Page 43 - Fall2013

Title: The Theory of Sound (two volumes) Author: J. W. S. Rayleigh
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN: 978-0486602929, 978-0486602936 Pages: 480, 522
Binding: Paperback
Publication date: June 1, 1945 Price: $15.22, $18.33 (via Amazon)
This two volume reprint of Lord Rayleigh’s The Theory of Sound was published by Dover Publications in 1945 and has been in print continuously ever since. Many of the older generation of acousticians own copies, but many of the younger generation may not be aware of its availability and of its comparatively low price. It is something which almost all acousticians should really have on their book shelves and which they should ever so often browse through. While Rayleigh was born John William Strutt, he became Lord Rayleigh when this father died in 1873. The first volume of The Theory of Sound was pub- lished after he became Lord Rayleigh, in 1877, the second volume in 1878. A second edi- tion was published in 1894 and 1896. Rayleigh died in 1919, but some corrections and additions found in Rayleigh’s personal copies of the books were made in a reissue pub- lished in 1926. It is this corrected second edition which was published by Dover in 1945.
The Dover edition of the first volume includes a 28 page historical introduction by R. Bruce Lindsay, who later was to become the Editor-in-Chief of the Acoustical Society of America, a position he held from 1957 until his death in 1985. The present writer highly recommends the reading of Lindsay’s historical introduction. Its value is somewhat inde- pendent of Rayleigh’s books.
Rayleigh’s two-volume work was report-
edly used as a textbook at Cambridge in the
latter part of the 19-th century, and it was also
related to the writer that it was at one time
used in the 1960’s as a textbook for a course at
the ISVR in Southampton. A typical group of
students in a present-day introductory course
in acoustics would find it somewhat decipher-
able in major part. The age gap and the cultur-
al gap would just be too great. It is, of course,
extensively cited in much present research lit-
erature, although some of the citations seem more pro forma than incisive.
There must have been some reviews of Rayleigh’s treatise over its 137 year existence, but the present writer, who would like to be considered as somewhat of a Rayleigh schol- ar, cannot remember ever seeing one, at least not one of substance. Such a review may con- ceivably be forthcoming, but the present account is intended mainly to allow readers to assess the two volume set as a possible purchase.
Rayleigh’s two-volume work has 23 chapters. The ten chapters in Volume I have chap- ter titles, while those in Volume II do not. Rayleigh did not have any section headings as such, but the books are organized into 395 numbered sections, each numbered in succes- sion, and each comprising of the order of four pages. This style was common in British sci- entific works in the second half of the 19-th century, and one finds, for example, a similar organization technique used in Lamb’s Hydrodynamics. One does, nevertheless, find cryp- tic topical descriptions at the top of every page, such as “TRANSVERSE VIBRATIONS OF STRINGS” and “METHOD OF DIMENSIONS.” These were evidently added at the page- proof stage, and it is not clear whether they were added by Rayleigh himself or by some subsequent editor. There is a 9 page long topical index of subjects at the end of the second volume, but the present writer has not found it to be especially useful. It is probably fair to say that, to find something specific in The Theory of Sound, one must be directed by some- one else to the pertinent passage, or one must do some mining, some assiduous browsing. However, it is indeed a gold-mine, and any browsing, no matter how casual, will general- ly turn out to be richly rewarding. Rayleigh had a rather special insight into his subject, and being able to share is his insights is a privilege that should not be dismissed. Some
42 Acoustics Today, October 2013