Panharmonicon

The Panharmonicon was a musical instrument invented in 1805 by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, a contemporary and friend of Beethoven.

91) to be played on Mälzel's mechanical orchestral organ and also to commemorate Arthur Wellesley's victory over the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.

Friedrich Kaufmann copied this automatic playing machine in 1808, and his family produced Orchestrions from that time on.

In 1817 Flight & Robson in London built a similar automatic instrument called Apollonicon, advised by the blind organist John Purkis, who had previously written and arranged music for the Panharmonicon.

[3] In 1821 Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel copied some features of the Panharmonicon in Amsterdam for his instrument, the Componium, which was also capable of aleatoric composition.

Panharmonicon
( L'Illustration , 25 May 1846)