Thanks ehBeth for the link to the troubled hamsters.
I listened to a recital of Glass music today and learned that Benjamin Franklin improved the instrument. The Franklin's "Armonica".
Quote:
"Being charmed by the sweetness of its tones, and the music he produced from it, I wished only to see the glasses disposed in a more convenient form, and brought together in a narrower compass, so as to admit a greater number of tones, and all within reach of hand to a person sitting before the instrument (...)"
Franklin chose 24 glass bowls, had them tuned by grinding, and mounted them concentrically on a horizontal rod. Driven by a treadle (very much like an old-fashioned sewing machine), the glasses spun around, and the player had only to touch the glasses with wet fingers.
Franklin called the instrument the "armonica", "in honor of your (i.e. the Italian) musical language".
Text and Picture