the.com/glass harmonica
Rotating glass bowls played by wet fingers, allegedly driving listeners mad.
means A musical instrument made of nested glass bowls spun on a shaft, played by touching wet fingers to their rims to produce eerie sustained tones.
from Invented in the 1760s by Benjamin Franklin, who was inspired by watching performers play tuned wine glasses filled with water. He arranged the bowls on a spindle turned by a foot pedal, eliminating the need for separate glasses and water levels — hence 'harmonica,' from the Latin/Greek root for harmony. It became a sensation across Europe, and rumors spread that its ghostly tones caused melancholy, nervous disorders, even madness in players and listeners alike — fears that, combined with practical issues like lead poisoning from the glass, pushed it into obscurity by the 1800s.
- invented by
- Benjamin Franklin, in 1761
- banned in
- some German towns, over madness fears
- mozart wrote
- a quintet for it, K.617
- side effect
- lead poisoning, from early glass formulas