Wheatstone designed this instrument between 1850 and 1855 to play duets and accompany melodies. Just as with a regular English concertina, pressure and suction give the same note on two different reeds. Both hands nominally play the same twelve notes, but those played with the right hand sound an octave higher.Wheatstone was not only a physicist and manufacturer but also carried on a publishing business. Soon after 1850 he published an instruction book for the duet concertina and twelve books of arrangements of popular music to promote the introduction of this model.
