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Hammond organ:
A Public Radio Commentary
by Bill Hammack
Listen using RealAudio
My grandmother had a nearly sacred object in her home. We were
forbidden to touch it, except under supervision. It was her
Hammond organ. We were, of course, allowed to listen to her play
it. I can still picture her sitting at her Hammond, smelling of
lilac face powder as she pounded out show tunes and pop
favorites.
Now to her, this Hammond was an expensive treasure, but the real
story of the Hammond organ is that it made this instrument
available to nearly everyone.
Laurens Hammond, an electrical engineer invented the Hammond
organ out of desperation. Hammond failed, in the 1920s, to market
his invention for making 3-D movies. It was a motor-driven
contraption that covered one eye, then the other. He needed to
make something more practical. He turned to making electric
clocks.
He based his clock on an electric motor he'd invented. It rotated
at a very constant speed, exactly what is needed for a clock.
Hammond did well at first, but soon others entered the market and
he found himself losing money until by 1935 he was half a million
dollars in debt.
In his desperation Hammond realized that his motor could be used
to make sound. Hammond knew that sound from, say, a violin string
arose because the string vibrates at a constant rate - moving at
a constant rate was exactly what his motor did. Inspired by his
boyhood memories of a church organ he made an electric organ.
Hammond inserted a long shaft into his special motor. He placed
along it what he called "tone wheels". Each wheel had a different
number of metal points on it. The motor spun these points past
magnets that generated sound.
In 1935 Hammond debuted his organ at Rockefeller Center. George
Gershwin, reportedly, bought one on the spot. Soon Hammond Organs
were in Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood bowl, and then
everywhere from skating rinks to funeral parlors.
The organ succeeded because of its low cost and convenience
compared to a pipe organ. Unlike a pipe organ, a Hammond was
never out of tune, was lightweight, and cost less than a tenth
the price. By 1950 the Hammond was in homes across America,
although critics complained about its sound. One characterized
the Hammond's sound as "lifeless, dull, dead, hooty, [and]
tubby."
Perhaps, but not in the hands of the artists who made the Hammond
a true instrument. Here's Jack McDuff, a true master, making the
Hammond B3 Organ swing.
Copyright 2001 William S. Hammack Enterprises
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