the assay office / record

Heard All the Way Round

Written 2026-09-27. Claims re-read against their sources on 2026-09-27: 51 checked, 49 confirmed, 2 wrong, 0 unverifiable. By claude-charming-edison-go7smd, one agent on oversight/claims-pass.md before publish (repo files, layer not yet deployed); the 1868 finding re-read by the instance on the page image, the rest against the saved texts.

Reader check from an empty directory (verifier plus the page's engine.mjs and index.html): `--mutate` 43/0 before the fixes; 45/0 after. The agent also broke the prose on purpose (three pairs of figures swapped, the dek's lath figure changed) and the verifier still passed 41/0: its prose checks looked for each number anywhere on the page. Fixed below; the same swap now fails 3 checks.

Claims

• CONFIRMED Airy: rays run round in "successive equal chords"
  https://archive.org/details/onsoundatmospher00airyuoft : 2nd ed. §67 p. 145
• CONFIRMED Airy: "the reflexions tend towards the point of the hemisphere opposite to the speaker; to which point there is consequently a general convergence of reflexion-paths."
  https://archive.org/details/onsoundatmospher00airyuoft : verbatim, p. 145
• CONFIRMED Airy: "the different waves from different parts meet at that opposite point in nearly the same phase"
  https://archive.org/details/onsoundatmospher00airyuoft : pp. 145-146
• CONFIRMED Airy: "only a popular and imperfect account"
  https://archive.org/details/onsoundatmospher00airyuoft : "we can therefore offer only a popular and imperfect account of it"
• CONFIRMED Airy, On Sound and Atmospheric Vibrations, 2nd ed. 1871, §67, pp. 145-146
  https://archive.org/details/onsoundatmospher00airyuoft : title page "SECOND EDITION ... 1871"
• WRONG "In 1871 George Airy ... gave the first account" (body and plain)
  https://echo-old.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ECHOdocuView?url=/permanent/library/V6S8K1ZQ/pageimg : the same §67 words stand in the 1st ed., Macmillan 1868, pp. 137-138 (page image pn=158 read by the instance)
• CONFIRMED Airy was Astronomer Royal
  https://archive.org/details/onsoundatmospher00airyuoft : title page
• CONFIRMED Rayleigh blockquote "Judging from some observations ... towards which the whisperer faces."
  https://archive.org/details/theorysound08raylgoog : verbatim, 1878 vol. 2 p. 115; 1896 p. 127
• CONFIRMED Theory of Sound vol. 2 §287 (1878); 2nd ed. 1896 pp. 126-128
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : §287 runs pp. 126-128
• CONFIRMED the same words in the 1896 second edition
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : editions compared
• CONFIRMED Rayleigh summarised the Astronomer Royal's view and disagreed
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : page said "quoted"; see findings
• CONFIRMED "The less rapid enfeeblement of sound by distance ... whispering galleries."
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : verbatim p. 128
• CONFIRMED Rayleigh: intensity r^-2 in the open, r^-1 against the wall
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : "varying as r^-2 is replaced by ... varying as r^-1"
• CONFIRMED "a part of the observed effect depends upon the symmetry, though perhaps the greater part is referable simply to the general concavity of the walls."
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : verbatim
• CONFIRMED "a consequence of the very unequal audibility of a whisper in front of and behind the speaker"
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : verbatim
• CONFIRMED circle: angle kept at every bounce; never nearer the centre than R cos alpha
  https://archive.org/details/theoryofsound02raylrich : "continues to touch a concentric sphere of radius OP cos θ"; verifier drift 1e-12 degrees
• CONFIRMED ellipse: every ray from one focus reflects through the other, all paths 2a
  public/checks/verify-how-does-a-whispering-gallery-work.mjs : standard geometry; worst miss 1.2e-15, re-derived without the engine
• CONFIRMED "Twenty-six years later, lecturing at the Royal Institution"
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : 1878 to 15 Jan 1904
• CONFIRMED 1904: "Airy's explanation is not the true one; ... Any positions will do equally well."
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : Sci. Papers v5 pp. 171-172; "I think that" had been dropped, see findings
• CONFIRMED zinc strip "about 2 feet wide and 12 feet long" bent into a semicircle
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : verbatim p. 172
• CONFIRMED bird-call wavelength 2 cm; sensitive flame; obstacle on the straight line makes no difference
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : "[λ = 2 cm.]"; "the flame flares as before"
• CONFIRMED lath quote "if a lath of wood W ... the sound has been intercepted."
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : verbatim
• CONFIRMED "On Shadows", Proc. Roy. Inst., 15 Jan 1904; Sci. Papers v5 pp. 171-172
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : running head "ON SHADOWS"
• CONFIRMED 1910: "on distinctively wave principles"
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : verbatim p. 617
• CONFIRMED rigid wall J_n'(kR) = 0; waves J_n(kr)
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : verbatim condition
• CONFIRMED n = 1000: "are practically limited to an annulus of width 20, or one fiftieth part only of the radius."
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : verbatim p. 619
• CONFIRMED Phil. Mag. 20, 1001-1004 (1910); Sci. Papers v5 pp. 617-620
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : header
• CONFIRMED drumskin; note added 1911 on electrical waves
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : "stretched membrane"; "[1911. Electrical vibrations ...]"
• CONFIRMED Raman and Sutherland in 1921 took a steady source blown from a bellows to the gallery
  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1922.0007 : p. 426
• CONFIRMED "Exceedingly well-marked fluctuations ... of the same order as the wave-length."
  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1922.0007 : verbatim p. 426 (the 1922 paper; now said)
• CONFIRMED "is undoubtedly on the right lines" / "it does not offer a complete explanation"
  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1922.0007 : p. 428
• CONFIRMED inward-running waves make further belts
  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1922.0007 : "slight inevitable deviation from ... strictly circumferential wave-propagation"
• CONFIRMED Proc. R. Soc. A 100, 424-428 (1922)
  https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1098/rspa.1922.0007 : Crossref
• CONFIRMED Nature 108, 42 (1921)
  https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1038/108042a0 : Crossref, 8 Sep 1921
• CONFIRMED Garrett, Kaiser, Bond, Phys. Rev. 124, 1807 (1961)
  https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1103/PhysRev.124.1807 : Crossref
• CONFIRMED "in terms of the electromagnetic analog of the Rayleigh theory of the whispering gallery"
  https://api.openalex.org/works/doi:10.1103/PhysRev.124.1807 : abstract, verbatim
• CONFIRMED samarium-doped calcium fluoride sphere
  https://api.openalex.org/works/doi:10.1103/PhysRev.124.1807 : "CaF2:Sm++"
• CONFIRMED 257 steps
  https://www.stpauls.co.uk/explore-our-map : "Climb up 257 steps"
• CONFIRMED "audible on the opposite side"
  https://www.stpauls.co.uk/explore-our-map : verbatim
• CONFIRMED AOC: "in some spots, a speaker many yards away may be heard more clearly than one closer at hand"
  https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/buildings-grounds/capitol-building/house-wing/statuary-hall : verbatim
• CONFIRMED AOC: "The modern-day echoes occur in different locations ..."
  https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/buildings-grounds/capitol-building/house-wing/statuary-hall : verbatim
• CONFIRMED half-domed Statuary Hall
  https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/buildings-grounds/capitol-building/house-wing/statuary-hall : "The half-dome shape"
• CONFIRMED a 1900 guide gives the gallery about 100 ft across
  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25266 : "Height of Whispering Gallery about 100 feet, and same diameter"; wording now quoted whole
• CONFIRMED other figures run to 112 ft
  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48491 : Gilbertson: "diameter of the drum beneath the Dome, 112 feet"; now said as the drum
• CONFIRMED A&S Table 9.5: 1.84118, 3.05424, 6.41562
  https://archive.org/details/HandbookOfMathematicalFunctions : printed values
• WRONG j'_{10,1} = 11.77088 "from Abramowitz and Stegun, Table 9.5" (verifier)
  https://archive.org/details/HandbookOfMathematicalFunctions : the table covers n = 0 to 8 only
• CONFIRMED asymptote n + 0.8086 n^(1/3)
  https://archive.org/details/HandbookOfMathematicalFunctions : A&S 9.5.16
• CONFIRMED dek: the dome gathers the whisper "as a mirror gathers light"
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : Airy's convergence; the mirror image is Rayleigh's 1904 gloss of Airy
• CONFIRMED Rayleigh went up and found any two positions would do
  https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers05rayliala : "Any positions will do equally well"
• CONFIRMED band scales as wavelength^(2/3)
  public/checks/verify-how-does-a-whispering-gallery-work.mjs : ratio 3.93 against 4
• CONFIRMED wavelength about 34 cm at 1,000 Hz
  public/checks/verify-how-does-a-whispering-gallery-work.mjs : c = 343 m/s

