‘Electromechanical Piano’ Matthias Hipp, Switzerland,1867.

Matthias Hipp
Matthias Hipp ” The Swiss Edison” 25.10.1813 –3.5.1893

Matthias (or Matthäus) Hipp’s –  (Blaubeuren, 25 October 1813 – 3 May 1893 in Fluntern) –many inventions and adaptations include; Chronoscopes, Chronographs, Galvanometers, railway signalling equipment, watch and clock mechanisms, Telegraphic time detectors, telexes, networked electronic clocks, fire alarms, Microphones, Seismographs, electronic Gyroscopes and possibly the first electro-mechanical musical instrument.

Hipp described his invention in the 1867 edition of the Polytechnisches Journal – Das elektrische Clavier; von M. Hipp, Director der Telegraphen-Fabrik in Neuenburg (Schweiz). 1Polytechnisches Journal. Herausgegeben von Dr. Emil Maximilian Dingler. Hundertdreiundachtzigster Band. Jahrgang 1867. Hipp’s instrument, a confluence of the technologies of watch mechanics, telegraphy and electro-magnetism, was an electro-mechanical player-piano, controlled by a perforated paper role. (and itself an improved version of an earlier (1861) attempt at building an electrical piano by Herr Andrea of Sindelfingen, Baden-Württemberg Germany). Music was encoded into the paper by cutting variable length perforations – pitch and duration– with a separate track for volume. The paper roll traversed over a set of brushes or ‘feathers’ which they made contact through the perforations, closed a circuit and triggered the piano hammer mechanism of a standard acoustic piano:

“A small instrument serves as a player–machine, in which there is a resilient metal tip for each key; these tips rest on a metal roller with corresponding pressure and send the electric current through the associated electromagnet every time this roller is touched, thus causing the relevant note to strike. Over the roller and between it and the tips runs (as in Bain’s telegraph) a wide, perforated paper tape; the position of the holes across the strip determines the height or depth of the notes to be played at the same time, the length of the holes in the direction of the length of the strip determines the duration of each note. The correct guidance of the paper tape on the Hipp’s Piano is effected by guide tips on the metal roller, by engaging the same in guide holes on the two edges of the paper tape.” 2Anon (1875) The electric pianino, Dingler’s Polytechnisches Journal, Herausgegeben von Johann Zeman in Augsburg und Dr. Ferd. Fischer in Hannover, Zweihundertundachtzehnter Band. Jahrgang 1875, volume 218,  457-458.

Hipp's Electrical Clavier
Hipp’s Electrical Clavier

Hipp describes his invention in the 1869 edition of Instruments de Musique while at the same time musing on what was to become a central debate in development of electronic music, the mechanical reproduction of ‘soul’ in music: 3 Comettant, Oscar (1869) INSTRUMENTS DE MUSIQUE CHEZ LES DIFFÉRENTS PEUPLES DU MONDE, MICHEL LÉVY FRÈRES, Paris, 663-665

      • A wide strip of paper is pierced, as with Wheatstone’s telegraphs, lengthwise for the shock and duration, and width-wise for the height and depth of the sounds. In addition, the paper strip has a special compartment for the strength of the current, or that of the sound.
      • On a metal layer on a cylinder, there are as many strips or small springs as the piano has notes. If we can now place the strip of paper between the cylinder and the small springs, these close the battery each time they fall on a hole in the paper and communicate accordingly with the metal cylinder, producing their respective sound, because each of these small springs communicates by a wire to an electromagnet. The duration of the sound is relative to the length of the hole, measuring how quickly the strip of paper moves.
      • As has already been said, there are on the side of the strip of paper similar springs for the “forte” and the “piano”, which by the intercalation of obstacles modify the force of the current, and, therefore, that of sound. Experience will demonstrate whether twelve gradations, as I adapted them to the first piano, are sufficient.
      • If we wonder where in music we call life, the soul, the exciting, the involving and the passionate, I will answer that it is in the technique, unless it is in the person even of the artist, who in a given case exercises an influence on the audience. But music itself, insofar as it is instrumental, is of mechanical origin and must be able to be rendered mechanically with all its life, all its charm, all its growth.
      • If we analyse the effect of music on the piano, we find it composed of only three elements: the strength of the sound, the pitch of the sound, the sequence (dynamics, melody, rhythm); as long as these elements can be rendered by the machine in the same infinite variety as by the artist himself, the machine will necessarily produce the same effect. If the artist has momentary inspiration on his side, the machine has the advantage of reproducing exactly the same effect as often as desired. The artist loses nothing, on the contrary, only secular work is taken from him. Just as the painter does not need to grind his colours himself, nor the author to print his book himself, so the intellectual productions of the artist can be tasted and admired by those to whom he cannot relate. present personally.
      • Writing notes, regarding the strength of the sounds and the sequence, will naturally become a completely different task; instead of marking, as hitherto, only three or four nuances of sound, it will be necessary to admit eighteen to twenty and mark almost each note; t accelerator” and “ritenuto” will be found much more often (665) and in barely perceptible gradations, which will not be able to be noticed directly by the listener, which will be for the composer perhaps more work difficult but all the more rewarding.
      • The task of preserving the spirit of the music would certainly be greatly eased for the artist by a piano which would render his creations in an autographical manner according to their strength of sound, their elevation of sound and their sequence, a problem which would be much easier to solve than that of the piano playing itself.

The editor of Instruments de Musique, Oscar Comettant, derisively commented on Hipp’s claims of being able to mechanically reproduce human inspiration:

“All this bears the sympathetic imprint of naivety and illusion. A machine will never render the spontaneous inspiration of the performer. But if it were otherwise, what a miracle! (Sigismund) Thalberg, from his home in Posillipo, giving, by annotation, and in his dressing gown, concerts to dilettanti gathered in the five parts of the world between lunch and dinner!” 4 Comettant, Oscar (1869) INSTRUMENTS DE MUSIQUE CHEZ LES DIFFÉRENTS PEUPLES DU MONDE, MICHEL LÉVY FRÈRES, Paris, 665

Exhibition of the Electric Piano with specially composed music for the instrument in the Feuille D’avis de Neuchatel December 9, 1868, 4.

Hipp’s electronic instrument –or more correctly, electro-mechanical piano-player–was sent to the Paris World Expo exhibition in 1878 but, according to the Polytechnisches Journal it took six weeks to travel to Paris, arriving just before the end of the exhibition and therefore failed to attract much publicity. Hipp made two further electric pianos, one for the music dealer ‘Heller in Bern’ which was displayed at the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair. On May 1st 1870 the Commerce and Industry Society in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) opened a competition to find the best musical composition for Hipp’s new instrument with three prizes:

1. For the best composition a prize of Fr. 400.
2. For the most successful transcription of an existing piece of music for the electric piano –  Fr. 150.
3. For the second best transcription a prize of Fr. 100.

With prizes awarded by a jury “made up of competent musicians and the inventor of the electric piano”. The outcome of the competition is not recorded 5 Instruction für die Composition der für das Electrische Clavier bestimmten Musikstücke. Rapport (379579) Sur Le Piano Électrique De M. Hipp A La Société Commerciale Et Industrielle De Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel 1869, 19-20

Electric Piano composition competition. Image: Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 1869 

6Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 1869, 84,15.

A similar instrument was then developed by Hermann Spiess who worked with Hipp on the original instrument at Hipp’s workshop in Neuchâtel. Spiess produced an instrument for  F. Kaufmann und Sohn in Dresden which was on public display from 1872 playing ‘large and small pieces to the visitors’. In 1868 Hipp and Spiess entered into a vitriolic argument in the letters pages of Le Mondes – Spiess claiming that his instrument was superior and unrelated to Hipp’s invention and Hipp accusing Spiess of industrial espionage, counterfeiting and patent theft. Spiess went on to apply the paper role mechanism as a playing device for the organ at St Sulpice in Paris. 7(I868)Hipp, M and Spiess, H.(1868) CORRESPONDANCE DES MONDES, LES MONDES. SIXIÈME ANNÉE Septembre – Décembre, Paris, 62-3, 264-5.

Electromagnetic hammer control from Hipp’s Piano électrique. Image: Electrotechnische Zeitschrift 1811.

