The ‘Gnome’ Ivan Ivanovitch Eremeeff, Russia/USA, 1932

The as yet un-named Gnome: Ivan Emreeff (L) and co-designer Eda Kassell (R) playing the Gnome in 1932. Image: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,Sun, 18 Sept 1932, 37.

The Gnome was an electro-magnetic tone-wheel based instrument created in Philadelphia, USA in 1932 by the Russian mathematician, physicist, co creator of the helicopter and prolific inventor Ivan Eremeeff and his wife, the phycisist Eda Emilie Kassel (1910 – 1994). 1 A Pipeless Organ,  The Empress Express, 1933-04-06 and Southwest Times, Volume 33, Number 63, 5 May 1938 . However, Eremeeff, challenging the claim of the Theremin to be the original electronic instrument, argued that he had been developing his instrument before Lev Termen’s Theremin patent of 1926. 2 Glinsky, Albert,(2005) Theremin; Ether Music and Espionage, University of Illinois Press, 83. The Gnome was a smaller version of a larger, unnamed tone wheel organ that Eremeeff built around the same time in 1932 and patented in the US in 1933 (Synthetic electronic musical instrument US1990024A). This smaller instrument was designed to be a portable – hence the name Gnome – easy to use, affordable electronic instrument aimed at the US domestic market  and, like other similar designs of the period, could be attached to and amplifier of a home radio receiver:

“Rotating electromagnetic tone wheels generated the sounds. The keyboard (three and a half octaves) and the bench on which the player sat formed part of an electrical circuit; when one of the stationary, touch-plate keys was fingered, an electrical contact was made through the performer’s body with the metal top of the bench. In addition to pedals governing volume and tremolo there was also a decay control. The Gnome was designed for home use and could be connected to the amplifier and loudspeaker of a domestic radio set” 3Davies, Hugh. (1984) Gnome, The New Grove dictionary of musical instruments, Oxford University press, 55.

A unique feature of the Gnome was the flat metal tough-plate keyboard which, as well as being cheap to manufacture, allowed the player to alter the various note qualities – volume, timbre etc – through finger pressure via the player’s body capacitance:

“Mr. Eremeeff said yesterday. The unnamed instrument has a keyboard which looks like a piano board, but there is a vast difference. The “keys” arranged as on a piano in sharps and flats are solid metal and do not move. Each connects with a tiny electrical coil and the minutest difference in finger pressure on the “key” will change the tone, but not the pitch of that particular note “struck.” Likewise, by covering a larger surface of the “key” with the finger tip, a difference in tone is produced which ranged from an almost inaudible whisper to a roar which will carry ten miles, dependent, of course, upon sufficient amplification.”4Musical Baby, by Radio out of Algebra, is Like Piano, but not Like Piano, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sun, 18 Sept 1932, Page 29

Eremeef claimed that his instrument was superior to other similar tone-wheel instruments of the day in that it used a combination of additive and subtractive synthesis techniques to achieve a more natural sound across the whole register:

Fig.1 “The Gnome” from the accompanying article (below) in Electromagnetic Music, Radio Craft, November, 1932.

“The smaller instrument has been called a “Gnome” […] the “Gnome” produces tone quality with the aid of a dial wave- alteration control, in which wave forms are modified by the selective connection of the output circuit to different taps of a transformer, or by a system of condensers which are adjusted by a dial. […], the performer is seated upon a bench which has a metal top to which the circuit of the instrument is connected, the body of the performer acting as a conductor to the metal of the keys, the sensitivity of the touch of the fingers determining the effect of tones, as previously described. A rather novel feature introduced by these instruments is the new method of music writing, including the accurate scientific delineation of curves representing wave forms, in place of ordinary notes and symbols as used in ordinary music writing today. These new methods correctly indicate pitch, by frequency numbers; volume, by numbers requiring units such as decibels; duration, also by numbers representing time units; and quality, by the curves which represent the tunes.

