In three weeks, two girls from Hanover will take the stage with world-famous jazz harpists. In a musical field as esoteric as the harp, this requires some context. "My husband didn't even understand ...

We recently looked at devilish automata from the 15th century; here’s Gustave Vichy’s mildly terrifying mechanical harpist, which was built in Paris in 1880. Her golden harp is invisible to the living ...