Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 178, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1920 — LIGHT THAT PRODUCES SOUND [ARTICLE]

LIGHT THAT PRODUCES SOUND

May at First Beem Incredible, But Experiments Have Proved It to Be a FacL Incredible as it may seem, a beam of light can be made to produce sound. A ray of sunlight is thrown through a lens onto a glass vessel containing lampblack, colored silk or worsted, or any like substance. A disk having silts or openings in it is made to revolve swiftly- in this beam of light, so as to “cut It up," thus causing alternate flashes of light and shadow. When one places his ear to the glass vessel he hears strange sounds so long as the flashing beam falls upon the vessel. A still more extraordinary effect is produced when the beam of sunlight is made to pass through a prism so as to produce what is called the solar spectrum. The disk Is turned and the colored light of the rainbow is made to break through it. Now If the ear be placed to the vessel containing the silk or other material, as the colored lights of the spectrum fall upon IL sounds will be given out by the different parts of the spectrum, and there will be silence In other parts. For instance, if the vessel contains rad worsted and the green light flashes upon it loud sounds will be given forth. Only feeble sounds will be heard when the red and the blue parts of the rainbow fall upon the vessel. Other colors will produce no sounds at all. Green silk gives out sound best In a red tight, pvery kind of material gives more or less sound In different colors and no sound at all in others.