172 On the Performance of the Apollonicon. 
pression that those instruments possessed, with the grandeur of 
tone, which from their want of size they were incapable of. 
There is in Dr. Rees’s Cyclopedia, under the article ORGAN, a 
copious description of the first instrament that was built for 
Lord Kirkwall, explaining its principles, construction, and effects, 
to which I should beg to refer your readers for an explanation of 
its mechanical properties. 
I recollect secing a prospectus, about five years ago, stating 
the object of the inventors in setting about to construct the 
Apollonicon, at a value of 10,000/., under the sanction of His 
Royal Highness the Prince Regent, who havi ing heard Lord Kirk- 
wall’s organ, had been pleased to bestow his unequivocal appro- 
bation and patronage to their efforts. The instrument was at 
that time commenced; and accordingly, after a period of five 
years of labour, expense and anxiety, the Apollonicon was opened 
for public exhibition in June 1817 ; since which time it has heen 
heard by many thousands, who by their approbation nave borne 
testimony to its merits. 
This magnificent instrument is on the principle of the organ; 
is twenty-four feet in height, twenty feet wide, and about twelve 
feet deep, and contains in the whole about three thousand pipes; 
the largest of which, of wood, is sixteen feet long, by eighteen 
and tienty-one inches wide. By certain qualities and combi- 
nations of the different pipes, the effect of flutes, oboes, clario- 
nets, bassoons, horns, &c. &c. is produced in a very superior 
style; the whole powers of which, with the variety of changes 
they are capable of, are acted upon -by three immense cylinders 
or barrels of six feet each in circumference, impelled by a me- 
chanical power: on which barrels are set, at present, the cele- 
brated overtures to Anacreon, and Clemenza di Tito. The ex- 
traordinary precision, expression, brilliancy of execution, and 
the rapidity with which the instrument performs the different 
changes, in these two pieces, have astonished and delighted the 
scientific and musical world. 
The Apollonicon possesses. also the capability of being acted 
upon by performers ; it has five sets of keys, on which five pra- 
fessors may play at the same time. The principal set, on which 
one performer may play, commands the power of a very grand 
organ, with a sweetness and expression superior to any thing I 
have ever before heard; combining the expressive quality of the 
violin, the sublimity of the organ, and the extreme delicacy of 
the musical glasses: the other sets of keys command the effects 
of the different wind instruments, as flutes, oboes, bassoons, &c. 
&c. The whole combined bring into play ‘the full powers of the 
instrument. By a judicious arrangement of the different parts 
of a grand piece of music the finest effect may be produced by 
these 
