Editing Telharmonium

{{Short description|Type of electrical organ}}
[[File:Teleharmonium1897.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|Telharmonium console by [[Thaddeus Cahill]] 1897.]]

The '''Telharmonium''' (also known as the '''Dynamophone'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chapter 6 – Digital Sound & Music |url=https://digitalsoundandmusic.com/chapters/ch6/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |language=en-US}}</ref>) was an early [[electrical organ]], developed by [[Thaddeus Cahill]] c. 1896 and patented in 1897.<ref name=uspat580035>
{{US patent reference
 | number   = 580035
 | y = 1897 | m = 04 | d = 06 <!-- issued; filed in 1896-02-04; former patent was filed in 1895-08-10 as Serial No.558,939 -->
 | inventor = Thaddeus Cahill
 | title    = [https://patents.google.com/patent/US580035A Art of and apparatus for generating and distributing music electrically]
}}, filed 1896-02-04.
</ref><ref name="c">{{cite web|url=http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/dyna.html|title=The Dynamophone (a.k.a. Telharmonium-The Great Grandpappy of the Modern Synthesizer) and Thaddeus Cahill|last=Snyder|first=Jeff|publisher=Lebanon Valley College|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302144328/http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/dyna.html|archive-date=2009-03-02}}<!-- SPLIT INTO ABOVE CITATION: 'US Patent no. 580.035, registered by Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934) in 1897' -->
</ref><ref name="w">
{{cite web
 | first     = Jay | last = Williston
 | title     = Thaddeus Cahill's Telharmonium
 | url       = http://www.synthmuseum.com/magazine/0102jw.html
 | work      = synthmuseum.com
 | date = 2000
 | quote     = ''specification...dated April 6, 1897''", "''application filed February 4, 1896''", "''weighed about 7 tons in all''", "''By 1906 the new Telharmonium...weighed almost 200 tons''
}}</ref> The electrical signal from the Telharmonium was transmitted over wires; it was heard on the receiving end by means of "[[horn loudspeaker|horn]]" speakers.<ref name="weid">
{{cite book
 | last      = Weidenaar | first = Reynold
 | year      = 1995
 | title     = Magic Music from the Telharmonium
 | url      = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Gr2kq-598-YC | location  = Lanham, MD 
 | publisher = Scarecrow Press
 | page      = 436
 | isbn      = 0-8108-2692-5
}} An authoritative history of the Telharmonium. Weidenaar produced a 29-minute documentary video, also called {{cite AV media <!-- last      = Weidenaar | first = Reynold -->
 | title     = Magic Music from the Telharmonium <!-- medium    = video -->
 | publisher = Magnetic Music Publishing Co.
 | publication-date = 1998
}} (See [https://magneticmusic.ws/ website] for extensive additional documentation)</ref>

Like the later [[Hammond organ]], the Telharmonium used [[tonewheel]]s to generate musical sounds as electrical signals by [[additive synthesis]].<ref name="weid"/> It is considered to be the first electromechanical musical instrument.

== Background ==
*1809, Prussian [[Samuel Thomas Soemmerring]] created an electrical telegraph that triggered an array of tuned bells<ref name=120years />
*In 1885, [[Hermann Helmholtz]]’s ‘On the Sensations of Tone’ (1862) appeared in English<ref name=120years />
*[[Elisha Gray]]’s ‘Musical Telegraph’ of 1874<ref name=120years />
*In Paris, [[Clément Ader]] created the ‘Théâtrophone’ in 1881<ref name=120years /> using two lines to pass music from a local theater to two separate phone receivers, dubbed "binauriclar auduition", the first "stereo" concert via telephone.
*In 1890 AT&T ceased work on a service to provide music,{{Clarify|reason=AT&T was founded in 1895|date=April 2025}} admitting difficulty with sound quality.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-21 |title=The Telharmonium |url=https://www.sothismedias.com/home/the-telharmonium |access-date=2024-04-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121150317/https://www.sothismedias.com/home/the-telharmonium |archive-date=2021-01-21 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Thaddeus Cahill's "Music Plant" The Telharmonium and the promise of electrical music on tap |url=https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/9/dewan.php |access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Thaddeus Cahill's Teleharmonium |url=https://www.synthmuseum.com/magazine/0102jw.html |access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Telharmonium: Electricity's Alliance With Music |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3274979&seq=434 |author=Thomas Commerford Martin|access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=News and Entertainment by Telephone (1876-1930) |url=https://earlyradiohistory.us/sec003.htm |access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref>
*In 1893 Hungarian [[Tivadar Puskás]] created the ‘Telefonhírmondó’ or ‘Telephone Herald’<ref name=120years />

