from E, root of B, the fountain key-note F, root of C, rises.' There is a singular analogy here in the relativities of sounds, as traced by comparing the numbers made together by vibrations of strings with the length of strings themselves, the one is the inverse or the counterchange of the other. The length of B and E are the counterchange of F and C, hence they are twin sounds in harmony." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Extracts from Dr. Gauntlett's Letters1, page 48]
See Also
Debye length
Debye length in a plasma
Debye length in an electrolyte
elongate
Figure 9.15 - Wave Flow and Wave Length as function of Particle Oscillatory Rotation
Frequency Wavelength Light Energy
length contraction hypothesis
Quasi-neutrality and Debye length
Table 12.02 - Length Area and Volume Math
Table 12.02.01 - Wavelengths and Frequencies
WaveLength
12.12 - Length