Walczyk suggested that Hipp also experimented  with electronically controlled dynamos to produce electro-acoustically generated sound, presumably the same tone-wheel method deployed later by Cahill in his Telharmonium of  1897 – this however, is unlikely because there would have been no way of amplifying or hearing the electronic sound. It is more likely that the instrument was based on the activation of metal tines in a magnetic field akin to Elisha Gray’s Musical Telegraph of 1874.

“Going back to the first electrical instruments, the conception of the electromechanic piano is due to Hipps (whose first name is unknown). This instrument was essentially composed of a keyboard which would activate some electrical magnets.These in their own right would activate some dynamos (small electrical current generators), the devices actually responsible for sound production. They were the same dynamos which, almost a century later, would be used in Cahill’s Telharmonium” 8 Walczyk, Kevin. M (1997)  Electroacoustic Music A brief historical outline and recorded anthology, Western Oregon University, Keveli Music, 36-45.  

If this is the case, Iit is possible that Hipp extended the mechanism of the Hipp Chronoscope – an electronic clock designed to measure micro-events based around an escape mechanism regulated by a high frequency vibrating metal tine (rather than a pendulum). By simply changing the voltage supply to the metal tines via a keyboard, Hipp would have been able to create a scaled set of frequencies:

“We all know that some piano tuners are prodigiously accurate, and we can presume that similar paragons staffed the tuning fork manufactures of 19th century Europe. However, any physics course will show you that tuning forks have an easier potential for high accuracy of frequencies than many other devices. This potential is found in the audible phenomenon of beats, in which two tuning forks which are very slightly different will produce a signal of varying loudness. The frequency of this varying loudness is the difference in frequency of the two forks, thus permitting easy adjustment of the erring fork.” 9  Haupt, Edward J. (1999) The Controversy between G. E. Müller and Wilhelm Wundt over the proper measurement of reaction time, Montclair State University.

Military balistic experiments using the Hipp Chronoscope
Military ballistic experiments using the Hipp Chronoscope

____________________________

References

  • 1
    Polytechnisches Journal. Herausgegeben von Dr. Emil Maximilian Dingler. Hundertdreiundachtzigster Band. Jahrgang 1867.
  • 2
    Anon (1875) The electric pianino, Dingler’s Polytechnisches Journal, Herausgegeben von Johann Zeman in Augsburg und Dr. Ferd. Fischer in Hannover, Zweihundertundachtzehnter Band. Jahrgang 1875, volume 218,  457-458.
  • 3
    Comettant, Oscar (1869) INSTRUMENTS DE MUSIQUE CHEZ LES DIFFÉRENTS PEUPLES DU MONDE, MICHEL LÉVY FRÈRES, Paris, 663-665
  • 4
    Comettant, Oscar (1869) INSTRUMENTS DE MUSIQUE CHEZ LES DIFFÉRENTS PEUPLES DU MONDE, MICHEL LÉVY FRÈRES, Paris, 665
  • 5
    Instruction für die Composition der für das Electrische Clavier bestimmten Musikstücke. Rapport (379579) Sur Le Piano Électrique De M. Hipp A La Société Commerciale Et Industrielle De Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel 1869, 19-20
  • 6
    Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 1869, 84,15.
  • 7
    (I868)Hipp, M and Spiess, H.(1868) CORRESPONDANCE DES MONDES, LES MONDES. SIXIÈME ANNÉE Septembre – Décembre, Paris, 62-3, 264-5.
  • 8
    Walczyk, Kevin. M (1997)  Electroacoustic Music A brief historical outline and recorded anthology, Western Oregon University, Keveli Music, 36-45. 
  • 9
     Haupt, Edward J. (1999) The Controversy between G. E. Müller and Wilhelm Wundt over the proper measurement of reaction time, Montclair State University.

The ‘Musical Telegraph’ or ‘Electro-Harmonic Telegraph’, Elisha Gray. USA, 1874

Elisha Gray using a violin as a resonating amplifier for his Musical Telegraph
Elisha Gray demonstrating the results of his ‘bathtub experiments’ using a variable electric current to vibrate a silver plate fixed to the instrument’s body.

Elisha Gray would have been known to us as the inventor of the telephone if Alexander Graham bell hadn’t got to the patent office one hour before him. Instead, he goes down in history as the accidental creator of one of the first electronic musical instruments. As legend has it, Gray was inspired to investigate electro-acoustic effects after witnessing his nephew playing with his uncle’s equipment. The child had connected one end of a battery to himself and the other to a bathtub; by rubbing his hand on the bathtub’s surface he created an audible humming tone proportional to the electric current.

gray_patent_01
Elisha Gray’s patent of the Musical or Harmonic Telegraph of 1876

Gray discovered that he could control sound from a self vibrating electromagnetic circuit and in doing so invented a basic single note oscillator. The original intention was to use this principle to develop an early version of multiplex telegraphic transmission; sending multiple telegraphic messages encoded as different pitches simultaneously over the same line which could be decoded at the receiving end.  Using this principle he designed a musical instrument; The ‘Musical Telegraph’ or ‘Electro-Harmonic Telegraph’ initially to demonstrate and promote his ideas.

Elisha Gray’s Musical Telegraph keyboard transmitter.

My invention primarily consists in a novel art of producing musical impressions or sounds by means of a series of properly-tuned vibrating reeds or bars thrown into action by means of a series of keys opening or closing electric circuits. It also consists in a novel art of transmitting tunes so produced through an electric circuit and reproducing them at the receiving end of the line.

1Elisha Gray; Patent notes No. 173,618,  Feb. 15, 1876.

Gray’s invention used and electro-acoustic principle whereby a set of tuned steel reeds where vibrated by an electromagnetic current the resulting self-oscillating current could then be transmitted over a telephone line as a buzzing musical tone. Gray built a simple receiver and loudspeaker device called the ‘Washbasin Receiver’ – essentially a large telephone-like speaker built from an old washbasin mounted close to the poles of an electromagnet. By vibrating the metal washbasin the receiver recreated and amplified the sound of the instrument (which in this pre-amplifier era was the only way to make the instrument audible.)

washbasin receiver of 1847
washbasin receiver of 1874. This device was designed to receive and amplify the signal remotely transmitted from the Musical Telegraph.

With each key having an associated ‘oscillator’ the Musical Telegraph was truly polyphonic. To prevent sympathetic vibrations from non-active keys Gray used a series of mechanical stops allowing the production of a clean individual tone per key.

Elisha Gray's patent of the Musical or Harmonic Telegraph of 1876
Elisha Gray’s patent of the Musical or Harmonic Telegraph of 1876 showing the electromechanically vibrating tines and stops to prevent sympathetic vibration in other keys: Image 
Elisha Gray's patent of the Musical or Harmonic Telegraph of 1876
Elisha Gray’s patent of the Musical or Harmonic Telegraph of 1876
Performance of the Musical Telegraph
Elisha Gray gave the first public demonstration of his invention for transmitting musical tones at the Presbyterian Church in Highland Park, Illinois on December 29, 1874 and transmitted “familiar melodies through telegraph wire” according to a newspaper announcement– possibly using a piano as a resonating amplifier.
The 'Two-Tone' transmitter of 1874
The ‘Two-Tone’ transmitter of 1874

Elisha Gray’s first “Musical Telegraph” or “Harmonic Telegraph”used a simple two ‘oscillator’ keyboard design but later versions contained enough single-tone oscillators to play two octaves – Gray suggested that ‘Obviously the number of keys may be increased’ – and later models were equipped with a simple tone wheel control. Gray took the instrument on tour with him to the UK in 1874 transmitting musical tones over a distance of 200 miles or more.

Gray also promoted his discoveries in the USA. On April 2, 1877, Elisha Gray staged a ‘Telephone concert’ at Steinway Hall on East 14th Street in New York – despite the fact that no telephone was actually used. Playing remotely from the Western Union office in Philadelphia, the famous pianist Frederick Boscovitz performed on the 16 note version of the Musical Telegraph to the astonished New York audience. The receiver at the Steinway Hall consisted of 16 resonant hollow wooden tubes, ranging from six inches to two feet in length, joined by a wooden bar with a receiver electromagnet attached. The whole receiver was mounted on a grand piano to further resonate and colour the buzzing tone of the electronic instrument. The tones were reported to be distinct though the higher notes were considered ‘rather feeble’ with the timbre somewhat resembling an organ;

“as a novelty, was highly entertaining, though unless an almost incredible improvement be effected, it is difficult to see how the transmission of music over the new instrument can be of permanent practical value.”