==History==
In the 1890s, Thaddeus Cahill was a lawyer living in Washington DC who invented devices for pianos and typewriters.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Synthmuseum.com - Magazine |url=https://www.synthmuseum.com/magazine/0102jw.html |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=www.synthmuseum.com}}</ref>

:"Cahill was working as a Congressional aide when he conceived the idea"<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-05-27 |title=F.Y.I. - NYTimes.com |website=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/12/nyregion/fyi-444057.html |access-date=2024-04-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527101339/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/12/nyregion/fyi-444057.html |archive-date=2015-05-27 }}</ref>

The final design, patented in 1897, had twelve separate [[alternating-current generator]]s, to generate electric waves, to produce the twelve basic tones of the musical scale, that would be controlled by a keyboard and heard through a telephone receiver.<ref name="ethw">{{Cite web |date=2017-04-12 |title=Telharmonium |url=https://ethw.org/Telharmonium |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=ETHW |language=en}}</ref>

Cahill built three versions.<ref name="w"/><ref name=stubbs /><ref name="ethw" /> Each was an advancement over the features of its predecessor.

By 1901, Cahill had constructed a working model, to seek financial backing for a finished machine. The Mark I weighed 7 tons.<ref name="w"/><ref name=stubbs /><ref name="ethw" /><ref>[https://ethw.org/File:Telharmonium.jpg A duo at the Washington Telharmonium keyboard],  [[The World's Work]],  ''[https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=worldsworkus World's Work]'', June 1906.</ref>

The 1906 model, had 145 separate electric generators. The Mark II weighed almost 200 tons, was 60 feet long, had multiple keyboards and controls, and required at least two players.<ref name="w"/><ref name=stubbs /><ref name="ethw" />

:"As early as 1906, the Cahill Telharmonium Company of New York attempted to sell musical entertainment (produced by Dr. Thaddeus Cahill's "Telharmonium," an early synthesizer) to subscribers through the telephone. The Bell Telephone company, claiming that company equipment might be damaged, refused to give the company permission to use its lines, and the firm switched to radio technology"<ref>{{Cite web |title=The History of Magnetic Recording in the United States, 1888-1978 |url=https://repository.gatech.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/9ebbabf9-4e8a-4edb-8b14-1fe3b3b3e4a1/content |access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref>

:"Dr. Lee DeForest, of wireless telegraphy fame, made a series of successful tests with Telharmonic music currents, making the selection of the concert at Telharmonic hall clearly audible to hearers miles away without wires." — ''Passaic Daily News'', [[Passaic, New Jersey]], 16 March 1907, Page 6

The 1911, last Telharmonium, the Mark III, weighed almost 200 tons, was 60 feet long, had multiple keyboards and controls, and required at least two players, was installed in a special performance room in New York City.<ref name="w"/><ref name=stubbs /><ref name="ethw" />

