Tag: Ivan Eremeef
the ‘Syntronic Organ’& ‘Photona’. Ivan Eremeef. USA, 1935

Syntronic Organ
The WCAU Photona
Ivan Eremeef later created the “Photona” electro-optical tone generator instrument, developed with the John Leitch at the engineering department of WCAU broadcasting station in Philadelphia, USA. The Photona had twelve rotating optical discs illuminated by nine hundred six volt lamps. The instrument was played with two six octave manual keyboards and two foot pedals for volume and tremolo.
- Front view of the Photona showing the 12 optical discs.




Eremeef’s patents for a photo-electrical instrument using film strips 1935-6
Sources
Rollin Smith. ‘Stokowski and the Organ’
Nicholas Collins, Margaret Schedel, Scott Wilson. Electronic Music. Cambridge press 2013
Smithsonian Institution Science Services.
“WCAU’s Photona organ,” Electronics, vol. 8, p. 123; April, (1935).
The Computer Music Tutorial. Curtis Roads MIT 1961