Described as a row of cats arranged by vocal pitch with their tails stretched under a keyboard, this instrument would produce music through feline yowls elicited by key presses.

The cats would be arranged according to the natural tone of their voices. This instrument was described by the French writer Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin in his book Musiciana, extraits d’ouvrages rares ou bizarres.

The instrument was first described by Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit scholar and inventor who was born in 1602.

The idea was originally described in his work Musurgia Universalis, Kircher’s influential book of musicology in 1650.

Something everyone should know is that: the cat piano – a “musical” instrument played by forcing cats to meow – is not real. But people have been talking about it for over 400 years.