Helen Morrison, age 12, of Pocatello, Ida., for her question:

WHEN WAS THE GLOCKENSPIEL INVENTED?

The glockenspiel is a percussion musical instrument that is made up of a series of steel bars. A musician plays the instrument by striking the bars with a hard mallet.

Glockenspiel sounds very much like high pitched bells. The name, in fact, means "bell play" in German.

The glockenspiel most likely developed from the tuned chime bells used by monks as early as A.D. 800. Historians then believe that Dutch bell makers of the early 1700s came up with the idea of substituting metal bars for bells.

A type of glockenspiel known as the bell lyra has bars on a lyre shaped frame.

Some organs have a stop called a "glockenspiel." This stop consists of bells, rods or tubes that are sounded by hammer action.