GONG, is the name of an instrument used among the Chinese for producing loud sounds by percussion. It is a large circular instrument, somewhat resembling a tam bourine. It is entirely made of metal, and has its face somewhat convex. The metal, which resembles bronze, bears numerous marks of the hammer in every part. A string passes through a hole in the rim, and when the gong is suspended by this string, it is beaten on the centre by repeated gentle strokes of a spherical mallet, covered with folds of woollen cloth. When it is properly struck, it emits an overpowering sound, which may be heard at more than the distance of a mile. Gongs are manufactured openly in Canton ; and the largest kinds are made in one of the interior provinces of China. They are generally carried on a pole by two men, and beaten by the hindmost, and are commonly used at processions and at festivals, and also for the purpose of regulating the steps of the soldiers.
The metal of which the gong is composed is brittle, and very elastic, and has a granular texture. Dr Wol
laston found it to be quite malleable at a temperature con siderably below that of red heat. He determined the com position of the metal, and having made a quantity of similar alloy, he mended a crack in a gong belonging to Sir Joseph Banks, and restored the tone of the instrument. Klaproth found that the specific gravity of the gong was 8.815, and that it consisted of Dr Thomson found that its specific gravity was 8.953, that its thickness varied from one-fifteenth to one-twentieth of an inch, and that it was composed of DIr Murdoch has recently discovered not only the pro per composition, but also the mode of manufacturing gongs ; and in the course of his investigation has obtained several interesting results, which we hope to be able to communicate in a subsequent article. See Gehlen's Jour nal, Second Series, vol. ix. p. 408 ; and Thomson's .Annals of Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 208, 315, 316.