National Republican (Washington, D.C.), April 10, 1877, page 1:

This initial concert was followed by five more performances in the same week, three in Steinway Hall, one at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and one at Lincoln Hall in Washington:

MUSIC BY TELEGRAPH.
__________

THE TELEPHONE EXHIBITION AT LINCOLN HALL.
________

Airs Played In Philadelphia Distinctly Audible In Washington–Description of the Apparatus–Its Sound and What It Resembles–The Performance a Great Success.

The atmospheric conditions last evening were far from favorable to the reception of music by telegraph, and it was not surprising, therefore, that the majority of those who went to Lincoln hall last evening to presence the latest triumph of American science–the telephone–were more or less doubtful of the success of the experiment they were about to witness. The interest manifested by our citizens in this grand and important invention could not have been attested in a more substantial manner, for the hall was filled to almost its amplest capacity by as intelligent and discriminating an audience as has gathered in that resort this season.

The preparation for the exhibition of the telephone were quite simple and were easily observable. Several wires depended from the aperture over the chandelier in the centre of the room, and communicated some with a regular telegraphic instrument on the stage to the left of the audience, others with the receiving apparatus of the telephone. The latter was placed on the floor of the stage, to the right of the audience. It is a small apparatus, about six feet long and less than two feet high, and consists of sixteen square boxes, resembling in appearance and arrangement the tubes of a large organ.

The entertainment began with the concert which Mr. Maurice Strakosch had provided, evidently to offset any disappointment that the audience might experience in the event of the inability of the telephone to surmount the obstacles of the inclement weather. The following was the programme:

Miss Fannie Kellogg is a young lady of prepossessing appearance, but evidently still a novice in the concert-room. Her rendition of the Polonaise from “Mignon,” which is an extremely difficult passage, requiring the greatest flexibility and control of voice, was not even a mediocre performance, although she took the liberty of omitting the trills and substituting a few notes of her own for those of the composer, and to cap the climax the finale of the air was sang entirely out of key as well as out of time. Indeed, it was as complete a faux pas as we have ever witnessed at a first-class concert. Miss Kellogg, nevertheless, found many admirers, for she was loudly encored, and in response to repeated calls essayed that sweet and plaintive air of Apt’s–Embarrassment–which she sang but indifferently well. To Signor Tagliapietra we cannot award too much praise. He was in exquisite voice, and his singing was perfection itself. Mr. S. Liebling’s performance on the piano was artistic and finished.

At the conclusion or the first part of the concert the piano was closed, and two young men raised the “receiving” apparatus of the telephone and placed it on the piano, after which a wire was adjusted to it, thus establishing direct communication with the “sending” instrument, in the office of the Western Union Telegraph Company in Philadelphia, presided over by Mr. F. Boscovitz.  A telegraph operator next appeared and took up his position at the little table above referred to. Immediately afterwards a tall, spare gentleman with a beard came forward. This was Professor Gray, the inventor of the telephone. The Professor declared that he did not desire to exhibit the telephone as a great musical instrument, and if anybody expected to listen to grand music, he would inform them in advance that they would be disappointed. The Professor, although doubtless a genius in some respects, cannot be said to number oratory among his gifts. In a rambling, disconnected and ungrammatical speech, out or which it was impossible for the life of us to make head or tail, the Professor endeavored to explain in a scientific manner many things connected with the telephone. He was not permitted to continue the infliction very long, for the audience grew impatient, and manifested their feelings in a quiet way. The Professor was not slow to take the hint, and concluded his introductory remarks by requesting the greatest silence. He then directed the telegraph operator to inform Mr. Boscovitz at Philadelphia that everything was in readiness and he might begin. Within three or four seconds the first notes of “Home, Sweet Home” were distinctly audible in every part of the spacious ball, the melody being recognized perfectly.

We can best describe the music of the telephone as heard last night by comparing it to the sound that would be produced slowly on an organ with one finger. The higher notes were rather feeble. The utmost stillness prevailed, and at the finish the applause was long and enthusiastic. The remaining selections on the programme were played in the order given, all with the same success, as follows:

1. “Home, Sweet Home.”
2. “Come Genil.”–Don Pasquale.
3. “Then You’ll Remember Me”–(Bohemian Girl.)
4. “The Last Rose of Summer.”
5. “M’Appari,” Romance–(Martha.)
6. “The Carnival of Venice.”

At the conclusion of the exhibition the judgment of all present was highly flattering to what may yet be numbered among the greatest inventions of modern times.

New York Times, July 10, 1874

National Republican., April 10, 1877
National Republican (Washington, D.C.), April 10, 1877, page 1

After many years of litigation, Alexander Graham Bell was legally named the inventor of the telephone despite Gray’s allegations that Bell had plagiarised his ideas and Gray seems to have lost interest in his musical exploration soon after the legal battles with Bell.The One Octave transmitter built in the summer of 1874. The left-most electromagnet is missing.

The One Octave transmitter built in the summer of 1874. The seventh (left) electromagnet is missing.

Elisha Gray's Musical Telegraph keyboard transmitter.
Elisha Gray’s two octave keyboard transmitter now held at the Smithsonian Institution.

Despite this, Gray’s ideas had a profound influence on other inventors. Thaddeus Cahill was influenced by the Harmonic Telegraph when designing his Telharmonium of 1897; Cahill, rather unfairly, criticised the numerous shortcomings of Gray’s instrument in a letter supporting his patent application, highlighting the superiority and uniqueness of his own invention. These faults, according to Cahill, included low power –affecting transmission range and volume – and the lack tone shaping ability or expression control resulting in an unpleasant overall sound. Cahill declared Gray’s instrument to be:

” practically useless . No person of taste or culture could be supposed to derive any enjoyment from music rendered in poor, harsh tones with uneven power and absolutely without expression or variation”.

Thaddeus Cahill application for letters patent to the commissioner of patents April 1915. quoted in ”Magic Music from the Telharmonium’ Reynold Weidenaar

Grays ideas were further developed in 1885 by the German physicist Ernst Lorenz who added an experimental envelope control to Gray’s design. Alexander Graham Bell also designed an experimental ‘ Electric Harp’ for speech transmission over a telephone line using similar technology to Gray’s.

Gray later founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company In 1872 – parent firm of the present Western Electric Company – and two years later he retired to continue independent research and teaching at Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio, USA).

Gray's patent for the Musical Telegraph
Gray’s patent for the Musical Telegraph

elisha-gray

Biographical Information:

(born; Barnesville, Ohio, on Aug. 2, 1835, died Newtonville, Mass., on Jan. 21, 1901)

Elisha Gray, the American inventor, who contested the invention of the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell. He was born in Barnesville, Ohio, on Aug. 2, 1835, and was brought up on a farm. He had to leave school early because of the death of his father, but later completed preparatory school and two years at Oberlin College while supporting himself as a carpenter.

At college he became fascinated by electricity, and in 1867 he received a patent for an improved telegraph relay. During the rest of his life he was granted patents on about 70 other inventions, including the Telautograph (1888), an electrical device for reproducing writing at a distance.On Feb. 14, 1876, Gray filed with the U.S. Patent Office a caveat (an announcement of an invention he expected soon to patent) describing apparatus ‘for transmitting vocal sounds telegraphically.’ Unknown to Gray, Bell had only two hours earlier applied for an actual patent on an apparatus to accomplish the same end. It was later discovered, however, that the apparatus described in Gray’s caveat would have worked, while that in Bell’s patent would not have. After years of litigation, Bell was legally named the inventor of the telephone, although to many the question of who should be credited with the invention remained debatable.

In 1872, Gray founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, parent firm of the present Western Electric Company. Two years later he retired to continue independent research and invention and to teach at Oberlin College. Gray died in Newtonville, Mass., on Jan. 21, 1901.


Sources:

Kenneth M. Swezey  The Encyclopedia Americana — International Edition Vol. 13. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Incorporated, 1995. 211

‘Whose Phone Is It, Anyway: Did Bell Steal The Invention?’ By Steve Mirsky . Scientific American January 9, 2008

‘Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture’ By Thom Holmes. 1985, 2002 Thom Holmes; 2008 Taylor & Francis. P6.

