Excerpt from The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Vol. 8: July December, 1854 IN the year 1805, M. Schwartz, inspector of one of the smelting works of Saxony, having a quantity of silver in a ladle which had just solidified after melting, and, wishing to hasten its cooling, placed it upon a cold anvil, when to his astonishment sounds, which he compared to those of an organ, proceeded from the mass. The rumour of this discovery excited the curiosity of Professor Gilbert, the editor of Gilbert's Annalen, and in the autumn of the same year he paid a visit to the smelting-works in question. He there learned that the piece of silver from which the sounds proceeded was cup-shaped, had a diameter Of 3 or 4 inches and a depth of half an inch. Gilbert himself, under the direction of M. Schwartz, repeated the experiment. He heard a distinct tone, although nothing that he could com pare to the tone of an organ. He also found that the sound was accompanied by the quivering of the mass of metal, and that when the vibrations of the mass ceased, the sound ceased like wise. The Professor limited himself to the description of the phaenomenon, and made no attempt to explain it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.