steel tuning fork with bent tines
Date: circa 1850
Inventory Number: 1998-1-0707
Classification: Tuning Fork
Dimensions:32.1 × 5.1 × 6.7 cm (12 5/8 × 2 × 2 5/8 in.)
Accessories: wooden handle
Description:
A long, heavy steel "U" -shaped steel acoustic resonator or tuning fork with outwardly bent tines and a turned mahogany handle with a threaded tang. The handle is too small for the threaded tang and appears to be a later addition, perhaps after the original handle was lost or broken.
The fork is made of a long, thin rectangular metal bar, formed into a rounded "U" shape. The tips of the tines are bent outwards. One tine is bent forward at 90° and the other is bent backward at 90°, so that the tines are bent away from each other. On one tine, a tiny copper loop is attached on the outside edge, near the tip.
The tuning fork is unmarked and the instrument's pitch is unknown.