Q. How do you make a glass harmoica?

Thank you for your question about making a glass harmonica. We have some information about them in the Rakow collection. Attached are 2 bibliographies which list books, articles, recordings, etc. related to the instruments. Some do include the musical glasses as well as the armonica.

I have also attached several scanned articles about the design and building of the glass harmonica. I hope they prove to be helpful. I did not find one reference that included complete instructions.  

Below are a few websites with some details. Of course the Finkenbeiner Company in MA makes them today. Their website includes the properties of their quartz glass.

https://www.cmog.org/article/glass-harmonica

https://www.glassarmonica.com/armonica/franklin_correspondence/3.html     (William Zeitler)

https://www.finkenbeiner.com/

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044041131962#view=1up;seq=3

Above link is to a digitized copy of the book, Charles Ferdinand Pohl, "Cursory Notices on the Origin and History of the Glass Harmonica," International Exhibition of 1862, London: Petter and Galpin, 1862.

 Your local library, through interlibrary loan, will be able to help you locate any of the materials from the bibliographies.  They can request the books or articles for you. They must remain in the library, however.