Augustus Stroh's Phonographic Violin

Augustus Stroh's Phonographic Violin. A Journey: Victorian London, Australia, TransylvaniaAuthor(s): Alison RabinoviciSource: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 58 (May, 2005), pp. 100-123, 220-224Published by: Galpin SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163830 .

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ALISON RABINOVICI

Augustus Stroh's Phonographic Violin.

A Journey: Victorian London, Australia,

Transylvania

The story of the Stroh violin and its inventor, Augustus Stroh, was reported in several

contemporary journals at the turn of the

century, but was not again the subject of detailed

investigation until Julian Pilling's article; 'Fiddles with Horns' appeared in 1975.l The Stroh violin did not reappear in the literature as a major topic until the publication of Cary Clements' impressive and detailed research in the 1990s.2 My intention is to explore the origins of the instrument and to comment on the impact it had on the development of other horned instruments.3

The work and achievements of Augustus Stroh are not sufficiently well known today. A

watchmaker, a maker of telegraph instruments,4 a

telegraph and mechanical engineer of high repute, Stroh was also the inventor of the first mechanically amplified musical instrument. His phonographic violin5 inspired the design of many other horned

mechanically amplified string instruments in the

years after its introduction in 1899.6 Large numbers of patents for such instruments were registered in both Great Britain and the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. There may be a

Stroh violin. ? Aleksander Kolkowski

general perception that the Stroh violin is a quaint oddity from a bygone age, a period notable for

inventions, often more bizarre than practical. As

1 Julian Pilling, 'Fiddles with Horns', The Galpin Society Journal XXVII, (1975) pp.86-92.

2 Cary Clements, 'Augustus Stroh and the Famous Stroh Violin', Experimental Musical Instruments, x/4 1994-5.

'Historical Patents for Horned Violins', Experimental Musical Instruments, xiii/2 1995-96. 'Extra Extra: Stroh

Violins Still Being Made!!!', Experimental Musical Instruments, xiv/4 1988-9. 3 Biographical information is drawn from the St Catherines' House Index of Births Deaths and Marriages. Business

and residential information is largely drawn from the Post Office London Directories. 4

The Science Museum (London) has three Stroh instruments: an astatic galvanometer with torsion head and

reading microscope, a type-printer for the Wheatstone ABC communicator, and Stroh's curve writer (made by

W.Groves). The Berlin 'Communications' Museum has two telegraph devices, a receiver and a sender, both built by

Stroh, named after Wheatstone and dated 1867. 5 'A Phonographic Violin', The New York Times, from The London Mail, Sunday January 26, 1902, p.9. 6 Details of all patents mentioned in this paper can be found in Appendix C.

100



Rabinovici?Stroh Violin 101

an instrument used in sound recording when that

technology was in its infancy, it holds a particular place in the history of recorded sound. In design it was the first radical departure from the traditional form of violin making; a bodyless instrument of

mahogany and aluminium, it was to influence in a profound way the design of electric violins until the present day. It influenced particularly the

design of the Beauchamp Electro Violin, the first electric violin to have a degree of practical success

in America in the nineteen thirties. In a practical sense, Stroh's aluminium diaphragm attached to

the side of the violin was the direct inspiration for the interior diaphragm of the resonator guitar and for sound system speakers. Indeed, the resonator

guitar was the invention of John Dopyera, a Czech, resident in America. His British patent of 19287 referred directly to Stroh's own patent of 1899. Resonators were set within the body of the guitar, rather than as an exterior attachment, as in the

Stroh violin. And what of the Stroh violin itself? By the mid

1920s it had outlived its relevance for recording purposes as the technology improved rapidly with the introduction of electric recording and

amplification. The Stroh violin never quite disappeared however, achieving a new relevance in the music hall, in folk music and in dance bands between the two World Wars, both in England, Australia and America. Notably, Stroh's violin

inspired the development of a number of other instruments that have their own story and their own relevance to the place and social setting of their origin.

Of particular interest is the Phonofiddle, which, contrary to perceived wisdom, was an instrument

with a provenance quite distinct from that of the Stroh violin. As a horned stringed instrument, it was influenced by the Stroh, but also informed by other

influences; built not for the recording studio, but for the music hall and, with the notable exception of the music hall artist, G. H. Chirgwin, for humbler, less skilled musicians. As an instrument with an even shorter life than the Stroh violin, it had slipped

into obscurity by the end of the Second World War, and with it disappeared the remarkable story of the inventor of the phonofiddle, A.T.Howson. The

music hall connection was continued in Australia with Rupert Hazell and his Cello Cordo, an

instrument with undoubted Howson similarities. The story of Hazell's instrument adds to both the Howson story and also in a small way to the story of music hall and vaudeville.

