Photographs
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GRAY’S ELECTRO-FRICTION VIOLIN, 1873
This is a replica of the violin seen in Gray’s hands in the photo above. It is a sound reproducer – a kind of proto-loudspeaker. The wires, one connected to the plate, the other to a hand-held wand, are hooked up to an electric sound source. While holding the wand, the player rubs the plate. The electric signal is made audible by the stick/slip motion of the fingers on the plate.
THE ELECTROTOME
The electrotome was popular in 19th-century homes, resting on a bathroom shelf. Today we would call it a quack medical device. It delivered a mild therapeutic pulsing shock to the hand-grips, to apply to sore muscles.
For Elisha Gray, it provided an “AHA” moment: an electric sound (the light hum of the electromagnet) could be amplified electrically. He reported it as follows:
One day one of Gray’s nephews was playing with the device. He hooked one wire to the zinc bathtub and held the other in his hand. As he stroked the tub with his fingers, suddenly the house was filled with a loud hum.
The problem was, this “sensation of tone,” created by putting oneself in the circuit, could be painful! He moved quickly to invent other means of electrically amplifying sound, and in so doing, came up with the world’s first loudspeakers.
GRAY’S PINE-BOX LOUDSPEAKER
This is Oberlin’s working replica of the first loudspeaker ever heard at a public concert. The original, housed at the Smithsonian, was used at a concert at the Presbyterian Church in Highland Park, Illinois, on December 29, 1874. The audience heard music that was being played elsewhere and transmitted by telegraph to the loudspeaker in the church.
This first loudspeaker event served as a prelude to a gala series of “empty-stage” concerts in 1877.
PIPE ORGAN BY TELEGRAPH
Gray patented a mechanism to transmit the sound of a pipe organ by telegraph, as seen in these replicas.
A portion of the wooden pipe has been removed and a calfskin membrane stretched over the opening. The membrane will vibrate in sympathy with the standing wave (the tone) in the pipe when it is blown. The metal contacts will transduce this physical motion into an electric signal to be sent via telegraph to a remote sound-reproducer, such as a loudspeaker.
ELISHA GRAY’S MUSICAL TELEGRAPH
This is a working replica of the world’s first electric musical instrument, patented by Elisha Gray in 1876.
For his patent model, Gray built a one-octave keyboard on which only the white keys worked, but in developing the technology, he built others with up to two octaves, fully chromatic, and polyphonic. The tones were produced by steel bars (reeds) set in motion by electromagnets. The tones produced were transmitted by telegraph to any location where a loudspeaker would reproduce them.
Oberlin’s working replica was built by machinist Mike Miller, with assistance from Bill Mohler, electronics specialist for the sciences.
MIDI HORN
This MIDI (“Musical Instrument Digital Interface”) instrument was built by John Talbert, TIMARA electronics engineer, for Gary Lee Nelson, professor of electronic music and tuba player.
The horn is held in the hands by the yellow grips. With (or without) a brass mouthpiece, the player blows into the breath tube, which contains a transducer that converts air pressure to voltage. The top four buttons replicate those of a brass instrument. The lower four control octaves and timbre. On the back are four buttons and a joystick for each thumb. These control synthesizer parameters preset by the performer.
THEREMIN
The world’s first electronic instrument, 1920. An electronic instrument has no moving parts – no vibrating reeds or toothed wheels. Instead, the sound is produced by oscillating electric circuits.
Leon Theremin, a Russian scientist and amateur cellist, invented his instrument in 1920 and obtained a US patent for it in 1928. It works on the capacitance of the human body (ability to hold a charge), much as the touch moves on a cell phone, but it requires no touching whatever.
The crucial parts are the two antennae, one vertical, the other horizontal. The electronic circuitry (originally incorporating old radio tubes) produces oscillating circuits and two magnetic fields. When the magnetic fields are interrupted by the hands moving near them, the sound is produced. The vertical antenna controls the pitch, the horizontal the volume.
There are no discreet tones, only a highly variable “gliss” (as heard in old horror movies), which makes it very difficult to play, but by skilled manipulation, a performer may produce a voice- or string-like tone with great expressive capabilities.
SOLAR SOUNDER
When placed in the sun, this instrument immediately converts solar energy into a pulsing rhythmic effect on a single tone. According to its inventor, Pete Blasser `01, it is more of a sonic installation tool than a musical instrument. This is one of three built by participants in Talbertronics, an event celebrating John Talbert’s retirement in 2017.