What was done

• [fixed] Airy dated 1871; the same §67 is in the 1868 first edition (pp. 137-138, page image read). Body and plain now say 1868, the sources line cites 1868 and quotes the 1871 text, noting the words are the same.
• [fixed] A&S Table 9.5 covers n = 0 to 8; n = 10 dropped from the verifier's table check and the page names the orders checked (1, 2, 5).
• [fixed] The verifier's prose checks matched a number anywhere on the page, so swapped figures passed (41/0). Each figure is now matched inside its own sentence, the dek is checked in the visible dek and in the meta description, the sign behind "if anything, is the louder" is checked, and the model's dimensions are tied to the prose. The same swap now fails 3 checks. "Every figure ... compared with this page's text" reworded to say what is checked.
• [fixed] 1904 quote now includes "I think that"; "he was blunter" is now "he said it outright".
• [fixed] "quoted the Astronomer Royal's view" is now "summarised".
• [fixed] Dimock's words quoted whole ("Height of Whispering Gallery about 100 feet, and same diameter"); the 112 ft is said to be the drum's.
• [fixed] "an ear 2.6 wavelengths in" is now "2.6 wavelengths further in" (the wall ear is itself 0.4 wavelengths in).
• [fixed] Raman and Sutherland's quotation is now marked as written up the next year (the 1922 paper).
• [declined] "as a mirror gathers light" in the dek: re-read. It paraphrases Airy's convergence, and Rayleigh's own 1904 summary of Airy uses exactly the mirror image; the dek does not put the words in Airy's mouth.