Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-07-07
musical. GLASSES
Mozart Composed For Them and
Chuck Played Upon Them.
INVENTED BY AN IRISnMAM.
Richard Pockrich, the Versatile Genius
Who Originated Them, Once Used
Their Melody to Charm Away the
Bailiffs Who Had Arrested Him.


a true genius, dreamer and an in
ventor He proposed metal ships. pre-
dicted flying machines. advocated DO:
drainage and vine planting in the EN-
erald Isle, invented an instrument fol
transfuSing blood and was for som,
years d brewer in Dublin.
1t was in the domain of art that ht
achieved his one real triumph the one
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 glaS>es. These can be
heard today in vaudeville houses AL
over the world and wifi probably sur
viye as long as he musical art itself
Most of oiir readers have heard them.
They are simply II set of tumbler or
gObieI like glasses selected for tonal
quality TO carry out IL musical scale.
porkrich seems To have been the first
man 10 be struck by the musical tone
III glass. and :" he thought the thing
on aud produced IL scale on which he
could play an! melody.
He exhibited his discovery in Dublin
ard finally took ii to England about
the year 100. where it became the SEN
satiOn of the houi Nothing was talk
ed of hut the marvellous. simple, new
musical instrument. 1t seemed to the
ears of the jadpd Londoners that the
heavenly art in all its elemental beauty
had returned 10 earth. Far from Sneer-
ing al - very simple an idea for max
Ing melody. The cognoScenti of London
went into rapturpS over the musical
glaSseS Gluck. the great composer.
who was in Lomlion. did not disdain
to play his immortal airs upon them.
The opera tlouriSheS more than in
any recent year" wrote Horace Wal
pole to friend The composer is
Gluck. German. He is to have a
benefit. at which he is to play Il set
of drinking glasses which he modu-
lates with water. | think | have heard
you speak of some such thing
Not only did Gluck perform upon
Pockrichs new instrument, but Bee
thoven. Mozart and other great mu-
sicians In later years actually COM
posed music for it. Goldsmith refers
TO 1t In The Vicar of Wakefield" Not
long after the inventor visited London.
and Benjamin Franklin speaks of him
in a letter To il 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. gentleman
from Ireland. was the first who thought
of playing tunes formed OF Sucn tones.
He collected number of glasses of
different sizes. fixed them near each
other on table and tuned them by
putting into them water, more or less
as each note required. The tones were
brought out by passing his fingers
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.
1t 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
1slandbridge, happening to be on day
seized by bailiffs, thus addressed them:
Gentlemen am your prisoner. but
before | do myself the honor to attend
you give me leave as an humble per-
former In musick to entertain you with
tune
"'Sir,' exclaimed one Of the bailiffs
we came here TO execute our warrant
not to hear tunes
Gentlemen says the captain, 4
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 say. gentlemen be-
fore you take a dram I shall dispatch
my tune
I'm the meanwhile he flourishes a
prelnde 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
captain.
''Sir. upon your parole of honor to
keep the secret we give you your lib
erty. IT'S we'll playing upon glasses
is not more common: if it were l be-
lieve our 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 70 be twenty
of them. varying in size and tone from
the smallest trebleS to the basSeS. tC
be played by one person standing with
the drums arranged about him in g
circle Pockrich never succeeded IL
producing true melody from a concer
of drums.
The musical glasses were the. direc
cause OF Pockrichs death 1t wa:
while he was upon one of his musica
tours in England in the year 1889 tina
the hotel In London In which he wa
sleeping caught fire and he was burn
ed to death-Josepb Lewis French y
New York Post
An Insect Gunner.
Many insects have some means OF
defense from their natural enemies