Not P but Moby-Dick (100)

[Michael Bailey]

https://repository.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=sixteenfifty

“One Charles James, a glass blower in London, assisted Franklin in
designing the armonica. Individual glass bowls were constructed with a hole
in the center
such that each could be filled with a cork and bowls mounted on a metal
rod….A foot pedal turned this assembly of glass bowls…”

So the cork would be like a gasket.

Not a tenable metaphor imho.


Same article also mentions that prior to Franklin’s invention, people were
playing tunes on musical glasses or bowls since the 15th century.

I’ve seen that on tv, for that matter.

I choose to envision somebody playing the primitive version using a cork
mallet.

(ymmv (-;)



On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 9:08 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The only problem is that you don't pound a glass harmonica, and there's no
> cork involved in it, as far as I can determine. The other possibility is
> that he was tuning the glass harmonica, but I don't know how that works
> either.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 12:06 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > tarred fiber. Oakum is a type of rope made of tarred fibre. It is
> > normally used to fill gaps. The main traditional use of oakum was in
> > shipbuilding. It was used for caulking, It was used to fill areas between
> > timbers in wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships.
> >
> > I think it means that the wooden mallet is like a cork as it pounds down
> > the oakum caulking.      As the mallet pounds it is like playing a
> > harmonica.
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 10:52 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> From Chapter 127:
> >>
> >> He’s always under the Line—fiery hot, I tell ye! He’s looking this
> >> way—come, oakum; quick. Here we go again. This wooden mallet is the
> cork,
> >> and I’m the professor of musical glasses—tap, tap!”
> >>
> >> Is the "cork" here a stopper for a bottle, or is it something else? What
> >> does it have to do with musical glasses (glass harmonica)?
> >> --
> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >>
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>