Holmes, Thomas B, ‘Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition’, Routledge 2002, 42.

Weidenaar, Reynold, ‘Magic Music from the Telharmonium’ The scarecrow press, inc. Metuchen, n.J., & london, 1995 , 1995, 19.

Hounshell, David, ‘Elisha Gray and the Telephone: On the Disadvantages of Being an Expert’, Technology and Culture Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1975), 133-161.

“Music by Telegraph,” New York Times, April 3, 1877

“Telephone Concerts,” Steinway Hall Programme, April 2, 1877

“When Music Was Broadcast by Telephone,” New York Times, May 11, 1975, D17.

National Republican (Washington, D.C.), April 10, 1877, 1.

References

  • 1
    Elisha Gray; Patent notes No. 173,618,  Feb. 15, 1876.

The ‘Singing Arc’, William Duddell, UK, 1899

Carbon arc 'Moonlight' lamp.
A Victorian era carbon-arc ‘Moonlight’ lamp.

Despite the invention of the incandescent electric light bulb ( Thomas Alva Edison and Joseph Swann, 1880) Carbon Arc Lamp were commonly used for street lighting and industrial applications – and remained so until the beginning of the twentieth century when developments in the lightbulb made the arc-lamp obsolete.

The Carbon Arc Lamp generated light by creating a bright spark between two carbon nodes. The problem with this method of lighting, apart from the dullness of the light and inefficient use of electricity was a constant humming, shrieking or hissing noise emitted by the electric arc.

The British physicist and electrical engineer William Duddell was appointed to solve the problem in London in 1899. During his experiments Duddell found that by varying the voltage supplied to the lamps he could create controllable audible frequencies from a resonant circuit caused by the rate of pulsation of exposed electrical arcs.

Duddell’s investigations revealed that the cause of the arc-lamp noise was the nonlinear nature of the arc that resulted in a negative resistance.  This phenomena had already previously been recorded in 1898 by Dr Hermann Theodor Simon (Frankfurt, Germany). 1Simon, H.T. (1989), “Akustische Erscheinungen am electrischen Flammenbogen,” Ann. Physik 300, # 2, pp 233–9. Dr. Simon had noticed that the electric arc could be made to “sing” by means of modulating the voltage to an electric arc supply. Dr. Simon showed that the electric arc made a effective loudspeaker which he demonstrated in public.  (Dr. Simon’s experiments also showed that the modulated arc produced not only sound but a modulated light beam by means of which the German Navy managed to make telephone calls between ships using a modulated arc searchlight and a photosensitive selenium cell.) 2 Wittje, R. (2013),  ‘The electrical imagination sound analogies, equivalent circuits, and the rise of electroacoustics, 1863-1939′,  Osiris, Vol 28 #1, pp 40-63

Duddell, who may have been aware of Simon’s work, tried to solve the noise by adding a LC resonant circuit across the arc and in doing so he created a tunable oscillator. By attaching a keyboard that varied the voltage input to the circuit Duddell created one of the first electronic musical instruments. Duddell’s invention the only ever electronic instrument to use an electrical arc to generate sound and the first electronic instrument that was audible without using the yet to be invented amplifier, loudspeaker or telephone system as an amplifier and speaker. 3 Duddell, W. (1900),  ‘Some Experiments on the Direct-Current Arc’, Nature, vol. 63, no. 1625 (December 20, 1900), pp. 182-183.. Duddell and Simon also experimented with spark gap amplification where a variable resistor or a microphone was used to alternate the sound produced by the arc suggesting the possibility, in these pre-vacuum tube days of amplifying voice telephony over long distances. 4 Wittje, R. (2013),  ‘The electrical imagination sound analogies, equivalent circuits, and the rise of electroacoustics, 1863-1939′,  Osiris, Vol 28 #1, p 52

A 2016 re-creation of Duddell and Simon’s ‘Speaking Arc’  and ‘Singing Arc’ by the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica.

When Duddell exhibited his invention to the London institution of Electrical Engineers it was noticed that arc lamps on the same circuit in other buildings also played music from Duddell’s machine this led to speculation that music delivered over the lighting network could be created.

“All three arcs were found to be supplied with current from the street mains, and it was clear that this main current had been varied in such a way by Mr. Duddell’s keyboard as to reproduce in the two other laboratories the tunes which he supposed he was playing only to his audience in the lecture room…This obviously meant that by playing on one properly arranged keyboard tunes could be reproduced in a number of different arcs and at a distance from the musician.

5 V.J.Y, (1901), ‘Music in Electric Arcs.; An English Physicist, with Shunt Circuit and Keyboard, Made Them Play Tunes’. New York Times, April 28, 1901,P7

Experimental 'speaking arc' demonstrating Duddel's ideas produced by Max Kohl in 1911.
Experimental ‘speaking arc’ demonstrating Duddell’s ideas produced by Max Kohl in 1911.
6 Max Kohl A.G. : Physical Apparatus. Price List No. 50, Vols. II and III. Chemnitz, n.d. 1911, p. 1058.

Duddell didn’t capitalise on his discovery and didn’t even file a patent for his instrument. Duddell toured Britain with his invention in 1898 which unfortunately never became more than an amusing novelty; Duddell left the frequency within the audible range but later in 1902 Danish electrical engineers Valdemar Poulsen and Peder Pedersen realised that Duddell’s singing arc would function as a radio transmitter if the circuit was tuned to radio, rather than audio, frequencies.

The carbon arc lamp’s audio capabilities were also used by Thaddeus Cahill  to amplify the sound produced by his Telharmonium during his public demonstrations of the instrument some ten years later – a direct ancestor of today’s plasma-loudspeaker. In the 1930s Wolja Saraga experimented with spark-gap sound with his Saraga Generator.

MUSIC IN ELECTRIC ARCS.; An English Physicist, with Shunt Circuit and Keyboard, Made Them Play Tunes. New York Times, April 28, 1901,Page 7
MUSIC IN ELECTRIC ARCS.; An English Physicist, with Shunt Circuit and Keyboard, Made Them Play Tunes. New York Times, April 28, 1901,Page 7
William Du Bois Duddell
William Du Bois Duddell

Biographical Information: William du Bois Duddell.
UK, 1 July 1872 – 4 November 1917

William Duddell an electrical engineer in Victorian England was famous for developing a number of electronic instruments notably the “moving coil oscillograph” an early oscillator type device for the photographic monitoring of audio frequency waveforms. Other inventions of Duddell’s included the thermo-ammeter, thermo-galvanometer (an instrument for measuring minute currents and potential differences later used for measuring antenna currents and still used in modified form today)and a magnetic standard, which was used for the calibration of ballistic galvanometers.

Duddell Moving Coil Oscilliograph
Duddell’s Moving Coil Oscilliograph
Wave forms photographically recorded by Duddell's 'Oscillograph'
Wave forms photographically recorded by Duddell’s ‘Oscillograph’

Sources:

  • 1
    Simon, H.T. (1989), “Akustische Erscheinungen am electrischen Flammenbogen,” Ann. Physik 300, # 2, pp 233–9.
  • 2
    Wittje, R. (2013),  ‘The electrical imagination sound analogies, equivalent circuits, and the rise of electroacoustics, 1863-1939′,  Osiris, Vol 28 #1, pp 40-63
  • 3
    Duddell, W. (1900),  ‘Some Experiments on the Direct-Current Arc’, Nature, vol. 63, no. 1625 (December 20, 1900), pp. 182-183.
  • 4
    Wittje, R. (2013),  ‘The electrical imagination sound analogies, equivalent circuits, and the rise of electroacoustics, 1863-1939′,  Osiris, Vol 28 #1, p 52
  • 5
    V.J.Y, (1901), ‘Music in Electric Arcs.; An English Physicist, with Shunt Circuit and Keyboard, Made Them Play Tunes’. New York Times, April 28, 1901,P7
  • 6
    Max Kohl A.G. : Physical Apparatus. Price List No. 50, Vols. II and III. Chemnitz, n.d. 1911, p. 1058.