The Gnome illustrated in Fig.1 is not an ordinary synthetic type, but obtains Its various tone qualities by means of a device operated by the pedal L. This instrument works entirely on the Eremeeff synthesis method of producing musical tones. This method is an advance of the method based on what is generally known as the “theory of Helmholtz,” which combines a fundamental frequency of, for example, 32 cycles, with its first harmonic of frequency 64, its second multiple frequency of 96, its second har monic frequency of 128, its fourth multiple fre quency of 160, etc., into a complex pulsating electric current, which, when converted into sound energy, has a predetermined tone quality, if these frequencies are combined at the correct intensities.

Disadvantages are found in this method. For example, if the fundamental is high in frequency, let us say 4,090 cycles, its harmonics and multiples, if higher than about 12,000 cycles, are not within the range of audibility. This leaves the higher tones comparatively poor in quality, while the lower tones are rich. Low frequency fundamentals may always carry many harmonics, but this does not hold for high frequency fundamentals. The Eremeeff system adds to the fundamental, fractions of the first harmonic whose frequencies are in accordance with the tones of one octave of a musical scale.

For example, a fundamental frequency of 32 cycles has a first harmonic frequency of 64; a first fraction of 34: a second fraction of 36; it third fraction of 38; a fourth fraction of 40; a fifth of 43; a sixth of 45; a seventh, of 48; an eighth, of 51 ; a ninth, of 54; a tenth, of 57; an eleventh, of 61, etc. As important as the frequency of these currents, Is the intensity at which each is released for combination with the fundamental, which also has a definite Intensity.

In the case of high-frequency fundamentals. in which the combination with partials of still higher frequencies, as harmonics, multiples, etc., is inconvenient, sub-harmonies and exact divisional frequencies are added, For example. if the fundamental has it frequency of 4.096 cycles. Its partials such as the first harmonic, the fractions of the first harmonic, and possibly a second multiple, are within the limits of audibility, but higher frequencies are worthless.

In this case, the first sub-harmonic, it frequency 2.048, the second sub-harmonic, a frequency 1,024, and exact divisions of the fundamental, etc., are available for combining with the fundamental at predetermined intensities to produce complex pulsating electric currents which, when converted into sound energy, have predetermined pitch, quality, and volume.

Contradictory to what is generally accepted as correct, and resulting from years of experimenting, it is the tenet of Mr. Eremeeff that the fundamental tone is not that which has the lowest frequency but the tone which has a pre-determined intensity in precisely measured units of loudness. The partials having fractional intensities comparative to that of the fundamental, for the purpose of maintaining the pitch of the combined tone while the quality may be altered as desired during the uninterrupted operation of the entire instrument, by the addition and deduction of other frequencies. Experiments have proven that if a certain fundamental is mixed with a number of partials, and if in some way, one of partials is released at an intensity which is greater than that of the fundamental, the combined tone will take the pitch of the loud partial, and the fundamental will become a partial when thus subdued.

This instrument permits of combining with each individual key tone (which represents a predetermined fundamental, sixteen, and more by other menus) partials which are harmonics, sub-harmonics, fractions of the first harmonic, and multiples, and divisions of the fundamental.”5Kassel,E.E. (1932) Electromagnetic Music, Radiocraft, November 1932,270,297.

Eda Kassel playing the “Gnome” in Popular Science magazine, October 1932, p16.
The “Gnome” with a mechanical keyboard and amplifier and speaker cabinet: Popular Science magazine, October 1932 p16

It is unknown if the Gnome was ever commercially manufactured as intended. 6Rhea, Thom, (1972) Evolution Of Electronic Music Instruments In The US, Masters Dissertation, Peabody, 143. but shortly after the Gnome, Eremeef went on to design the optical-synthesis based Syntronic Organ and the Photona in partnership with Leopold Stokowski at the WCAU broadcasting station in Philadelphia which achieved some commercial success in the USA.

Biography: Ivan Ivanovich Eremeef

Ivan Eremeeff (later Americanised to Ivan Jerome) was a Russian-American physicist, prolific inventor and designer of electronic instruments. Born in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 1893 , he probably emigrated to the USA about 1918, and began experimenting with the construction of electronic instruments about 1923 in Dayton, Ohio, where he also developed a four rotor H-1 helicopter for the US army (1922) a barograph (1928) and a mobile aircraft hangar (1922).

