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The ‘Superpiano’ and ‘Symphonium’. Emerich Spielmann, Austria, 1928
Emerich Spielmann playing the Superpiano and a standard piano Spielmann’s Superpiano, patented in 1927, was based on the photo-optical principle used in a number of instruments during the 1920s and 30s...
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the ‘Warbo Formant Orgel’, Harald Bode & Christian Warnke, Germany, 1937
The Warbo Formant Orgel Harald Bode’s first commercial design was the wonderfully named ” Warbo Formant Orgel” built while at the Heinrich-Hertz Institut für Schwingungsforschung at the Technische...
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the ‘Clavier à Lampes’ or ‘Piano Radio Èlectrique’ Joseph Armand Marie...
Armand Givelet playing the ‘Clavier à Lampes Armand Givelet , the engineer and physicist at the radio laboratory at the Eiffel Tower in Paris produced his first instrument the ‘Clavier à Lampes’ in...
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The ‘Orgue des Ondes’ Armand Givelet & Edouard Eloi Coupleux, France. 1929
Organist Charles Tournemire at the Orgue Des Ondes in the église de Villemomble 1931 In 1929 the radio engineer Armand Givelet began a long collaboration with the organ builder Edouard Eloi Coupleux...
View ArticleThe ‘Electronde’ Martin Taubman, Germany, 1927
The Electronde was a development of Lev Termen’s Thereminvox by the Frankfurt inventor Martin Taubman. Taubman added a hand held switch for adding staccato envelope and a foot pedal for volume...
View ArticleThe ‘Neo Violena’ Vladimir A Gurov, V.I. Volynkin & Lucien M. Varvich. Russia...
Designed by the engineers Vladimir A Gurov and V.I. Volynkin with the musical input from the composer Lucien M. Varvich, the Neo Violena was manufactured in Russia in 1927 and seems to have reached the...
View ArticleThe ‘Radio Harmonium’ Sergeĭ Nikolaevich Rzhevkin, Russia, 1925
One of the earliest electronic instruments of the Soviet period, the Radio (or ‘Cathodic’) Harmonium was a three voice polyphonic cathode vacuum tube instrument controlled by a manual keyboard,...
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The Keyboard Electric Harmonium . Lev Sergeyevich Termen, USA/Russia, 1926
Lev Sergeyevich Termen most famous for creating the ‘Theremin’ also invented many other electronic instruments based on the heterodyning vacuum tube technology of the day – including the Keyboard...
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The ‘Hugoniot Organ’. Charles-Emile Hugoniot . France, 1921
A diagram from Hugoniot’s patent for a tone-wheel sound generator December 1919 Charles–Emile Hugoniot ( died; France, 1927 ) was a French mechanic, researcher and inventor of an early electronic...
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The ‘Luminaphone’, Harry Grindell Matthews & Bernard.J.Lynes. UK, 1925
The Luminaphone (image: Illustrierte Technik für Jedermann: Heft 18 1926) The Luminaphone of 1926 was one of a long line of inventions by the British inventor Harry Grindell Matthews, well known at...
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