Word of the week: terpodion

The terpodion, also known as uranion, is an extremely rare 19th-century keyboard instrument that, when keys are pressed, creates sound via friction against a rotating coated wooden cylinder. It operates in a more mechanical, but similar concept, to that of a glass harmonica where wet fingers rotated around rim of a glass, creating a sound from two surfaces. In this case, fingers are hammers, usually made of wood, though the higher-notes may be from metal, soft rough leather, activated by the keys to press against the box-wood cylinder as it rotates, with the lower register requiring more pressure for the same amount of volume as the higher register.

Terpodion keyboard and rolling cylinder

The coating of the cylinder includes ethanol, mastic, sandarac, campher, as partly shown in this patent drawing:

Early design drawings

Terpodion invented by Johann David Buschmann (1773-1852)

Invented by German passementier and instrument repairer Johann David Buschmann (1773-1852), the instrument is extremely rare, and only 25 were ever built by his better known son, Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann (1805 -1864) who is credited with inventing the harmonica and also the accordion. Only one instrument was ever made in England, even though, according to The London Journal of Arts and Sciences, in 1821 David Buschmann sold a licence to instrument builder David Loescham and the cheesemonger James Allwright. Yet the instrument remains an interesting oddity, a cousin of the melodion, and examples can be found in instrument museums around Europe.

While it rarely needed tuning, the terpodion tended to have mechanical and material repair requirements, and wasn’t the purest sounding beast, making more of a buzzing or rumble than clear notes. But still, let’s see the terpodion in action:

So then, any more related to the terpodion, in music and culture? Feel free to suggest examples, or even from film, art, or other contexts in comments below.

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