Newspaper Transcripts
Some Selected Reports from The Windsor and Eton Express
4th November 1837
Maidenhead, November 3.
Town Council
Messrs. Payn, Spratley, Mills, Lock, and Barlow, were elected Councillors on Wednesday last, without a contest - all of whom are new members, excepting Mr.Payn; of the four other Councillors who met by rotation with Mr.Payn, three of them, Messrs. Higgs, Fletcher, and Saunders objected to be put on the nomination again, and the other (Mr.Bigg) had left the town.
Notwithstanding that no opposition was offered to the election of the new Councillors, the party under whose auspices they were placed, had their committee room opened, and polled as many of the votes as they possibly could muster, and the remembrances of a good feed or two induced many a one to obey their commands in anticipation of another treat. The poll was not closed till the appointed hour, and about 250 Burgesses full 100 polled. The feeding and other means that had been adopted by the victorious party on this occasion, was the cause of the late members of the body wishing to secede from it, as they were fully satisfied to succeed they must resort to the same discreditable practices as their opponents. Such means being anything but honourable to either party, they most wisely declined adopting them.
Great Marlow, November 3.
The Fair
Notwithstanding the rain on Monday last, Great Marlow fair was better attended than it has been for many years past. Colts were more numerous than they had been for years
[ --- Missing the End of this Article ---]
Brentford, November 3.
Mechanics Institution
On the 18th and 25th of last month lectures were delivered by Mr.Robert Addams - who for many years has been well known as a lecturer on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy - upon the very interesting subject of Acoustics, or the science of Sound. The complete success of the numerous and difficult experiments by which the lectures were illustrated, the easy yet animated manner of the lecturer, and the distinctness and precision of his language - all combined to afford the highest gratification to his hearers. Indeed from the first establishment of this useful and thriving institution we do not know that its members have enjoyed themselves more thoroughly than on the two evenings of Mr.Addams's appearance. It is difficult to select, amidst so many striking experiments and illustrations - but we were much pleased with the representation of the tympanum of the ear and of the chordoe vocales, or essential parts of the organ of the voice.
The mode in which the vibrations were produced in the latter, and communication to the former, was displayed in a very clear and interesting manner. The intensity, quality, and pitch of sound were separately dwelt upon with equal felicity. The theory of the interference of different waves of sound was rendered perfectly intelligible, and a great effect was produced by an experiment (devised by Mr.Addams himself) in which a tuning fork, vibrating separately in unison with two similar glass tubes, is (in the midst of vibration) put to silence by simply holding it to the open ends of the same tubes, when placed mouth to mouth, at right angles with each other.
The subject of Jews-harps, "chin-chopping" a la Boal, and a simple kind of music produced by striking the cheek in moderate degrees of tension, afforded much amusement to the younger and merrier of the auditors; while the masterly style in which the harmonic sounds were treated of, must have satisfied and delighted the graver admirers of musical science. As this institution is to be favoured shortly with a third (and concluding) lecture on this fascinating branch of physics, we may have occasion to revert to the subject. In the mean time while we will only add that Mr.Addams's apparatus is of the most varied and perfect description - suitable indeed to the very superior character of his lectures.