A small number of performances were given for live audiences, in addition to the telephone transmissions. Performances in [[New York City]] (some at "Telharmonic Hall", 39th and Broadway)<ref name="weid"/> were well received by the public in 1906, with [[Mark Twain]] among the appreciative audience.<ref name=stubbs>{{Cite web|last=Stubbs|first=David | date= 2018
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181121003132/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/worlds-first-synthesizer-was-200-ton-behemoth-180970828/
| archive-date= 21 November 2018
| url-status = live
|title=The World's First Synthesizer Was a 200-Ton Behemoth|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/worlds-first-synthesizer-was-200-ton-behemoth-180970828/|access-date=2023-02-23|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref>  In these presentations, the performer sat at a console to control the instrument. The actual mechanism was so large it occupied an entire room; wires from the controlling console were fed discreetly through holes in the auditorium floor, into the instrument room below.
[[File:Console for the Telharmonium in the Cabot St Music Plant of the New England Electric Music Company, Holyoke, Massachusetts.jpg|left|thumb|The workshop console of the telharmonium during its development at the New England Electric Music Company's Cabot Street Music Plant, in [[Holyoke]], 1906.]]
The Telharmonium foreshadowed modern [[electronics|electronic]] musical equipment in a number of ways. For instance, its sound output came in the form of connecting ordinary telephone receivers to large paper cones&mdash;a primitive form of [[loudspeaker]]. Cahill stated that [[Electromagnetism|electromagnetic]] diaphragms were the most preferable means of outputting its distinctive sound.  There are no known recordings of its music.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Synthesis of Synthesis- The Telharmonium| date=19 February 2013 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV34h-YCMbE|language=en|access-date=2023-02-23}}</ref>

The Telharmonium was retailed by Cahill for $200,000.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-26 |title=Electronic Music: A Not-So-Brief History |url=https://carlkruse.org/electronic-music-a-not-so-brief-history/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=Carl Kruse {{!}} People + Organizations Doing Good |language=en-US}}</ref>

The Telharmonium's demise came for a number of reasons. The instrument was immense in size and weight. This being an age before [[vacuum tube]]s had been invented, it required large electric [[dynamo]]s which consumed great amounts of power in order to generate sufficiently strong audio signals.<ref>{{citation | title=The Theremin in the Emergence of Electronic Music | last=Glinsky |first=Albert Vincent| year=1992 | bibcode=1992PhDT.......106G }}</ref> In addition, problems began to arise when telephone broadcasts of Telharmonium music were subject to [[crosstalk]] and unsuspecting telephone users would be interrupted by strange electronic music.<ref name=120years >{{cite web|title=The 'Telharmonium' or 'Dynamophone' Thaddeus Cahill, USA 1897|url=https://120years.net/the-telharmonium-thaddeus-cahill-usa-1897/|website=120 Years of Electronic Music|date=20 September 2013 |access-date=14 December 2017}}</ref> By 1912, interest in this revolutionary instrument had changed, and Cahill's company was declared not successful in 1914.<ref name="w"/>

Cahill died in 1934; his younger brother retained the Mark I for decades,  but was unable to interest anyone in it. This was the last version to be scrapped, in 1962.<ref name="weid"/>

==Design==
[[Image:US580035A Thaddeus Cahill, Telharmonium patent p.11.png|thumb|Patent 580035 was filed by Cahill for the Telharmonium in 1896]]

:"The telharmonium generated its sounds using a system of alternators called "rheotomes." Each rheotome was actually a cog with a specific number of notched teeth. As the edge of the rheotome rotated against a wire brush (part of a larger circuit), the teeth would contact the brush a certain number of times each second, based on the rheotome's diameter. This resulted in the electrical oscillation of a sonic  frequency."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Telharmonium |url=https://www.historyofrecording.com/Telharmonium.html |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=HistoryOfRecording.com}}</ref>