 

The ‘Telharmonium’ or ‘Dynamophone’ Thaddeus Cahill, USA 1897

The dual manual of the MkII Telharmonium. Gunter's Magazine June 1907
The dual manual of the MkII Telharmonium. Gunter’s Magazine June 1907

In 1895 Thaddeus Cahill submitted his first patent for the Telharmonium “The Art of and Apparatus for Generating and Distributing Music Electrically”. The Telharmonium can be considered the first significant electronic musical instrument and was a method of electro-magnetically synthesising and distributing music over the new telephone networks of victorian America.

Thaddeus Cahill's patent documents for the first Telharmonium 1896
Thaddeus Cahill’s patent documents for the first Telharmonium of 1897 showing the arrangement of rotor alternators and rheostat brushes.

This first patent was initially rejected by the patent office because the “plan contained principles and practices found in other patented devices”. Cahill, a trained lawyer, eventually succeeded in having his patent accepted in 1897.

The first design of the instrument set out the principles of the ‘Telharmonium’ or ‘Dynamophone’ that would be developed by Cahill over the next twenty years. Cahill’s vision was to create a universal ’perfect instrument’; an instrument that could produce absolutely perfect tones, mechanically controlled with scientific certainty. The Telharmonium would allow the player to combine the sustain of a pipe organ with the expression of a piano, the musical intensity of a violin with polyphony of a string section and the timbre and power of wind instruments with the chord ability of an organ. Having corrected the ‘defects’ of these traditional instruments the superior Telharmonium would render them obsolete.

Thaddeus Cahill's patent documents for the first Telharmonium of 1897
Thaddeus Cahill’s patent documents for the first Telharmonium of 1897 showing tone rotor shafts

The other innovative aspect of Cahill’s design was that he proposed to distribute the electronic musical output of the instrument over the newly established telephone network to subscribers at home or in hotels and public spaces; hence the name ‘Telharmonium’ – ‘Telegraphic Harmony’. This was partly due to the fact that the only way of hearing the instrument in the pre-amplifier and loudspeaker era was via an acoustically amplified telephone receiver.

Influences

In 1885 Hermann Helmholtz’s ‘On the Sensations of Tone’ (1862) appeared in English translation and had an immediate and profound impact on scientific and musical thinking. Helmholtz defined the concept that a tone was composed of a single fundamental sound which, combined with a set of higher sounds, gave each musical tone a unique quality or timbre – and that these tones were a collection of ‘pure’ sine tone. Cahill’s reasoning was that the ‘perfect instrument’ could be built to created sine tones that could be combined to recreate the qualities of existing instruments without their ‘defects’.

The German edition of Helmholtz's ‘On the Sensations of Tone’ (1862)
The German edition of Helmholtz’s ‘On the Sensations of Tone’ (1862)

The idea of transmitting music over he telegraphic or Telephone network was not new. Cahill was well aware of previous inventions and experiments with Telegraphic music.

Soemmerring's musical telegraph
Soemmerring’s musical telegraph of 1809

As far back as 1809,the Prussian anthropologist, paleontologist and inventor Samuel Thomas Soemmerring created an electrical telegraph that triggered an array of tuned bells from a distance of several kilometres. This experiment was originally as an intended as an investigation into human consciousness and perception but led to speculation about the possibilities of transmitting music electronically over great distances.

Poster for the Budapest Telefonhírmondó
Poster for the Budapest Telefonhirmondo

In 1893 the Hungarian engineer and inventor Tivadar Puskás established the ‘Telefonhírmondó’ or ‘Telephone Herald’ a type of telephone based newspaper that broadcast music and news over the telephone network in Budapest to as many as 91,000 subscribers which continued (in tandem with a radio service) until World War II when the wire network was destroyed.

Theatrophone_-_Affiche_de_Jules_Cheret

In Paris, Clément Ader created the ‘Théâtrophone’ a type of early binaural or stereo audio transmission of music and theatre in 1881 which ran until it was superseded by radio in 1931 and similarly, in London in 1895, the ‘Electrophone’ service distributed music hall and light music to an audience of subscribers.

But probably the biggest technical influence on Cahill was Elisha Gray’s ‘Musical Telegraph’ of 1874. Gray, one of the inventors of the telephone, had developed a way of  transmitting pitched tones over a long distance telegraph network using electromagnetically controlled vibrating metal reeds. Gray had originally intended to use this as a way of sending multiple messages over a network ( a predecessor of multiplex signals)  and had created a musical keyboard instrument to promote his ideas. It was the similarity of Gray’s work to Cahill’s initial concept that led to the rejection of Cahill’s first patent and in response Cahill was scathing about Gray’s instrument declaring that the Musical Telegraph was:

“practically useless. No person of taste or culture could be supposed to derive any enjoyment from music rendered in poor, harsh tones, with uneven power, and absolutely without expression or variation.”

…and that Gray’s patented machine was unable to produce sine waves or complex harmonics of the Telharmonium;

“…do not produce undulations of current; they produce sharp, violent (tones). (The device) unavoidably adds to the partials desired many which are injurious — so many, that his patent . . . seems … to wholly break down.”

Cahill restructured his patent to accentuate the differences between his invention and that of Elisha Gray – nevertheless, Gray’s ‘Musical Telegraph’ clearly had a major influence on Cahill’s new instrument.

Scientific American vol 96 no10 9th March 1907
The Telharmonium in the ‘Scientific American’ vol 96 #10 9th March 1907

The ‘Telharmonium’ or ‘Dynamaphone’

Cahill’s major criticisms of Gray’s ‘Musical Telegraph’ was that by using electromagnetically oscillating metal reeds, Gray’s instrument only had enough power to be heard at close range to a telephone receiver and, the Musical Telegraph’s oscillators could only create harsh, simple tones that lacked character and expression. Cahill’s proposal was to generate complex mixtures of sine tones using multiple electrical dynamos that would be powerful enough to be audible to an audience from a distance.

A single tone wheel generator
A single tone wheel generator with eight alternators.

The core of his invention was the tone wheel; essentially a rotor with variably shaped alternators  that spun within a magnetic field (The early versions used rheotomes; a set of brushes that contacted the rotor as it spun.) to generate a tone. Each tone wheel was composed of the fundamental tone and six ascending partials. The first model consisted of a mainframe of twelve identical rotors each of the twelve pitch-rotors carried seven fundamental alternators, six third-partial alternators, and five fifth-partial alternators. These rotors were spun at the relevant speed by a belt driven motor, giving the instrument a six octave range. This arrangement gave the Telharmonium two tuning systems; one being a pure harmonic series used for building the timbre of each note, and the other, an equal tempered scale used for combining notes into a scale.

telharmonium_tones
Diagram showing frequencies of the Telharmonium alternators. image from ‘Magic Music from the Telharmonium’ By Reynold Weidenaar

The output quality of the tone wheels – especially with the rheotome versions – was harsh and unpleasant. The sound quality was softened by passing the signal through a series of secondary induction coils that filtered the harshness from the sound to a tone approximating a sine wave. (These induction could could also be controlled by the velocity of the keyboard, allowing the musicians a complex level of expressive influence over the tone.). Cahill was able to dispense with these purifying circuits in later models after perfecting rotor teeth cutting techniques to provide an almost pure sinusoidal output.

The number of partials for each fundamental could be controlled with familiar organ like stops allowing the instrument to imitate orchestral instruments. In this way, the Telharmonium was the first additive synthesiser; recreating instrumental timbres by adding and mixing harmonics.

The idiosyncratic 3 manual version of the MkI Telharmonium
The idiosyncratic 3 manual version of the MkI Telharmonium
manual1and2_guntersmagazine_19078
Dual manual of the MkII Telharmonium. Gunters Magazine 1907.

Less familiar was the keyboard arrangement; for the second Telharmonium, Cahill hired the pianist Edwin Hall Pierce to develop a repertoire for the instrument as well as create sounds from the multiple harmonics. Pierce, with Cahill, also defined the unusually complex keyboard arrangement. Because the Telharmonium mechanically created notes using exact divisions that equated to just intonation, Pierce decided to use three sets of keyboards (two or sometimes four in later models) that allowed for thirty six keys per octave (over the three keyboards) – this meant that instead of the usual black and white key layout, the manual consisted of alternate black and white keys and the player had to learn to play over three manuals to achieve an equal tempered scale. Despite this nightmarish keyboard-complexity the Telharmonium had the unique ability – if required – to play over a variety of intonations.

