This calliope has 44 keys, from F below middle C to 3 octaves above, and a built-in 2 horsepower blower which sounds like a vacuum cleaner to me.  I played with it: all the whistles work -- loudly!  The pipes are black plastic (ABS) sewer pipes with support brackets of Lexan.  It appears to be a design that can be built from hardware store materials.  There is no mechanism for player rolls.

The instrument was built in 1981 especially for my friend, Cal Calvert, the tuba player in my band, by

  New Age Air Calliope
  Melville McBride
  215 Elva Drive
  Aptos, CA 95003
  408-688-1665

In 1981, this one was one of three such units in existence.  Mel actually drove from Aptos to Ottawa to drop it off; he did not want to take a chance with regular truckers.

Melville McBride is now 90 years old, and has been out of the calliope business for quite some time.  He told me that he has built a total of six of these units, Cal Calvert's was an early one.  Most of his calliopes are in use with the Shriners.

Mel McBride strove to recreate, in an air driven calliope, the throaty sound of the old steam driven units.  I have never heard a steam calliope so I don't know how successful he was.

Alexander (Sander) Mommers
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
amommers@science.uottawa.ca.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]
10 Dec 2003 15:44:08 -0500

In May of 2003 I chanced upon a curious air calliope stored in Felton, California. It was being refurbished for use in the Memorial Day 'Felton Remembers' parade. The calliope is mounted on a trailer with terraced steps in the rear. The gentleman working on the unit took time out to play a couple of tunes for me. Unfortunately I didn't have my tape recorder in the car that day. It didn't sound too bad!

Images & text copyright 2003, John Haskey
Republished with permission.