Telharmonium tones were described as "clear and pure"<ref name=weid /> &mdash; referring to the electronic sine wave tones it was capable of producing. However, it was not restricted to such simple sounds. Each tonewheel of the instrument corresponded to a single note, and, to broaden its possibilities, Cahill added several extra tonewheels to add [[harmonic]]s to each note. This, combined with [[Organ (music)|organ]]-like stops and multiple keyboards (the Telharmonium was polyphonic), as well as a number of foot pedals, meant that every sound could be sculpted and reshaped &mdash; the instrument was noted for its ability to reproduce the sounds of common orchestral woodwind instruments such as the [[flute]], [[bassoon]], [[clarinet]], and also the [[cello]]. The Telharmonium needed 671 kilowatts<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-28 |title=Musical recordings lost to history (The Stationary Ark, etc.) |url=https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-recordings-lost-to-history-the-stationary-ark-etc/921723 |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=Straight Dope Message Board |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-03 |title=200 tonnes in 1893: The world's first synthesiser |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/200-tonnes-in-1893-the-worlds-first-synthesiser/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> of power<ref name="weid" /><sup>:233</sup> and had 153 keys that allowed it to work properly.<ref>
{{cite book
 | first     = Reynold | last = Weidenaar
 | chapter   = Telharmonium
 | chapter-url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/46183
 | title     = Grove Music Online
 | publisher = Oxford Music Online @ Oxford University Press. Web.
 | date      = 7 February 2013
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Music, Sound, And The Personal Computer |url=https://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/compute/Compute-032-01-1983.pdf |access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
:"[[Ferruccio Busoni]] was inspired by the machine at the height of its popularity and moved to write his ‘Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music’ (1907) which in turn became the clarion call and inspiration for the new generation of electronic composers such as [[Edgard Varèse]] and [[Luigi Russolo]]."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-04 |title=Streaming in the Victorian Era: Early Synthesizer Sent Out Tunes by Telephone |url=https://99percentinvisible.org/article/streaming-in-the-victorian-era-early-synthesizer-sent-out-tunes-by-telephone/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=99% Invisible |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=THE DEAD MEDIA NOTEBOOK |url=https://gebseng.com/media_archeology/reading_materials/Bruce_Sterling-Dead_Media_Notebook.pdf |access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dead medium: Cahill's Telharmonium |url=https://www.deadmedia.org/notes/7/072.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131004184728/https://www.deadmedia.org/notes/7/072.html|access-date=2024-04-21|archive-date=2013-10-04 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Trautonium]]

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book
   | last      = Shepard | first = Brian
   | date      = 1 January 2013
   | title     = Refining Sound: A Practical Guide to Synthesis and Synthesizers
   | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
   | isbn      = 978-0-19-992296-3
   | page      = 11
  }}
*Holmes, Thomas B. ''Electronic and Experimental Music''. New York: [[Charles Scribner's Sons]], 1985. pp. 32-41 {{isbn|9780684181356}}
*''[[Scientific American]]'' vol 96 #10 9th March 1907
*''New Music for an Old World'' [[McClure's]]. v.27 1906 May-Oct.
*''The Telharmonium: A History of the First Music Synthesizer,'' [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3680338 review] by Thomas L Rhea. [[Computer Music Journal]], vol. 12 #3, 1988
*[[Archibald Clavering Gunter|Gunter’s Magazine]] (v5 #5, June 1907) [[Archibald Clavering Gunter|The Home Publishing Company]], 503-622pp
*[https://magneticmusic.ws/mmTelHallProg1.pdf Telharmonic Hall Program]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Telharmonium}}
*https://www.britannica.com/art/telharmonium
* [https://massless.info/images/US580035.pdf Official U.S. Patent]
*https://magneticmusic.ws/mmvideo.htm
:*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV34h-YCMbE
:*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf6OQvhChKg
*https://daelectronicmusic.wordpress.com/history/telharmonium/ [[Douglas Anderson School of the Arts]]
*https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a17086/first-synth-muzak-telharmonium/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20121114225402/https://blogs.courant.com/bill_weir/2010/04/mark-twain-electronic-music-pi.html
*https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/telharmonium-history
* [http://sonhors.free.fr/panorama/sonhors2.htm Telharmonium, Audion Piano, Luigi Russolo et les bruitistes] sonhors.free.fr, French
*https://www.makenoisemusic.com/content/manuals/telharmonicManual.pdf
*[https://cdm.link/2017/10/giant-1906-machine-eurorack-synth-module-inspired/ Telharmonic, an Eurorack synthesizer module]

{{Electronic organs}}
{{Electrophones}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Electronic musical instruments]]
[[Category:American inventions]]
[[Category:1897 musical instruments]]
[[Category:History of Holyoke, Massachusetts]]