Benjamin Franklin Invents the Glass Armonica

Franklin’s musical invention, the armonica, became a sensation in Europe.

Franklin developed a musical instrument that he called the armonica (after the Italian word for harmony). To play the armonica, a musician powered a foot pedal to rotate 36 concentric glass bowls and produced notes by putting wet fingers to the spinning glass. In Austria, the glass armonica provided the music for a royal wedding. Mozart and Beethoven would compose chamber pieces for it.

AIR DATE 4/4/22

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About Benjamin Franklin

Ken Burns’s two-part, four-hour documentary, “Benjamin Franklin,” explores the revolutionary life of one of the18th century’s most consequential and compelling personalities, whose work and words unlocked the mystery of electricity and helped create the United States.

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