Finally the vioara cu goarna (literally 'violin with

horn') appeared in Transylvania between the wars

and is claimed by the Romanians as a Romanian folk instrument. It is part of the musical tradition of the area, and is still in use today.

The Stroh violin may be 'but a footnote in music history',8 but its unique tonal and acoustic

peculiarities have given it a place in the world of new and experimental music, adding further

validity to the need for a more detailed account of the instrument and its inventor.

JOHN MATTHAIS AUGUSTUS STROH (1828 1914)

Augustus Stroh was held in high regard by his contemporaries,9 respected both for his

pioneering work as a telegraph instrument maker and telegraph engineer and for his qualities of character. He was remembered for his great skill as a craftsman and for the accuracy and beauty of

the scientific instruments that he made; a legacy of his early training as a watch and clock maker. He was remembered also for the part he played in the development of the telegraph through his long association with the engineer, Charles Wheatstone and for his investigations into the field of acoustics.

Among the more famous of Stroh's associates were William Preece, Engineer in Chief and Electrician of the Post Office, Silvanus Thomson, J.A.Fleming, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison and

D.E.Hughes. Born Johann Matthias August Stroh in May

1828 in Frankfurt am Main, Stroh was apprenticed as a watch and clock maker.10 He moved to London in 1851 where he started his own business as a

7 'It has previously been proposed to construct violins and other stringed instruments wherein the bridge is seated

upon a rocking lever that is connected to one or more diaphragms situated in a casing adjacent and in connection

with the instrument, and to provide in combination with such an instrument a horn, trumpet, or the like.'' Patent

GB294806, 1928-08-02. 8 George Paul, 'The Stroh Recording Violin' in The New Amberola Graphic No. 79, January 1992, p.7. 9 'The Late Mr. Augustus Stroh', Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal Vol. XVCIII, July

- (Dec.1914.

Nov. 13), p.599-600. The Electrician: a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Electrical Engineering, Industry, Science and Finance Vol. LXXIV, Oct. 9 1914 - April 2, 1915. Obituary, (Nov.20, 1914) pp.203-204. The Electrical Review Vol. LXXV July 3

- Dec. 25, 1914 Obituary p.699. Conrad W. Cooke, Obituary, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Vol. 53, (1915), pp.871-872. W. M. Mordey, Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Speech at the Ordinary meeting of 14 Jan, (1915), pp.273-274.

10 The Electrical Review Vol. LXXV July 3 - December 25, 1914. Obituary, p. 699.



102 The Galpin Society Journal

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Figure 1. Photograph of Augustus Stroh. By kind

permission of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London.

watchmaker in 1857, a business he continued until 1862. Stroh married Emma King in 1863 and became a naturalized British subject in October 1869.11 His first patent,12 a month later, reflected his early occupation as a watchmaker. It was for

'Improvements on Electro-Magnetic Clocks...'. By 1858 Stroh was working as telegraph instrument

maker for Charles Wheatstone,13 establishing himself finally at 42a Hampstead Road by 1865.

Within two or three years of his arrival in England, Stroh was employed as an mechanician by the Post Office, where together with Wheatstone he remodelled and improved the apparatus for

Wheatstone's telegraph; one of these pieces of

equipment being regarded finally as 'one of the most perfect pieces of mechanism employed in

any art.14 Wheatstone used one such instrument

in a demonstration to the Royal Society in 1867.15 Wheatstone's earliest scientific investigations were

in the field of acoustics, an interest stemming from his father's trade as a seller of musical instruments. He first registered a patent for the concertina in

1844, and continued to improve it over the years. In 1872 Wheatstone and Stroh were jointly granted a patent for 'Improvements in Musical Instruments in which Vibrating Tongues Acted upon by Air are employed.'16 In other words, a single vibrating reed produced a gliding action from one note to

another, suitable for use in instruments such as

harmoniums, organs, mouth-blown instruments

and concertinas.17 Stroh continued to work with Wheatstone until his death in 1875. He was awarded the Gold Medal (Medaille de Collaborates) at the Paris Exhibition of 1878 for his 'joint invention' with Wheatstone of the Wheatstone Automatic

System.18

THE PHONOGRAPH AND THE PHONO GRAPHIC VIOLIN

It can be argued that the origin of the idea for Stroh's violin can be traced to the year 1879.

