Mechanical Music Digest  Archives
You Are Not Logged In Login/Get New Account
Please Log In. Accounts are free!
Logged In users are granted additional features including a more current version of the Archives and a simplified process for submitting articles.
Home Archives Calendar Gallery Store Links Info

End-of-Year Fundraising Drive In Progress. Please visit our home page to see this and other announcements: https://www.mmdigest.com     Thank you. --Jody

MMD > Archives > August 2001 > 2001.08.31 > 04Prev  Next


Self-Playing Trumpet
By Craig Brougher

There used to exist a "Spanish Trumpeteer" that was invented and built
by Fredrich and Theodore Kaufmann, maybe between 1837 and 1851.  The
business was begun by Theodore's grandfather Johann in 1752.  The
remains to this day are still in the Deuches Museum in Munich, Germany.
I still have a postcard from the museum with a color picture of it.  It
was a valveless trumpet, the notes being produced only by the mouth,
and the machine was so accurate that it could blow double notes of
equal strength and purity.  Besides blowing octaves, it could also blow
4ths, 5ths, and 6ths.  The lips were covered with leather.  There's a
little story about it in the Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical
Instruments, pg. 480.

What we are privileged to see and hear today in pneumatic instruments
is but a fraction of the accomplishments set forth by our forebearers,
long before there was such a thing as a "patent" office.

Craig Brougher


(Message sent Fri 31 Aug 2001, 16:00:21 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Self-Playing, Trumpet

Home    Archives    Calendar    Gallery    Store    Links    Info   


Enter text below to search the MMD Website with Google



CONTACT FORM: Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD

Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2024 by Jody Kravitz.

Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site.

Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website.

Please support publication of the MMD by donating online

Please Support Publication of the MMD with your Generous Donation

Pay via PayPal

No PayPal account required

                                     
Translate This Page