A ‘Mercury Wave’ Made With 20 Tiny Vials of Varying Amounts of Mercury Suspended From SpringsPhotographer and former radio astronomer Marcel Clemens suspended 20 tiny vials containing slightly different masses of mercury from springs attached to a wooden frame, then set them all in motion at once. Clemens described the display as a visual representation of a pipe organ’s sounds. This is a kind of visual representation of the sounds of a pipe organ, the smallest pipe being on the right. Clemens also configured the “Mercury Wave” so that each vial struck a piano key. If we were to speed up the oscillations of the “Mercury Wave” by a factor of 400, the oscillations would produce sound.