John Spradley wrote in 000116 MMD:

> ... I ran across a statement that Helmholtz built cardboard pipes
> for use in his studies of sound.  As I remember it he was attempting
> to show that the pipe material didn't matter much (probably only
> small pipes).  Can anyone shed any light on this?

Somebody once built a perfectly fine-sounding clarinet using rubber
hose meant for an automobile radiator.  Any number of wind instruments
have been built out of glass -- I think either the Corning or Steuben
glass factory once had an all-glass orchestra.

So I don't think that, within certain limits, the material used for
a resonator makes a whole lot of difference.  What particularly
fascinated me were long pipes that went around corners to save space.
I guess I was willing to accept the fact that this would work with wind
instruments, but it seemed sort of illegal to use it with an organ
pipe.

Mark Kinsler
http://www.frognet.net/~kinsler