rate key-board instrument, prior to 1800. The "free reed" is so named to distinguish it from the "beating reed" of the clarionet and the "double reed" of the oboe and bassoon. It consists of a strip of flexible metal adjusted on a pan over a slot in which the reed vibrates on being set in motion by a current of air, thus producing a musical sound. Pitch, the height or depth of sounds, is regulated by the size and structure of the reed and pan, the smaller reeds producing the sharpest and the larger the gravest tones, while timbre, or quality, one of the three chief characteristics which a sound possesses, is conditioned by the structure of the reed, the nature of the metal used, and other incidental influences.
The seraphine was the first instrument of the class produced in America. It was invented by Mr. Chadwick, an American, and was merely a slight advance on the accordeon, its precursor, which was also a key-board instrument. The melodeon appeared about
1840, and differed little from French harmoniums until Emmons Hamlin—afterward one of the founders of the celebrated firm of Mason & Hamlin—introduced some significant improvements in the construction of the reed. The improvement was of a highly important character from the historical point of view, since it was the first and chief step toward the American parlor organ. Hamlin found that, if the tongue of the reed were slightly twisted or
