Most of ours are not aluminum and were made in the 1850's by Dr. Modern tuning forks are typically some hard aluminum alloy. This requires a special metal alloy (ordinary steel won't work, for example). A good tuning fork will 'ring' for a couple of minutes. The resonant case was added subsequently by a French instrument-maker, Marloye. The tuning fork was invented by John Shore, a trumpeter in the service of George I of England, in 1711, nearly three hundred years ago. In England the notes were named after the first letters of the alphabet. In Italy do was substituted in place of ut, because it was easier to pronounce in singing. The seventh syllable, si, was added in 1684 by Lemaire. They are the beginnings of words which occur in a hymn to Saint John the Baptist, and are as follows: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la.

Being made in France, these tuning forks have the French inscriptions the first six notes bear the names given by the monk Guy of Aresso in 1026. The Equal Tempered Chromatic Scale has A 3=440 which makes C 3=261.63 The notes of the scale are variously designated in different countries. * These notes are based on the Scientific or Diatonic Scale in which C 3=256, thus making computations simple. Tonic 1st overtone of our fundamental frequency one of these forks is tunable

The following table lists the various frequencies that we have available with comments. The simultaneous receding and approaching (via a blackboard reflection) tones of the tuning fork interfere and produce beats (from the students' frame of reference). Alternatively, beats may be produced by walking briskly away from the class towards the blackboard with tuning fork in hand. One of the 256 Hz tuning forks is also adjustable in frequency so that beats may by heard when it is sounded simultaneously with a regular 256 Hz fork. Additionally, a frequency analyzer shows a single frequency component (however, if the gain is turned up high, you may also see the frequency components due to the resonances of the sound box or harmonics of the tuning fork if it was whacked too hard). A microphone/preamp/scope setup may be used to visually demonstrate the pure sinusoidal sound wave. Selection of mounted tuning forks and rubber hammer.Įach tuning fork is mounted on a wooden sound box to amplify the sound (they're very difficult to hear without the box).

Frequency of a tuning fork