User Guide / Owners Manual

ARTURIA – VOX Continental V – USER MANUAL 6
A Telharmonium console by Thaddeus Cahill, circa 1897
The Telharmonium (a.k.a. the “Dynamophone”) was originally heard by most
people through means of electrical wires attached to “paper cones”, the
forerunners of today’s loudspeakers. The music was transmitted to various locations
in New York City over the burgeoning telephone system! Crosstalk from the
Telharmonium sometimes interfered with telephone conversations, so that idea
didn’t last long.
Between 1906 and 1908 there were a number of well-received public
performances in a concert hall setting as well. “Build it and they will come…” (Well,
they had to, didn’t they? The Telharmonium wasn’t exactly portable.)
Sadly, there are no surviving recordings of the Telharmonium. But there are many
web sites containing a wealth of information about this fascinating and
groundbreaking instrument.
1.1.1.3 Technological innovations
Another thing that made the Telharmonium different from other electrically-
powered organs of the day was the use of an electromechanical device to
generate the tones, rather than simply using electricity to blow air into a pipe or
past a reed. These devices came to be known as tonewheels, and they were the
progenitors of the technology later employed by the Hammond Organ Company
in its legendary instruments. The resultant sound finally enabled the electronic
organ to distinguish itself from the pipe organ and reed organ, and also allowed
musicians to sculpt the tone of the instrument through the use of additive synthesis!
We owe much to these innovations.
Another form of tone generation became available with the advent of the
transistor, and with it an increase in portability and reliability. When combined with
the frequency dividing technology that had been developed roughly 10 years
earlier, electronic (or “combo”) organs became even more affordable and easier
to maintain. For example, rather than tuning hundreds of individual oscillation
circuits, the technician only needed to set the fundamental frequency of 12