Y6b shrill whistle

[NW Mailing List]

Dave,

Your assumption is correct AFAIK.  Both closed and open pipes (horns, too) have a fundamental tone and several harmonics.  The "great whistle storm" is a prolonged example of the higher harmonic becoming dominant.  During 1218's excursion days, you could hear hints of this higher tone at the beginning of a whistle blast.  It seemed to be caused by abruptly yanking the valve open, but I never heard it sustained.  The fundamental lower tone always won out.

Dave Stephenson  

--- On Sun, 5/2/10, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: RE: Y6b shrill whistle
To: "'NW Mailing List'" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010, 4:49 PM





 


 







I have always been intrigued, many times
over, by that shrill whistle sound recorded by Link in “Thunder on Blue Ridge”. 
Now I know it was from the same “Hooter” whistle on the Y that
produced the familiar lower tone.  

 

So, am I correct to presume that the “shrill”
note is simply a higher octave multiple of the familiar fundamental frequency? 


 

On this topic, back in January I was watching
an old Tom & Jerry short and was quite surprised and delighted to immediately
recognize what I believe to be a short sample of this same Link recording! 
After reading the postings in this thread, I listened to it on my “Thunder
on Blue Ridge” CD and re-watched the cartoon, which
I saved on my DVR.  Sure enough to my ear, it’s the same sound
sample, though the sound quality is much better on the CD.

 

On “Thunder on Blue Ridge”, you’ll
find the whistle blast transitioning from the normal tone to the shrill tone at
about 6:45 into Track 6.  About 5 sec of this is
used as a sound effect in the 1961 (produced in 1960) Tom & Jerry cartoon titled
“Switchin’ Kitten”, which I found on YouTube at the link
below; the whistle blast sequence is at about 6:15 into the cartoon. 
Check it out!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agbbuiaqrqY

 

David Rice

 



      
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