Patent documents of the Telharmoinium
Patent documents of the Telharmoinium

A unique clutch like device allowed the player to control expression using key velocity as well as with a foot pedal. The resulting sound was fed through the wire network and streamed to the audience through large, six-foot acoustic horns of various designs– Cahill experimented with numerous horn designs using different thicknesses of wood, metal carbon and paper to acquire the right range of tones.

Acoustically resonating speaker of the Telharmonium.
Acoustically resonating speaker of the Telharmonium. 1917 patent.

For the Telharmonium to be audible beyond a telephone receiver it needed a much more current than the standard telephone; the output power from the Telharmonium’s alternators was as much as 15,000 watts and around 1 amp at the receiver – compared to a telephone receiver designed for currents as low as six ten-trillionths of an amp. This power did allow the Telharmonium to be audible to an audience but caused interference with the New York telephone network and needed a huge amount of electricity to keep it running.

Tone rotors of the MkII Telharmonium in the basement of Telhamronic Hall c 1907
Two of the tone rotors of the MkII Telharmonium in the basement of Telhamronic Hall circa 1906. Image from McCLure’s Magazine 1906

The sound of the Telharmonium

The first description of the sound of the Telharmonium was from Ray Stannard Baker writing for McClure’s magazine describing a demonstration of the Washington MkI Telharmonium at the Hotel Hamilton;

“The first impression the music makes upon the listener is its singular difference from any music ever heard before : in the fullness, roundness, completeness, of its tones. And truly it is different and more perfect: but strangely enough, while it possesses ranges of tones all its own, it can be made to imitate closely other musical instruments: the flute, oboe, bugle, French horn and ‘cello best of all, the piano and violin not as yet so perfectly. Ask the players for fife music and they play Dixie for you with the squealing of the pipes deceptively perfect. Indeed, the performer upon this marvelous machine, as I shall explain later, can “build up” any sort of tone he wishes : he can produce the perfect note of the flute or the imperfect note of the piano — though the present machine is not adapted to the production of all sorts of music, as future and more extensive machines may be.

After several selections had been given I was conscious of a subtle change in the music. Dr. Cahill said: “Mr. Harris has taken Mr. Pierce’s place.”

It is quite as possible, indeed, to distinguish the individuality of the players upon this instrument as it is upon the piano or violin. The machine responds perfectly to the skill and emotion of the player; he gets out of it what he puts into it: so that the music is as much a human production as though the player performed upon a piano. In an hour’s time we had many selections, varying all the way from Bach and Schubert to the ” Arkansas Traveler ” and a popular Stein song. One duet was played by Mr. Pierce and Mr. Schultz. The present machine is best adapted to the higher class of music. It does not produce with any great success the rattlebang of rag-time which is perhaps an advantage”

Ray Stannard Baker writing in McClure’s Magazine.  1903

And Thomas Commerford Martin writing in the Outlook on the 5 May ;

“A skillful performer upon the telharmonium can make it blare like a trumpet, snarl like a bassoon, warble like a flute, or sing like a violin. Four or five performers, playing in concert, will ultimately be able, it is believed, to produce an effect closely approaching that of a full orchestra ; for each bank of keys is furnished with a set of stops somewhat like those of an organ, by means of which it can be made to produce tones almost if not quite identical with those of any family of instruments. At one keyboard one player can play the part of the strings ; at another a second player can reproduce the tones of the oboe family ; at another a third player can reproduce the tones of the brass ; and so on. And each player is able in an instant to modify or transform the quality of tone which he is producing.

Of course there are limitations in this power to imitate instruments. In the violin tone on the telharmonium there is nothing of resin and catgut ; in the tone of the French horn there is not the occasional break characteristic of that instrument. On the other hand, the quality of tone in the telharmonium is capable of infinite variation.- Instrumental effects are possible on it which have never before been heard.”

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The Telharmonic Hall, New York City circa 1906
An audience at Telharmonic hall enjoying a concert of Telharmonic music played through carbon-arc lamps.
An audience at Telharmonic hall enjoying a concert of Telharmonic music played through carbon-arc lamps. Gunter’s Magazine June 1907
A gospel service accompanied by the Telharmonium at Telharmonic Hall. Gunter's Magazine June 1907
A gospel service accompanied by the Telharmonium at Telharmonic Hall. Gunter’s Magazine June 1907
The future of music. A photograph from Gunter's Magazine June 1907 that imagines the future of electronic music played to households through carbon-arc lamps
The future of music. A photograph from Gunter’s Magazine June 1907 that imagines the future of electronic music played to households through carbon-arc lamps

Established at the Telharmonic Hall Cahill’s New York Electric Music Co. put on several seasons of Telharmonic music from 1906 – including guided tours of the basement machinery. The repertoire consisted of popular light classical works that emphasised the instrument’s range and flexibility. The audience listed to the music using a variety of horns and speakers including music fed into a series of carbon arc lamps that oscillated with the electronic signal giving an audio and light show (this phenomena had been explored by the British physicist William Duddell and was used in his ‘Singing Arc’ instrument of 1899)

Programm for Telharmonic Hall concerts
Programm for the Telharmonic Hall concerts

Ray Stannard Baker in McClure’s magazine in 1903 also contemplated the effect the Telharmonium would have on music and the listener arguing that it would ‘democratise’ music:

“As the machine is developed, and as the players become more expert, we may enter upon quite a new era of music, what ma)’ be called, indeed, the democracy of music. We cannot really herald the complete dominance of democracy until we have good music, great pictures, and the best books at the command of every citizen. Museums, galleries, and process printing have gone far towards bringing that equal opportunity of all citizens for the enjoyment of great pictures, which is the dream of the social philosopher. Free libraries have placed the best and rarest books at the command of any man who wishes to use them. But music, by its nature ephemeral and costly of production, has not so easily submitted itself to such democracy of enjoyment. Poor music may be had anywhere: good music is it is hived up in grand opera houses, and supported by playing upon the social vanity of the rich. It is a pastime for society. To this fact, indeed, may be traced the slow development, much deplored by critics, of musical taste in this country.”

The Three Telharmoniums

In all Cahill designed and built three versions of the Telharmonium (with five patents);

The, MkI version, as described in his 1897 patent, Cahill built by hand in his laboratory in Washington and, weighing a mere 14,000lbs was essentially a working prototype designed to raise capital for a planned full version .

The Cabot St Mill, Hollyoke, Mass as it is today.
The Cabot St Mill, Hollyoke, Mass as it is today.

Once enough interest had been generated to finance the development of the Telharmonium Cahill and his associated moved to the Cabot St Mill in Holyoke, Mass. where construction of the much larger MkII commenced in 1902. the MkII was constructed by a workforce of fifty engineers, grinders, reamers, assemblers and other workers under the guidance of Cahill.

Keyboard players of the MkII Telharmonium
Keyboard players of the MkII Telharmonium

The MkII consisted of  eight 11” steel shafts bearing a total of 145 alternators. The 60-foot mainframe was built of 18” steel girders set on brick foundations. Ten switchboard panels contained almost 2,000 switches. The whole apparatus weighed 200 tons and cost $200,000 and assumed the proportions and appearance of a power station generator.

switchboard-tone-makers-630
The switchboard and tone circuits of the MkII

It was this version that was disassembled in 1906 and transported to by railroad to be installed at the ‘Telharmonic hall’ on 39th Street and Broadway New York City where it was previewed to an audience of nine hundred people. The MkII Telharmonium remained in NYC for another four years giving regular concerts and ‘broadcasts’ at the Telharmonic Hall and other fashionable venues across the city. Despite it’s initial success the subscriber business foundered after the 1907 financial panic and Telharmonic Hall closed in 1910.

