“Echo Viol” Patent Model
date: label: date made
content: 1872
name: label: patentee
content: Collins, Michael H.
notes: label: Description
content: This “Echo Viol” was patented by Michael H. Collins of Chelsea, Massachusetts and received U.S. Patent number 129,653 on July 23, 1872. Intended as an improvement on the violin, the body consists of two chambers or sounding areas which can be balanced. Collins describes this improvement in his patent application: “This harmonizing or tuning of the two chambers, so as to attain a most perfect clearness and blending of the reverberations or echos emitted from the two chambers, is one of the peculiar features of my invention.” This instrument is made of a body of thin hardwood and spruce, laminated in place with cloth for light weight strength, bridge of laminated wood, finely figured violin neck, pegbox and scroll, and reddish-orange varnish on the neck.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Chelsea
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Violins
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.251404
label: catalog number
content: 251404
label: accession number
content: 48889
label: patent number
content: 129,653
objectType: label: Object Name
content: patent model
label: Object Name
content: echo viol
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hardwood (body material)
label: Physical Description
content: spruce (body material)
label: Physical Description
content: plywood (bridge material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 25 in x 4 3/4 in x 5 1/4 in; 63.5 cm x 12.065 cm x 13.335 cm