Forum: Bryce


Subject: Cool Shadow Trick for Reduced Rendering Time

clyde236 opened this issue on Aug 29, 2002 ยท 9 posts


clyde236 posted Sat, 31 August 2002 at 12:49 AM

I believe we already have negative wind, it's called a vacuum cleaner! And an interesting history on the development of negative wind comes from the world of music. European reed organs (i.e. the Harmonium) used wind under pressure (i.e. compressed air) to blow the reeds. This was developed from the pipe organ at the end of the 18th century. The idea of a reed organ actually came from China, an instrument called the "Sheng", made of bamboo. Anyway, in America, the sound of the Harmonium didn't catch on, as it was considered too harsh. It produces the full range of harmonics which are very harsh sounding. Very few instruments can do this as effectively or with as much force. American innovators got the idea of reversing the wind (negative wind) and pulling it INTO the instrument! The case of the instrument made enough of a sound barrier that the harsh harmonics (which have very little sonic energy) were absorbed. The result was the American Reed Organ, which many of you may know as the "Pump Organ" or the "Parlor Organ". It caught on like gangbusters in the 19th century (especially out west because the instruments traveled well and rarely needed tuning) and well into the 20th Century. Hundreds of thousands of the instruments were made and sold. It was as popular for its time as the many electronic keyboards we see today. Not many people today care much for the sound of reed organs, however. A relative of that instrument is one we still can buy today, called the Harmonica, or "mouth organ". And then there's the Accordian family. As anyone who has ever played one knows, these instruments sound under both pressure and suction. Again, the sound is something of an aquired taste. But not only that, the idea of negative wind made player pianos possible because they could use a paper roll with holes in it (very similar to modern MIDI music software that uses a graphic editor) to make the insturment play. Prior to that, huge and heavy cardboard "books" were used, and only in fairground organs (i.e. the carosel) The bar against which the paper rides (called the "tracker bar") has many holes (one for each key on the piano, plus some control holes) and uses negative wind. This suction holds the paper tight against the bar. When a hole in the paper lines up with a hole in the tracker bar, it causes a little bellows in the piano to collapse, throwing the hammer against the string. They actually tried this design with wind under pressure (positive wind), but of course, it blew the paper away from the tracker bar and didn't work! So, even though "negative wind" sounds like a joke, it actually exists, and we use it all the time! As to negative suns...black holes seems about right based on the description. Just thought you'd like to know.