.AUTOMATIC VIOLIN PLAYER
By EMMETT CAMPBELL HALL
AN automatically operated violin, playing music with all the skill of the most trained human hand, is now an accomplished fact, although musicians and even scientists have declared that such a thing would never be achieved.
Tag "musical instruments"
.PLAYS ELEVEN INSTRUMENTS AT ONCE
Eleven separate musical instruments are played simultaneously by Elmer Trudgen, of Blenheim, Ontario, Canada, with the aid of the novel mechanical arrangement shown in the photograph above. Parts salvaged from discarded bicycles, sewing machines, and automobiles were used to make the foot pedals, levers, and other controls which enable Trudgen to coordinate his feet, knees, arms, wrists, and fingers in rendering a musical selection. The instruments are the piano, violin, guitar, harmonica, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, wood blocks, cymbal, cowbells, and chimes.
.WASHTUB BASS
The coolest cats dig the solid beat of this crazy, mixed-up tub.
By Ron Anderson
A BASS violin is something you’re not likely to have around the house. Yet the beat of such an instrument adds rhythm to any musical get-together. Here’s one to make that will produce deep, boomy tones comparing favorably with the real thing.
Why is she dressed like an elf?
.Musical Tones May Be Made on a Hand Saw
One of the latest fads is to extract music from an ordinary hand saw. The illustration shows how this may be accomplished. Simply hold the saw between your knees, bend the saw with one hand and draw the bow over the edge, as shown. A tone will be the result.
Bending the blade in various curves will produce all the notes of the scale. Different tones may also be made by varying the angle of the bow and its position. Nearer the end on high notes and toward the handle on the low notes.
A little experimenting will enable anyone to produce music from this improvised instrument.
I love the mix of items on this page.
.“Mother Goose” Bungalow Shelters Nesting Ducks
Looking as if it had been plucked right from the pages of a “Mother Goose” book, a bungalow for ducks stands on the shore of an artificial lake in Alexandria, Minn. This fairy tale cottage with sloping Walls
and crooked chimney has shuttered windows and flower boxes, and the glassed windows are indirectly illuminated at night with electric lights hidden in shallow boxes inside the window frames. It appears, at night, to be a busy little hotel, but the hundred or more residents of “Duck Inn” sleep inside in complete darkness.
.Musical Instrument Made of Two Cans and a String
The illustration shows a very novel and curious “fiddle” made of simple materials and yet a practical instrument to play. This “violin” is simply a long stick to which have been attached two tin cans. Stretched between two holes in the cans is a violin string, it being fastened on one end to a screw so that it will be adjustable to various pitches.
.Buescher Sax: WHAT A MAN.
Health, wealth, and happiness gravitate toward the man who can play a Buescher Sax.’ Gives you the chance to enjoy all the pleasures of life. So easy to learn, too, on a Buescher. Many master scales the first hour; play tunes in a week ; join a band or orchestra in 90 days, But only with a Buescher is this rapid progress assured. Go now, to your local Buescher dealer. See the new models. Try them. Arrange to take one home on trial. Or send a postal for beautiful catalog. Easy terms. Get started now with a Buescher.
BUESCHER
Buescher Band Instrument Co.. 1215 Buescher Block, Elkhartv Indiana
.“Musiclite” Invention Plays Piano Notes in Color Tones
A DISTINCTLY unique invention called the “Musicite,” an instrument which enables you to see sound waves of a note while you are listening to the same tone being played on the piano, has recently been perfected by Philip Grodon, world famous concert pianist.
The device consists of a series of colored lights arranged in openings in a large keyboard attached to the side of the piano, as shown in the photo at the left. These lights are wired to the keys of the regular piano keyboard, so that when a key is pressed to play a note a relay is actuated to light a bulb on a corresponding key on the light keyboard at the side, which is visible to the audience.
.TABLE-TOP ORGAN
JUNIOR can play maestro at the organ—a little reed pipe job about two ft. long that operates via electricity and boasts 27 black and white keys which play sharps and flats, and over two full chromatic octaves with true, full-bodied organ tone. The $20 table-top instrument is made by Emenee Industries, Inc., New York, N. Y. It is made of break-resistant Styron plastic and comes complete with music book and electric cord. It is said to help Junior develop musically.
.Primitive vs. Mechanical Music
STONE age men produced music by tapping a stretched hide. Today we press a button, and presto—music!The mechanical violin whose mechanism is exposed above is one of the latest advances in the development of mechanical music. Fingering of the violin is done by the M-shaped rod, while the bow is moved by the same mechanism which twists the violin around to present the proper strings to the bow. A perforated roll, shown at the right, controls the machine.
White horsehair is used in making violin bows. Above a worker is sorting horsehair for quality.