On the Voice and a Method for Copying a Marble Statue
Acoustics of sound, a pointing technique using a boxed clay model, and a note on stagnant water
Two questions on the voice open the page: whether an instrument twice as large gives twice the voice, and whether a louder voice carries twice as far, which Leonardo denies, noting that experience does not bear it out. The longer note, 'On statues,' describes a pointing method for carving a marble figure from a clay model: the clay figure is set in a holed box, sticks are pushed through the holes until each touches the clay, then marked and countersigned, after which the marble is substituted and cut away until every stick reaches its mark. The pen sketch at right shows the box with its block of marble slung from a pulley, its sides pierced with holes and probing sticks. A closing line asserts that stagnant water cannot be the cause of its own or of any other motion.
On this page
Whether a larger or louder voice carries proportionally farther
Leonardo asks whether an instrument twice the size of another has a voice twice as great, and whether a voice twice as loud is heard twice as far. He answers no: if it were so, two men shouting would be heard twice as far as one, yet experience does not confirm it.
A pointing method for carving marble from a clay model
A finished clay figure is placed in a box large enough to also hold the marble block. White sticks are pushed through holes in the box until each touches the clay at various points; the outside portions are tinted black and each stick and hole is countersigned to match. The clay is then swapped for the marble, which is cut away until every stick can be hidden to its mark.
The holed box with its marble block on a pulley
The drawing at right depicts a large box whose four top corners are corded to a rope hoisted through a pulley. The sides are riddled with holes, and sticks are shown partially inserted through several of them, stopped by the marble within.
Stagnant water cannot be the cause of motion
A closing aphorism states that it is impossible for stagnant water to be the cause of its own motion or of any other motion.