a musical instrument, consisting of a number of glass cups fixed upon a revolving spindle, and made to vibrate by friction applied to their edges. Mr Puckeridge, an Irishman, is said to have been the first to use a set of drinking-glasses, fixed on a table, and tuned to form a scale by putting more or less water into each. They were made to sound by passing a wet finger round their edges. These were improved by Mr Delaval, and still further by Dr Franklin, and were called "the musical glasses." Their tone is sweet and melancholy, and of a peculiar timbre, which produces a painful effect on the nerves of some persons. It appears, however, that the use of musical drinking-glasses was described in a work (Mathematische und Philosophische Erquickstunden) published by G. P. Harsdörfer, at Nuremberg in 1677. What was called a harpsichord-harmonica, in which finger-keys like those of a pianoforte were used instead of direct contact of the fingers with the revolving glasses, was invented by Röllig at Vienna, and Klein at Presburg. Another harmonica was invented by the Abate Mazzucchi, who employed the friction of a hair-bow to produce the sounds of the glasses. A stringed harmonica was invented at Augusta, in 1788, by John Stein, an eminent organ-builder. It consisted of a double stringed (wired) pianoforte, combined with a sort of spinet, to be used together or separately. Its effects are said to have been remarkable.