A shock tube has been set up at Cornell University to begin the study of two‐dimensional wave propagation. Pressure waves initiated by the shock itself were used to trigger the spark source for the schlieren flow‐observation system, to time the instant of exposure and to measure the strength (speed) of the shock waves. These techniques were employed to study the propagation of a wave in a converging channel. Fair agreement between the one‐dimensional method of characteristics and these experiments was obtained.