Nearly everyone knows of Benjamin Franklin’s success as a printer and businessman, as well as his many diplomatic successes. However, not many people know of his invention as a musician.

You’ve probably done the exercise at one time or another during your life of dipping your finger into a crystal glass containing some water or other liquid. When you move your finger around the top of the glass you hear a tiny, high pitched sound coming from the movement. Everyone has tried it. Don’t spill the liquid.

Ben Franklin was so captivated by the sound this makes, that he designed and built a musical instrument based on this technique. He called it the “Armonica’ which is Italian for “harmony.”

Ben had different sized glass bowls, like wineglasses, produced and then he attached them to a rod which could be turned by a foot pedal. He could dip his fingers into water bowls, rub them on the glasses as they turned, and in this manner make some beautiful music!

Ben’s Armonica became such a sensation across Europe that Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn all composed their own music for this machine. The Amonica was popular up until the 1830’s, when some medical experts and others began to fear, and spread their knowledge, that the music it produced, also caused fits of melancholia. It soon lost its popularity.

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin also played the guitar, violin, and harp? He was a man of many talents and great intellect!