The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-07-14
THE EOLlAN HARP.
The Original CSude Affair Has Been Much
Improved.

The Original GUIDE Affair Has Been Much
Improved.
The Eolian harp is musical instru-
ment which is set in action by the
wind. 1t is not very well known, but
is very curious, and is supposed to have
been invented by Father Kircher, the
Jesuit savant, who lived in the
seventeenth century and invented
many ingenious machines. But the
fact of the spontaneous reso-
nance of certain musical instru-
ments when exposed to a current of air
had struck the observers of nature iD
times of remotest antiquity. One of the
Talmuds says that the harp of David
sounded when the north wind blew on
it, and it has been suggested that he
had an eolian, as we understand it.
The sounding of his harp by gust of
wind would be nothing extraordinary
if it stood near his north window, which
was probably open for air and chosen
for GOODNESS and shade in the climate of
Judea.
Kircher's harp had sixteen strings of
of catgut, and the force of the wind
was DETECTED on to it by various shut
tiers or screens. In later times this was
improved upon by Messrs. Frost and
Kastner, but was similar to the pre-
ceding form in principle and construc
ton. The Eolian harps in the old cas-
tie of Baden Baden, and those in the
four turrets of Strasburg cathedral are
celebrated. They are all made of
strings stretched over a sounding box,
and require tuning to keep them in har-
mony. They are also large and cum
brous, and have limited number of
strings, which make the music more or
less monotonous, and they are depend
emit on the wind from one direction
only. The changes of temperature and
dampness of the atmosphere make them
constantly out of tune, and, indeed, of
ten cause the strings to break.
These difficulties and drawbacks
have hitherto prevented the Eolial
harp from being so well known and
popular as such an interesting and
curious instrument deserves to be; but
the latest development of this harp,
named the Eolian, invented in 1891 by
Mr.. G. Crosland Taylor, F. R. G. s.,
Helsby, near Warrington, is a step in
the right direction.
The music is produced by sensitive
metallic rods instead of strings, SO that
it never requires tuning, and as there
is eighty separate notes there is great
variety of sound. 1t is intended to
hang on the bough of tree land may
be left there without damage from the
weather). 1t turns round before the
wind and is, therefore, exposed to every
point of the compass, and the music
passes into an organ pipe by which 1T
is greatly enriched and improved.
The principle of an Eolian harp may
be Familiarity shown on large scale by
the action of telegraph wires stretched
from one pole to another. In windy
day these will be found to omit musical
tongues, rising and falling in proper
tion TO the strength of the wind and
the tension of the wires.
Hector Berlioz, in his Voyage Mu-
sicale en- Italie," has given the follow
ing curious effects that an Kolian harp
has produced upon his lively and i'm
passioned Imagination: ''On one of
those gloomy days that sadden the
reading Ossian TO the fantastic har-
mony of an Eolian harp swinging at
the top of tree deprived of its verdure,
and I defy you not to experience
profound feeling of sadness and of
abandon and a vague and infinite de-
5 ire for another existence. Cha
teaubriand, in, Les Natchez," COM
pares its sound to the magic concerts
that the celestial vaults resound." Be-
sides inspiring writer's of both prose
and poetry, the Eolian harp possesses
remarkable properties which act upon
the nervous system and cause very diff
fnrcnt impressions, according to tho
temperament of those whe listen 10 is
RccoTd& -Lopden Queen