Harmonica, a musical instrument, invented in 1760 by Benjamin Franklin, the sounds of which were produced from bell-shaped glasses, placed on a framework that revolved on its centre, while the rims were touched by the moistened finger. An instrument of the kind was used at Nuremberg in the 17th century. In 1746 the great composer Gluck, and in 1750 an Irishman named Puckeridge, played in London airs on a row of glasses, tuned by putting water into each. When Franklin finished his invention, in which the pitch was regulated by the size of the glasses alone, he found an excellent performer in Miss Marianne Davies, to whom he made a present of his harmonica, and who during 1762-73 performed on it with great effect in London, Paris, Vienna, Milan, Naples, &c. This fascinating instrument found many admirers, but none of them ever succeeded in improving it. The production of the sound by the points of the fingers caused such an effect on the nerves of the performer as in some instances to induce fainting fits. All attempts to make the harmonica easier for amateurs through means of keys ended in failure, since no substance was found to act as a substitute for the human finger. The harmonica gave rise to a host of similar instruments by Chladni, Kaufmann, and others, which were not particularly successful. Other instruments of no merit or importance took the same or a similar name, but had not the most remote resemblance to the original—e.g. steel pegs or strings being substituted for the glasses (see HARMONICON). The original harmonica, for which
Mozart and Beethoven composed, was the instrument popularly known as musical-glasses. See Pohl, Zur Geschichte der Glasharmonica (1862).