Thursday, June 28, 2007
This Day in the History of New Musical Instruments
On this day in 1846, French-Belgian designer Adolphe Sax was awarded a patent for the saxophone. The unique, and, to my ears, sultry sound these instruments make comes from Sax's combination of the clarinet's single reed and mouthpiece with a widened oboe's conical bore. Because his first saxophones were made of wood, saxophones are still classified as a woodwind instrument, even though they are all brass now. Sax was a better inventor than a businessman and he made little profit from his most successful invention, one of many, yet he spent a decade in court protecting his patent. The first saxophone production in the U.S. began in 1888 when Charles Gerard Conn of Elkhart, Indiana, made brass instruments for military bands.
(h/t Today in Science History)
(h/t Today in Science History)
Labels: Saxohones
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 12:08 AM 