Audience at the Cafe Martin where the Telharmonium was broadcast
Audience at the Cafe Martin, New York City where the Telharmonium was broadcast

After the collapse of the ‘Telharmonic Hall’ business, Cahill regained control of the rights to his invention and stoically rebuilt and refined the design to create the final MkIII version back at the Cabot St mill. The Mk III, again weighing 200 tons but with a number of significant improvements including new alternator designs and a standard keyboard for a tempered scale,  was installed in the basement of a building on west 56th st NYC. It was here that the Telharmonium made it’s final debut in Feb 1912 streaming music to the Chapter room of Carnegie Hall. Despite Cahill’s improvements and tireless promotion of the instrument, ‘Telharmony’ had lost the novelty value that sustained public interest six years previously and subscribers failed to materialise. Cahill finally filed for bankruptcy in 1914. The  MkII and III Telharmoniums were sold for scrap. The remains of the first Telharmonium were kept  by Cahill’s brother Arthur but were also scrapped after his death in 1958.

THE TELHARMONIUM  – AN APPARATUS FOR THE ELECTRICAL GENERATION AND TRANSMISSION OF MUSIC.

Dr. Thaddeus Cahill’s system of generating music at a central station in the form of electrical oscillations, and of transmitting these oscillations by means of wires to any desired point, where they are rendered audible by means of an ordinary telephone receiver or a speaking arc, is now embodied in a working plant situated in the heart of New York. Although this apparatus constitutes b.ut a portion of a plant that may ultimately assume very remarkable dimensions, and although it has limitations imposed by its size, the results obtained are so promising, that many applications have been made by prospective subscribers for connection with the central station. When a larger number of · generators and keyboards is installed, as they doubtless will be in due time, there is no reason why the telharmonium, as the invention is called, should not give the subscribers all the pleasures of a full symphony orchestra whenever they wish to enjoy them. At present ‘ very beautiful effects are secured on a . less elaborate scale, but in eveI\ly way comparable with those of a good quintet.. And several additional keyboards now in building at Dr. Cahill’s works at Holyoke, Mass., where the New York plant was built, are nearing completion, and will probably be in service at Broadway and Thirty-ninth Street in the course of another month or two.

Perhaps the feature which most astonishes the technically Uninformed man when Dr. Cahill’s invention is first exhibited to him is the fact that music in the ordinary sense of the word, in other words, rhythmic vibrations of the air, is not produced at the central station. The vibrant notes of the flute, mingled with the clarinet or viol-like tones which are heard at the receiving end of the wire, spring from no musical instrument whatever. Nowhere is anything like a telephone transmitter used, although the electrical oscillations which are sent to the receiver and there translated into audible vibrations are quite like those set up in an ordinary telephone circuit, except that they are enormously more powerful.

Briefly summed up, Dr. Cahill’s wonderful invention consists in generating electrical oscillations corresponding in period with the acoustic vibrations of the various elemental tones desired, in synthesizing from th ese electrical vibrations the different notes and chords required, and in rendering the sYnthesized electrical vibrations audible by a translating device.

In the New York plant the electrical vibrations are produced by 144 alternating dynamos of the inductor type, having frequencies that vary from 40 to 4,000 cycles. These alternators are arranged in eight sections or panels, each inductor being mounted on an ll-inch steel shaft. One inductor dynamo is used for each note of the musical scale, each generator producing as many electrical vibrations per second as there are aerial vibrations in that note of the musical scale for which it stands. The fixed or stator part of each dynamo carries both the field and armature windings ; the rotors are carried on shafts geared together, the number of teeth ( pole pieces) on the gear wheels corresponding with the number of frequencies to be ob-. tained. Because the rotors are geared together, the frequencies are fixed and tuning is unnecessary. The alternators are controlled each by a key in a keyboard upon which the musician plays. Each key serves to make and break the main eircuit from seven alternators, not directly, but through the medium of plunger relay magnets wound with layers of enameled wire. Only feeble and harmless currents are needed to control the relay magnets, by which the task of making and breaking the currents from the main circuits is r’eally performed. No appreciable ‘ time elapses between the depression of a key and the closing of a main alternating circuit, so that the keyboard is as responsive and sensitive as that of a piano. The elemental notes generated by the . 144 dynamos cannot alone be used to produce the most pleasing musical effects.

Why this should be so becomes apparent from a consideration of some Simple principles in acoustics. If a wire be stretched between two points A and B (see the accompanying diagram) and plucked or struck, it will vibrate above and below the line A, B and give what is known as a fundamental tone. This fundamental tone is without distinctive musical character or timbre, and would sound the same in all instruments, so that one could not distinguish whether it came from a violin or a piano. In addition to its fundamental vibration between its pOints of attachment, the string undergoes a series of sub-vibrations above and below its own normal curve, which it will pass at certain points, nodes, dividi????g it into equal parts. Thus in the accompanying sketch, A, 0, B and A, D, B represent the fundamental Vibrations, and A, E, 0, F, B, the first sub-vibration intersecting the fundamental vibration at the node 0. Again, the string may vibrate in three parts, four parts, five parts, etc. The effect of the sub-vibrations is added to the effect of the fundamental vibration, and their total effect is heard in the distinctive quality or “tone Color,” as it is called, of the particular instrument played. The sub-vibrations are known as the upper partials or overtones, and generally speaking, they are harmonious with one another and with the fundamental tone. That very elusive and uncertain quality called timbre is dependent entirely upon these overtones. By properly controlling the blending of the overtones and the elemental tones, it ought to be possible to. imitate the characteristic timbre of any musical instrument. This Dr. Cahill has in a large measure succeeded in accomplishing.

“Tone mixing,” as this building up of harmonious notes and chords is called, is effected in the telharmonium by superposing the simple or sinusoidal waves of the alternators. By means of bus-bars the oscillations of the ground tones are all brought together in one circuit, those of the first partials in another circuit, those of the second partials in a third circuit, etc. The actual blending is done by passing the various oscillations through a series of transformers. In order to understand how a chord is blended, we must begin at the keyboard. As soon as the performer depresses his keys, the bus-bars electrically superpose the ground tone currents , through the primaries of closed-iron magnetic circuit transformers, the secondaries of which are jained in circuit with impedance rheostats governing the strength of the currents, which rheostats are controlled from the keyboard by means of stops. Similarly the bus-bars superpose the first, second, third, and other desired partials in separate circuits. The composite ground-tone a’nd overtone oscillations thus produced in the secondaries of the transformers are next passed through the primaries of an open-iron magnetic circuit transformer, in the secondary circuit of which a current is produced composed of all the ground tone and overtone frequencies of the particular chord under consideration. This secondary current is in turn passed through the primary of an air-core transformer, and the resultant secondary current is converted by telephone receivers or speaking arcs into the musical chord desired.

In order to listen to this musical chord, the telephone receiver is not held to the ear. It would be bad for the ear if it were, when a loud note is sounded. The current of the receiver is literally thousands, and at times millions of times stronger, measured in watts, than those to which an ordinary telephone receiver responds. Whereas less than six tenmillionths of an ampere are sufficient to produce a response from an ordinary telephone receiver, a current of an ampere is sometimes used in the Cahill system for an instant when loud tones are produced.

The composition or quality of a note or chord is controlled by eight rheostats called stops. By skillful manipulation of the stop rheostats, it is possible to obtain very accurate imitations of the wood-winds and several other orchestral instruments. Imitation, however, is hardly the right word ; for the notes are built up of exactly the same components as the tones which come from the reaJ instruments. Furthermore, beautiful effects are obtained that cannot be produced on any existing instrument. These stop rheostats control merely the timbre or quality of the music produced. Fluctuations in volume are produced by “expression rheostats.” Both stop and expression rheostats are constituted by impedance coils, differing however in mechanical construction. The stop rheostats are manipulated very much like the stops of an organ, and the expression rheostats like the swell. Unlike an organ swell, however, the expression rheostats are used not only for producing captivating crescendos and diminuendos of individual notes and chords, but also in reproducing the peculiar singing tremolo of the violin and ‘cello.

The rather complex system of transformers described serves not merely to blend partials with ground tones, but also to purify the vibrations corresponding with the different sets of partials by purging them of their harsher components. The air core transformers, fur thermore, permit the selection of voltages according to the resistance which the final current will encounter. Inasmuch as each keyboard controls ground-tone and overtone mixing devices, it is possible to produce notes of the same timbre or of different timbres. Excellent orchestral effects can, therefore, be obtained by causing the one keyboard to sound wind instruments, such as oboes, flutes, clarinets, or horns, and the other to sound the tones of the violin or other stringed instruments.

