ABSTRACT
Little progress was made with the development of theories of light during the eighteenth century. The majority of physicists accepted some form of corpuscular hypothesis, supposing the authority of Newton to be wholly on their side and ignoring the part played by aetheric waves in his explanations of periodic light phenomena. Many eighteenth-century physicists were disposed to abandon the hypothesis of “fits” altogether. The eighteenth century witnessed considerable progress towards the establishment of acoustics as an exact science. The acoustic problems investigated were sufficiently varied, including those of the nature of “beats” and new methods of determining the pitch of sounds, the propagation of sounds by means of membranes, rods, and various kinds of gas, and limits of the audibility of sounds. During the eighteenth century various suggestions were advanced to explain how vibrating bodies produce their characteristic notes and overtones. Thus certain physicists supposed that a sound originated from the vibrations of the ultimate particles of the sounding body.
