Glass harmonica

Glass harmonica (Fr.: harmonica de Franklin; Ger.: Glasharmonika), a series of tuned glass bowls pierced in the center, strung vertically in close position on a wire spindle, and rotated by means of a treadle; the glasses were suspended above a trough partly filled with water. The player touched the rotating wet rims with the fingers of both hands. The glass harmonica came into existence in 1761, when Benjamin Franklin transformed the *musical glasses into a new instr. that he called…