From this necessarily cursory consideration of the telharmonium, it is evident that the music is initiated as electrical vibrations, distributed in the form of electricity, and finally converted into aerial vibrations at a thousand different places separated hundreds of miles, it may be. No musical instruments in the sense in which we understand the word are used. Not a string, reed, or pipe is anywhere to be found. The vibrations produced by the performers’ playing are wholly electrical, and not until they reach the telephone receiver can they be heard. The telephone reo ceiver acts for us as a kind of electrical ear to hear oscillations to which our own ears are insensitive. When Mark Twain heard the telharmonium, he fancifully suggested that the military parade’ of the future would be a more beautifully rhythmic procession than our present pageants. The usual military bands heading the various regiments and playing marches, not in unison, although the same in time, will give place to musical arcs disposed along the line of march, all crashing out their stntins in perfect time. The soldiers who will march in that future parade win all hear the blare of invisible electrical trumpets and horns at the same moment; they will all raise their left feet at exactly the same instant, just as if they were but one company.

So far as the capabilities of the telharmonium are concerned, it may be stated that the New York installation is able to supply ten thousan-d subscribers, or more, with music of moderate volume at widely remote places. The very remarkable and rapid development of the invention has been thus eloquently set forth by Prof. A. S. McAllister in an article published in the Electrical World :

“From Hero, who first proposed to utilize the motive power of steam, to Watt’s first successful engine, was almost two thousand years. And between the proposal of Hero and the accGmplishment of Watt many inventors in different countries made ineffective attempts to attain the goal desired. From Huyghens’s proposal of an explosive motor to Otto’s successful machine two centuries elapsed, with scores of patents in the different countries of Europe. So from Sir Humphry Davy’s experimental arc to the Brush and Edison arc lighting machines” three-quarters of a century elapsed, during which scores of inventors in different countries endeavored to solve the problem in vain. Similar remarks apply to the progress of most great inventions, electri· cal and mechanical. But the process of producing music from dynamos has been carried from the first conception to the successful working machine by one man-Thaddeus Cahill-in a few years. And when one hears the plant at Thirty-ninth Street and Broadway, with its musical tones already equaling, if not surpassing, the instruments of the orchestra, one wonders what cannot be expected in a few years to come when the inventor will have had time to do his best, and when his work in all its details will be known ·to the world and open to improvement by others, and when musicians will have learned to use the new powers which electricity is placing at their command. Clearly the world has, through the wonderful powers of the electrical forces and the skillful use made of them by Dr. Cahill, a new music, a music which can be produced in many thousand places simultaneously, and which in its very infancy seems destined to surpass in sympathy and responsiveness-in artistic worth-the existing music of pipe and string, the evolution of many centuries.”

From ‘Scientific American’ vol 96 #10 9th March 1907

The end of the Telharmonium

The reason for the failure of Cahill’s project were numerous. The machine itself was impossibly expensive; about $1 million was spent from 1897 to 1914 on the project ( approximately $30 million in today’s value) and it was unlikely that a subscriber business model would have ever covered the costs, let alone make a profit – and, even if Cahill had found enough subscribers, he’d have to have built a power plant to generate enough power.

The output power of the Telharmonium caused great disruption of the New York Telephone network, angering telephone subscribers and even interrupting the Stock Exchange, which resulted eventually in AT&T refusing to co-operate in supporting Cahill’s instrument.

The Telharmonium was also a victim of an age of rapid technical advances; Lee De Forest began experimenting with radio transmissions as early as 1906 (which included transmissions of the Telharmonium) and by around 1914 wireless radio broadcasts had spelled the end for wire broadcasting.

The technology developed by Cahill did however continue. In 1934 the American watchmaker Laurens Hammond developed a new electronic home organ which was essentially a miniaturised Telharmonium

“Thaddeus Cahill, developer of the Telharmonium, was . . . endowed with the ability to think big. Although not strictly electronic (it predated the invention of the vacuum tube by about a decade), the Telharmonium embodied many basic principles that have been used in the electronic music medium: the generation of pitched tones from alternating electricity, the addition of harmonics to determine tone color (additive synthe- sis), and a touch sensitive keyboard to shape the sounds and control their strengths. This first polyphonic, touch sensitive music synthesizer remained in service in New York for only a few years . . . The basic idea was resurrected again in the 1930s in an instrument that was somewhat more of a commercial success: the Hammond Organ.”

Robert A. Moog,”ElectronicMusic,”Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, October/November 1977, 25:10/11, 856.

Baker’s article on the Telharmonium for McClure’s Magazine, ‘New Music for an Old World,’ came to the attention of the Italian virtuoso classical pianist and critical intellectual Ferruccio Busoni who enthused about the instrument in his 1907 ‘Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music’ which proposed a new music constructed of infinite gradations of tone, surpassing the 12 note scale and traditional orchestration:

“The question is important and imperious, how and on what are these tones are to be produced. Fortunately, while busied with this essay, I received from American direct and authentic intelligence which solves the problem in a simple manner. I refer to an invention by Dr. Thaddeus Cahill. He has constructed a comprehensive apparatus which makes it possible to transform an electric current into fixed and mathematically exact number of variations.”

and, directly inspired by Cahill’s instrument– though he never actually heard it:

 “Who has not dreamt that he could not float on air? And firmly believed his dream to be reality? Let us take thought, how music may be restored to its primitive, natural essence; let us free it from archectonic, acoustic and aesthetic dogmas; let it be pure invention and sentiment, in harmonies, in forms, in tone-colours (for invention and sentiment are not the prerogative of melody alone); let it follow the line of the rainbow and vie with the clouds in breaking sunbeams; let Music be naught else than Nature mirrored by and reflected from the human breast; for it is sounding air and floats above and beyond the air; within Man himself as universally and absolutely as in Creation entire…”

Busoni’s manifesto of 1907 inspired his students including a young Edgard Varèse as well as a whole new school of microtonal instrument designers and musicians. Varèse on arriving at New York in 1915 went to see the instrument in it’s final days and was not much impressed:

“[Busoni] was very much interested in the electrical instruments we began to hear about and I remember particularly one he had read of in an American magazine, called the Dynamophone, invented by a Dr. Thaddeus Cahill, which I later saw demonstrated in New York and was disappointed.”

Louise Varèse, Varèse: A Looking-Glass Diary, Vol. I, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1972, 50;

Inside the Telharmonium:

Mark Twain (Clemens) remembers the Telharmonium:

“I recall two pleasant social events of that winter: one a little party given at the Clemenses’ home on New-Year’s Eve, with charades and storytelling and music. It was the music feature of this party that was distinctive; it was supplied by wire through an invention known as the telharmonium which, it was believed, would revolutionise musical entertainment in such places as hotels, and to some extent in private houses. The music came over the regular telephone wire, and was delivered through a series of horns or megaphones — similar to those used for phonographs — the playing being done, meanwhile, by skilled performers at the central station. Just why the telharmonium has not made good its promises of popularity I do not know. Clemens was filled with enthusiasm over the idea. He made a speech a little before midnight, in which he told how he had generally been enthusiastic about inventions which had turned out more or less well in about equal proportions. He did not dwell on the failures, but he told how he had been the first to use a typewriter for manuscript work; how he had been one of the earliest users of the fountain- pen; how he had installed the first telephone ever used in a private house, and how the audience now would have a demonstration of the first telharmonium music so employed. It was just about the stroke of midnight when he finished, and a moment later the horns began to play chimes and “Auld Lang Syne” and “America”.”Mark Twain: A Biography,Albert Bigelow Paine (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912), 1364-1365

Patent Documents


Sources:

‘MAGIC MUSIC FROM THE TELHARMONIUM’ Reynold Weidenaar Scarecrow Press 800/642-6420; 301/459-3366
Holmes, Thomas B. Electronic and Experimental Music. New York: Scribner, 1985. pp. 32-41
‘Scientific American’ vol 96 #10 9th March 1907
‘ New Music for an Old World’ McClure’s magazine. v.27 1906 May-Oct.
“The Telharmonium: A History of the First Music Synthesizer,” review by Thomas L Rhea. Computer Music Journal, vol. 12 #3, 1988
Gunter’s Magazine [v5 #5, June 1907] The Home Publishing Company, 503-622pp