Eremeeff and Bothezat’s design for a four rotor military helicopter the ‘Flying Octopus’: December 18, 1922, The first helicopter actually to fly, designated the Engineering Division H-1, was designed by Dr. George de Bothezat and Mr. Ivan (Eremeeff) Jerome.

In 1930 he moved to Philadelphia, where he founded and chaired the Society of Electronic music and took out eight patents for electronic instruments between 1932 and 1936 including the including the Gnome (1933 patent), a larger variant of the Gnome (1933), the Syntronic Organ (1934) and the Photona (1935). In the early 1930s he worked at the electronic music laboratory of the radio station WCAU in Philadelphia.

Eremeeff’s electronic instruments were based on two different sound-generating systems: electromagnetic tone-wheels, a principle he used in the Gnome, and photoelectric devices – Photona (or WCAU organ; 1935) and Syntronic organ (1934). The last instrument was enthusiastically endorsed by Leopold Stokowski, and inspired him to plan with Eremeeff an electronic orchestra, but this project was never realized. In spite of their names, Eremeeff did not attempt to recreate the tone qualities of a pipe organ in either of his two photoelectric instruments. An unusual feature of all his electronic instruments was the addition of a vibrato pedal to the normal volume pedal, and in two of them there was also a control for the decay of the notes. Eremeeff claims to have experimented with  prototypes of a Theremin like instrument intended to produce not only tones but light and odours. In the 1953 he filed a suit against Hammond Organ Co. for patent infringement of his ‘photoelectrical musical system’ which was ultimately dismissed for lack of prosecution in January 1957. 7Davies, Hugh (2014) Electronic Instruments, The Grove dictionary of musical instruments, New York : Oxford University Press, 167. 8Patent Suits. Notices under 35 U.S.C . 290 Patents act of 1952, 529.

In 1938 Eremeeff returned to aviation and created a design for a supersonic aircraft.9 Plane with the Speed of Sound Is Proposed by Designer, Popular Mechanics Magazine 1938-12: Vol 70 Iss 6, 833. After World War II, Eremeef/Jerome set up a lucrative business designing optical instruments and precision aerial cameras for the US army and moved to Southampton New York. In 1955, aged 62, Eremeev/Jerome hit the headlines when he was charged with creating obscene and pornographic films and corrupting minors at his Southampton mansion. Eremeev/Jerome jumped a $100,000 bail bond and fled the country. 101956, OBSCENE AND PORNOGRAPHIC LITERATURE AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY INTERIM REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY PURSUANT TO S. Res. 62, and S. Res. 173 (84th Congress),7


References:

  • 1
    A Pipeless Organ,  The Empress Express, 1933-04-06 and Southwest Times, Volume 33, Number 63, 5 May 1938
  • 2
    Glinsky, Albert,(2005) Theremin; Ether Music and Espionage, University of Illinois Press, 83.
  • 3
    Davies, Hugh. (1984) Gnome, The New Grove dictionary of musical instruments, Oxford University press, 55.
  • 4
    Musical Baby, by Radio out of Algebra, is Like Piano, but not Like Piano, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sun, 18 Sept 1932, Page 29
  • 5
    Kassel,E.E. (1932) Electromagnetic Music, Radiocraft, November 1932,270,297.
  • 6
    Rhea, Thom, (1972) Evolution Of Electronic Music Instruments In The US, Masters Dissertation, Peabody, 143.
  • 7
    Davies, Hugh (2014) Electronic Instruments, The Grove dictionary of musical instruments, New York : Oxford University Press, 167.
  • 8
    Patent Suits. Notices under 35 U.S.C . 290 Patents act of 1952, 529.
  • 9
    Plane with the Speed of Sound Is Proposed by Designer, Popular Mechanics Magazine 1938-12: Vol 70 Iss 6, 833.
  • 10
    1956, OBSCENE AND PORNOGRAPHIC LITERATURE AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY INTERIM REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY PURSUANT TO S. Res. 62, and S. Res. 173 (84th Congress),7

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