Laurens Hammond

Laurens Hammond (January 11, 1895 – July 1, 1973), was an American engineer and inventor. His inventions include, most famously, the Hammond organ, the Hammond clock, and the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizer, the Novachord.

Laurens Hammond was born in Evanston, Illinois, on January 11, 1895 to William Andrew and Idea Louise Strong Hammond. Laurens showed his great technical prowess from an early age. His father, William, took his own life in 1898, ostensibly due to the pressures of running the First National Bank, which he had founded. Upon her husband's death, Idea, who was an artist, relocated to France with Laurens to further her studies, and the family spent the next eleven years in France and Germany.

Early inventions

When the family returned to Evanston in 1909, Laurens, then 14, was fluent in French and German. While in Europe, he had already designed a system for automatic transmission for automobiles. At his mother's suggestion, he submitted his designs to engineers at French automaker Renault, although they were not accepted. His first patent, in 1912, was for a barometer that could sell for one dollar.

University and military service

Hammond studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University, and was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He graduated with honors in 1916. When the United States entered World War I, Hammond served with the 16th Regiment Engineers (Railway), American Expeditionary Force, in France. He rose to the rank of captain.[6]

Inventions

Following the war, Hammond moved to Detroit, where he was chief engineer for the Gray Motor Company, a manufacturer of marine engines. A partner in the company, Col. John H. Poole, with whom he had served in France, knew of his engineering skills, and paid him an extra $300 a week under the table to stay with Gray Motor. In 1919, he invented a silent spring-driven clock. This invention brought him enough money to leave Gray Motor Company and rent his own space in New York City.

In 1922, Hammond invented the Teleview system of shutter glasses in association with 3-D films. One feature was made for the system, The Man from M.A.R.S.. He premiered this show at the Selwyn Theatre in New York in December 1922 to critical acclaim, but the cost of installing the expensive machinery in the theater was prohibitive, and the process was never used again. A 2–D version of the film, renamed Radio-Mania, continued to screen.

Hammond's work on the synchronous motor led him in 1928 to set up the Hammond Clock Company, with six workers, above a grocery store in Chicago. Demand was high and the business soon grew into a large factory. He was responsible for a number of other inventions, such as an electric bridge table.

In 1933, Hammond bought a used piano, and discarded everything apart from the keyboard action. Using the keyboard as a controller, he was able to experiment with various sound-generating methods until he found the best one—the tonewheel generator. The company's assistant treasurer, W. L. Lahey, was the organist at the nearby St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, and Hammond consulted him concerning the quality of the new instrument's sound. Thanks to Hammond's prior manufacturing and engineering experience, the tonewheel generator was extremely well-engineered by the time the "Hammond Organ" finally went into production in 1935. Tonewheel organs are still in regular use in the twenty-first century, which is a testament to the quality of the design and execution of the product.

Hammond filed his patent application on January 19, 1934. At that time, unemployment was a major problem due to the Great Depression, and with this in mind, the Patent Office rushed to grant his application, with the hope of creating jobs in the area.

Hammond was awarded the Franklin Institute's John Price Wetherill Medal in 1940 for the invention of the Hammond electric organ.

World War II

During World War II, Hammond helped design guided missile control systems, light-sensing devices for bomb guidance, glide-bomb controls, and a new type of gyroscope.[9] The glide bomb was the forerunner of today's guided missile.

Later life and death

Hammond left his position as president of his company in 1955, and retired from the company in 1960, at the age of sixty-five. During his life he held 110 patents. He was married to Roxana Scoville, and had one daughter. He died in Cornwall, Connecticut on July 1, 1973, aged 78.

In 2017 the Laurens Hammond Museum was founded in Kielce, Poland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurens_Hammond

https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/hearing-the-hammond-organ/

In music, timbre also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre ...

We'll meet again performed on a Hammond Novachord built in 1939 (YouTube)

https://www.hammondclub.nl/nl/menu/Hammond/Laurens-Hammond

"Electric Pipeless Organ Has Millions of Tones". Popular Mechanics (April 1936). – one of the first large detailed article on the Hammond Organ and how it worked

The Novachord is often considered to be the world's first commercial polyphonic synthesizer. All-electronic, incorporating many circuit and control elements found in modern synthesizers, and using subtractive synthesis to generate tones, it was designed by John M. Hanert, Laurens Hammond and C. N. Williams, and was manufactured by the Hammond company. Only 1,069 Novachords were built over a period from 1939 to 1942. It was one of very few electronic products released by Hammond that was not intended to emulate the sound of an organ.

While production of the Novachord began in November 1938, it was first heard at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Novachord Orchestra of Ferde Grofé performed daily at the Ford stand with four Novachords and a Hammond Organ. The first instrument was delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 30, 1940, as a birthday present.

The Novachord was not well-suited to the technique of organists or pianists and required frequent adjustments to controls on the front panel to create new sounds. Like many analog synthesizers, it was much better suited to producing "otherworldly" timbres. The instrument found its niche some years after production, shaping the sound of many science fiction films and television scores.
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Lived in France, 1903 - 1909

Captain, US Army, served in AEF, France, August 1917 to February 1919

In 1923, resided at: 119 East 19th St., NYC

In 1925, resided at; 15 Gramercy Park, NYC

In 1936, resided at: 1367 N. State St., Chicago, IL

In 1939, resided at: 1421 N. State Parkway., Chicago, IL

In 1956, resided at: 1242 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL

Captain, US Army, served in AEF, France, August 1917 to February 1919

In 1923, resided at: 119 East 19th St., NYC

In 1925, resided at; 15 Gramercy Park, NYC

In 1936, resided at: 1367 N. State St., Chicago, IL

In 1939, resided at: 1421 N. State Parkway., Chicago, IL

In 1956, resided at: 1242 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL