SCIENCE 
IS 
KNOWLEDGE. 
KNOWLEDGE 
IS 
POWER. 
A Popular Record of Scientific Experiments, Inventions and Progress 
Copyright Secured, 1877. 
Vol. I. 
NEW YORK, APRIL, 1878. 
No. 4. 
A Simple Musical Instrument. 
OME days since, hav- 
ing a few odd mo- 
ments of leisure at 
my disposal, I set 
about arranging a 
curious little musical 
instrument on the 
kitchen table. A 
brief description of 
the little impromptu 
affair, together with 
an account of its 
wonderful capacities, 
will doubtless interest many of the readers 
of this journal, especially those who are 
musically inclined. Of course I make no 
claim to originality in the construction of 
this little instrument, and yet I don't know 
what to call it. 
In making this instrument, the first step 
is to turn a tiny mallet, from soft wood, on 
the lathe. Make it about an inch in di- 
ameter, with the ends neatly convex, and 
with a light handle eight or ten inches long. 
Then pad and cover one of the ends with 
soft chamois or buckskin. Now get down 
the family goblets — your wife or mother 
may object, but you will not break them — 
and if you are fortunate enough to be able 
to make your selection from a fine set of 
Bohemian or cut glass, it will be all the 
better, as the finer and thinner the glass, 
the better will be the tone. Set your gob- 
lets on the table, and run over them with 
your mallet, tapping each gently to ascer- 
tain its pitch ; then arrange them in a 
row, beginning with the lowest toned glass, 
and proceed upward, according to pitch. 
Now take the lowest toned goblet, and fill 
it with cold water, which will of course 
lower the tone still further, and give you 
the lowest tone of your scale. Then take 
the next lowest goblet, pour in water 
slowly, until the sound produced is pre- 
cisely a semitone above that of the first 
goblet; and proceed in this way, regulating 
the pitch of each by the quantity of water, 
until you obtain a scale of one octave and a 
half, or two octaves, or as much more as the 
glassware at your command will allow. You 
