December 5, 2008

Gurney Was Still Haunted by the Baroque Search for

Gurney was still haunted by the Baroque search for a perfect vacuum, by the study of the phlogiston, as part of the philosophy of nature. So, like a mad Jesuit, he built a piano that played glowing bottles filled with burning hydrogen.

Norman M. Klein, in Building the Unexpected. From The Vatican to Vegas, 2004 p150