Glasschord

Glasschord crystallophone called forte-piano à cordes de verre by its maker, Beyer of Paris, and named glasschord by Benjamin Franklin in or by 1785. The Journal de Paris of Nov. 18 of that year reports its having been approved by the Académie des Sciences. A series of glass bars was laid horizontally on thick cloth strips and struck from above by small wooden, cloth-covered hammers controlled from a keyboard. Dampers were lacking. Compass 3 octs., c0-c3 (169, 204). Sort…