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LicenseAdvertisement for 'The Pyrophone, the First Invented Orchestral Fire Organ and its Appliances: The Electric Singing
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Pyrophone, patented and made by Frédéric Kastner, France, 1873
Patented by the Strasbourg-born musician and scientist Fréderic Kastner in 1873, the pyrophone was a musical instrument in which flames encased in pipes similar to those of a traditional organ were used to produce musical notes. Kaster took advantage of Dr B Higgins’ 1777 discovery that a hydrogen flame positioned at the lower end of glass tube could produce a note and combined this with his musical knowledge (his father was the composer Georges Kastner) in order to produce a “Fire Organ”, as the instrument was also known.
Details
- Category:
- Acoustics
- Materials:
- beech (wood), brass (copper, zinc alloy), cardboard, ceramic (unspecified), ebony, felt, glass, ivory, lacquer, metal (unknown), oak (wood), paint, steel (metal) and wood (unidentified)
- Measurements:
-
base: 1160 mm (Max height without glass tubes)
- Identifier:
- 1876-590
- type:
- pyrophone
- credit:
- Dunant, Henry
