New hypothesis about the secret of making million dollar musical instruments

Italian artists may have soaked wood to make a famous violin in a mineral water tank to prevent decay and termite resistance.

Hundreds of years ago, the violin made by Italian artist Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) was considered the best in the world. Some Stradivarius guitars cost up to millions of dollars, according to Fox News. Another artisan also created other instruments with the same perfect sound, Giuseppe Guarneri (1698 - 1744), living in Cremona city, north of Italy.

The violin made by Antonio Stradivari is considered the best in the world. (Photo: Reuters).

In the past, many theories have been proposed to explain the reason why the flock of two master craftsmen Stradivari and Guarneri cannot be perfectly reproduced, but all have no convincing evidence.

In the new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in late November, Taiwanese scientists (China) analyzed some of the maple pieces on four violins and cellos. Stradivari and a violin by Guarneri. They found that the maple wood used to make the Stradivari and Guarneri guitars had very different chemical properties compared to maple wood in modern instruments.

Both artisans soaked wood as a base in a tub of mineral water containing aluminum (AI), calcium (Ca), copper (Cu), sodium (Na), potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) to prevent decay and termite control . "This is a strange method that the later violin makers don't know about," the team said in the Washington Post.

However, the New York Times argued that the maple wood made of these million-dollar plaques was more likely to be chemically soaked by woodcutter, not the secret of artisans making music. perfect tool.