About: I grew up at a time when technologies were transparent and easy to understand, but now society is evolving toward insanity and incomprehensibility. So I wanted to make technology human. At the age of 12, I c…

If you ever visit a cold place like Canada, consider making a musical instrument from ice...

Pagophone (Πάγοφωνο)

The pagophone makes sound from ice (i.e. from H2O in its solid-state), when struck, rubbed, or manipulated, usually with mallets.

"Pago" ("πάγο") is Greek for ice, and "phone" ("φωνο") is Greek for "voice" or "sound", so "pagophone" means "voice of ice" or "ice sound", in much the same way that "xylophone" means "voice of wood" or "wood sound" ("xylo" = "ξύλο" is Greek for "wood").

It is part of H2Orchestra which I intended to be played with other H2O-based instruments that I invented, such as the hydraulophone (υδραυλόφωνο = "voice of water").

There are two ways to make a pagophone: additive and subtractive.

In the additive process, you pour water into molds to make each of the blocks.

In the subtractive process, you cut the blocks from a larger piece of ice.

Let's begin with the additive process.