The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-06-09
MUSICAL GLASSES
Mozart Composed For Them and
GIuck Played Upon Them.
INVENTED By AN FRESHMAN.
Richard Pockrich, the Versatile Genius
Who Originated Them, Once Used
Their Melody to Charm Away the
Bailiffs Who Had Arrested Him.

6ailiffs Who rad Arrested Him.
Richard Pockrich, an freshman who
lived in the eighteenth century, was
a true genius. a dreamer and an in
yentor. fe proposed metal ships, pre-
dicted dying machines, advocated bog
drainage and vine planting in the En-
erald Isle, invented an instrument for
transfusing blood and was for some
years a brewer in Dublin.
1t was in the domain of art that he
achieved his one real triumph. the OF
by which he is known in contemporary
musical history. by which he became
known to general European civilization
during his lifetime and by which his
name will long survive. He invented
the musical glasses. These al be
heard today in vaudeville houses all
over the world and will probably sur
vive as long as the musical art itself.
Most Of our readers have heard them.
They are simply a set of tumbler or
goblet like glasses selected for tonal
quality to carry out a musical scale.
Pockrich seems to have been the first
man to be struck by the musical tone
In glass, and SO he thought the thing
out and produced a scale on which he
could play any melody.
He exhibited his discovery in Dublin
and finally took it to England about
the year 1850, where it be me the SEN
sation OF the hour. Moth 1g was talk
ed Of but the marvellous, nipple, new
musical instrument. 1t seemed to the
heavenly art in all its elemental beauty
had returned to earth. Far from sheer
ing at SO very simple an idea for max
Ing melody, the cognoscenti Of London
went into raptures over the musical
glasses. Gluck, the great composer,
who was In London, did not disdain
to play his immortal airs upon them.
1.-The opera fourishes more than in
any recent year." wrote Horace Wal
pole to a friend. THE composer is
Gluck, a German. He is to have a
benefit. at which he is to play a set
Of drinking glasses which he modu-
Iates with water. think | have heard
ycd SICoh u IA SdSI tiiIjSs
Not only did Gluck perform upon
Pockrich's new instrument, but Bee
thoven, Mozart and other great mu-
siciars in later years actually com-
posed music for 1t. Goldsmith refers
to it in 1.-The Vicar of Wakefield" Not
long after the inventor visited London,
and Benjamin Franklin speaks of him
In a letter to a friend thus:
You have doubtless heard the sweet
tone that is drawn from a drinking
glass by passing a wet finger round its
brim. One Mr.. Pockrich, a gentleman
from Ireland. was the first who thought
Of playing tunes formed of such tones.
He collected a number of glasses Of
different sizes. fixed them near each
other on a table and tuned them by
putting into them water, more or les
as each note required. The tones w
brought out by passing his finge.
round the brim."
There Is a story Of Pockrich, who
was making occasional tours to Eng
land after the invention Of the musical
glasses, that illustrates the surprising
effect Of his own performance on them.
It Is told by his friend Brockhill New
burgh. a gentleman Of wealth and po-
sition. who lived in Dublin at the time:
"Mr. Pockrich In his brewery near
Islandbridge. happening to be one day
seized by bailiffs, thus addressed them:
"~'Gentlemen, l am your prisoner, but
before I do myself the honor to attend
you give me leave as ar humble per.
former in musick to entertain you with
q tune
"'Sir,' exclaimed one of the bailiffs,
we came here to execute our warrant.
not to shear tunes."'
"'Gentlemen,' says the captain, Il
submit to your authority. but in the
interim while you are only taking a
dram-here, Jack calling to his serv.
anti. bring a bottle Of the Rosa Soils ]
lately distilled-I say, gentlemen. be-
fore you take a dram I shall dispatch
my tune
I'm the meanwhile he flourishes a
prelude on the glasses and afterward
displays his skill through all the pleas
Ing turns and variations of The Black
Joke The monsters, charmed with
the magic of his sounds, for some time
stand and gaze. At length. recovering
from their trance, they thus accost the
captain.
"'Sir. upon your parole Of honor to
keep the secret we give you your lib
erty. 'Tis well playing upon glasses
Is not more common; if 1t were l be-
lieve u trade would find little en-
plOyment.'"
Another musical instrument that
POckrich developed as no man had
ever dreamed OF before was the drum.
He had dreamed of harmony even In
the drum. He planned an orchestra of
drums only. There were to be twenty
OF them. varying in size and tone from
the smallest trebles to the basses, to
be played by one person standing with
the drums arranged about him in a
circle. Pockrich never succeeded In
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