Electric music technology refers to musical instruments and recording devices that use electrical circuits, which are often combined with mechanical technologies. Examples include the electro-mechanical Hammond organ (developed in 1934), the electric guitar, the electric bass and the electro-mechanical electric piano. These electric instruments were used with instrument amplifiers and loudspeaker cabinets which made them sound loud enough for performers and the audience to hear. Amplifiers and loudspeakers are separate from the instrument in the case of the electric guitar and electric bass and some electric organs and electric pianos. Some electric organs and electric pianos include the amplifier and speaker cabinet within the main housing for the instrument.
Timeline
- 1874 : Elisha Gray's Musical Telegraph
- 1876 : Alexander Graham Bell completed his designs for the telephone
- 1877 : Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner simultaneously invented the first prototypes of the phonograph
- 1888 : Thomas Edison introduces the electric motor-driven phonograph
- 1896 : Edwin S. Votey completes the first Pianola
- 1898 : Valdemar Poulsen patents the Telegraphone
- 1906 : Thaddeus Cahill introduces the Telharmonium to the public
- 1906 : Lee De Forest invented the Triode, the first vacuum tube
- 1910 : Vladimir Baranoff-Rossine constructed the Piano Optophonique
- 1912 : Major Edwin F. Armstrong is issued a patent for a regenerative circuit, making radio reception practical
- 1915 : Lee de Forest created the Audion Piano
- 1917 : Leon Theremin invented the prototype of the Theremin
- 1921 : First commercial AM radio Broadcast made by KDKA, Pittsburgh, PA
- 1926 : Jorge Mager presented his electronic instruments, in the Spharaphon line
- 1927 : Pierre Toulon and Krugg Bass invent the Cellulophone
- 1928 : René Bertrand invents the Dynaphone
- 1928 : Fritz Pfleumer patents a system for recording on paper coated with a magnetizable, powdered steel layer. A precuser to tape.
- 1929 : Nikolay Obukhov commissioned Michel Billaudot and Pierre Duvalie to design the Sonorous Cross
- 1929 : Peter Lertes and Bruno Helberger developed the Hellertion
- 1930 : Robert Hitcock comletes the Westinghouse Organ
- 1931 : George Beauchamp, the general manager of the National Guitar Corporation, develops the first electric guitar
- 1934 : Laurens Hammond created the first Hammond Organ