“Echo Viol” Patent Model

Collins, Michael H. · 1872

This “Echo Viol” was patented by Michael H. Collins of Chelsea, Massachusetts and received U.S. Patent number 129,653 on July 23, 1872. Intended as an improvement on the violin, the body consists of two chambers or sounding areas which can be balanced. Collins describes this improvement in his patent application: “This harmonizing or tuning of the two chambers, so as to attain a most perfect clearness and blending of the reverberations or echos emitted from the two chambers, is one of the peculiar features of my invention.” This instrument is made of a body of thin hardwood and spruce, laminated in place with cloth for light weight strength, bridge of laminated wood, finely figured violin neck, pegbox and scroll, and reddish-orange varnish on the neck.