Ernst Chladni at the understanding of electron orbitals. Since at least 1738, a musical instrument called a "Glasspiel" or "verrillon", created by filling beer glasses with varying amounts of water, was popular in Europe. The beer glasses were struck by wooden mallets shaped like spoons to produce "church and other solemn music". Benjamin Franklin was sufficiently impressed by a verrillon performance on a visit to London in 1757 that he created his own instrument, the glass armonica, in 1762. Franklin's armonica inspired several other instruments, including two created by Chladni. In 1791, Chladni invented the musical instrument called the "euphon" (not to
Paris in the 18th century played no important role in the scientific revolution or the Enlightenment. The school of law taught only religious law, and the medical school had little prestige, since doctors, until the mid-18th century, were considered in the same professional category as barbers. The university shrank from about sixty colleges in the early 17th century to thirty-nine in 1700. In 1763, the twenty-nine smallest colleges were grouped together in the college Louis-le-Grand, but altogether it had only 193 students. On 5 April 1792, without any loud protest, the University was closed. Following its closing, the chapel of the Sorbonne was stripped for