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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: "Alchemy" Was the Secret to Making Stradivarius Violins, Study Says


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Texas chemist and violinmaker Joseph Nagyvary plays a recently made violin created with a unique method of wood preservation likely used by famed Italian instrument makers Antonio Stradivari and Guaneri del Gesu.

New chemical analyses of wood shavings from three 18th-century instruments suggest that the violinmakers used a special chemical treatment to give their instruments their unique tones.

Photograph by Mary Ann Watson, courtesy Nature