A closer look
German physician Athanasius Kircher designed a horrific musical instrument in the 17th century that was entirely powered by the screams of tortured cats. Known as the katzenklavier, or cat piano, this barbaric contraption consisted of a keyboard hooked up to a row of cages holding live felines sorted by the pitch of their voices. When a key was pressed, a sharp nail would ruthlessly poke the tail of the corresponding cat, causing it to yelp in agony to produce a melody. Kircher proposed using this nightmarish device to treat patients suffering from melancholy, believing the shocking noise would cure their depression. Nothing lifts the spirits of a sad Victorian aristocrat quite like a sonata composed of sheer feline suffering!