Consequently, the history of the instrument cannot be considered without reference to the development of the phonograph and to Stroh's own work in the field of acoustics. The long evolution of the history of recorded sound really began with Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877. The basic

principle of the phonograph is that the action of sound waves activates the vibration of a diaphragm,

which, through an attached stylus, inscribes a tinfoil wrapped cylinder. When the stylus is returned to the beginning of the indentation and the cylinder rotated, the indented tinfoil in turn, activates the stylus, and the recorded sound is thus made audible. The first detailed account of the phonograph appeared in the English press in The Times in January 1878. It aroused enormous

11 National Archives (UK) Naturalization Papers: Stroh, John Matthias Augustus, Certificate 6299, 10 September

1869 Record number: HOI/158/6299, [http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk accessed 16 February 2004]. 12

For details of all patents discussed in this paper, see Appendix C. 13 W.H.Preece, 'Recent Advances in Telegraphy', Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol.XXVII, October 24, 1879,

p.982. 14 William H. Preece, 'On Recent Advances in Telegraphy', The Telegraphic Journal, Sept. 1, 1878, p.358. 15 Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. LX, London 1899, p.435.

16 GB patent No.39, 1872. 17

The gliding action was a feature of Victorian popular music. Patent No.39, (January 1872) was the second of

three Wheatstone/Stroh patents. 18 Conrad W. Cooke Obituary Notice, Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers Vol. 53, 1915, p.871.



Rabinovici? Stroh Violin 103

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Figure 2. Augustus Stroh's phonograph of 1878. Illustration from Engineering, an Illustrated Weekly Journal Journal, 8 March 1878.

interest in scientific and academic circles and William H Preece, Chief Engineer of the British Postal Telegraph Department, was prominent in the

presentation and demonstration of the instrument to the various scientific societies and institutions.

He demonstrated it for the first time in England as part of the presentation of his paper on 'The

Telephone' at the Royal Institution19 on 1 February 1878. Preece had been provided with the drawings of Edison's phonograph only the week before, and had enlisted the services of Augustus Stroh, 'the

greatest mechanician of the day', who, by working day and night, constructed a phonograph in time for the presentation.20

In quick succession Preece and Stroh then demonstrated the phonograph to the Society of

Telegraph Engineers, The Society of Arts and The Physical Society. Extensive accounts of these

meetings appeared in the respective journals and in the general and scientific press. Stroh's phonograph

was an improved version of Edison's instrument, to which he had added 'clockwork and a governor' to produce 'uniform rotation' as Edison's original rotation by hand was inevitably uneven. Stroh continued to make phonographs for the almost

daily exhibitions given by the London Stereoscopic Society, reproducing any improvements made by Edison, with the result that the instruments became obsolete almost as soon as each was completed'.

Not only was the phonograph the object of intense scientific curiosity, the general public also were

provided with ample opportunity to see and hear the new marvel. The London Stereoscopic Society presented the phonograph to the general public for the first time at the Crystal Palace over the Easter

holiday period in 1878, where, on one day alone, some 13,000 people had entered the grounds of the Palace by mid afternoon. Again, the instrument exhibited was built by Augustus Stroh.21

Stroh and Preece continued to work closely

19 Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain Vol.VIII, February 1, 1878, p.501-7.

20 'The Phonograph at the Royal Institution' in The Graphic An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, Vol.XVII, No.433, March 16 1878, p.259, 262.

21 'Good Friday', The Times April 20, 1878, p.9.




throughout 1878 on the acoustic properties of the

phonograph, and almost exactly a year later, on 27 February 1879, together presented a paper to the Royal Society entitled 'Studies in Acoustics I. On the Synthetic Examination of Vowel Sounds'.22

Stroh's 'phonographic violin' was not patented until 1899 but the first reference to a 'new musical instrument' made by Stroh appeared in a preliminary announcement for the above mentioned meeting of the Royal Society which appeared in Nature on 20 February 1879:

...Several new instruments of great novelty and

marvellous ingenuity will be exhibited, including a new phon-autograph, an automatic phonograph, a compound curve tracer, a new siren and a new

musical instrument.23

A later notice in the same journal added the further information that it was a 'new musical instrument

dependent on the vibration of a diaphragm'. In fact, the presentation of the 'new musical

instrument' did not take place at the Royal Society meeting, as it was based on an idea for 'which there has been no time as yet to mature'.24 Does the origin of Stroh's mechanically amplified violin, then, dependent for amplification not on the resonance

of a wooden sound box, but on the transference of vibrations from the bridge to a large diaphragm attached to the frame, lie here?

The Times of 3 March 1879 also reported the

presentation of the paper to the Royal Society, noting that of the several instruments which were

constructed to reproduce vowel sounds: One of them makes a simple and good siren, reliable

for measurements, and gives promise of introducing a new musical machine which will give sweet sounds

by the mechanical vibration of a disc.

It seems safe to say, then, that contrary to the

popular view; Stroh did not develop his amplified violin purely as a response to a practical need for a louder and more directional violin for an as

yet imperfect recording technology. Rather, its

origin is clearly twenty years earlier and was part of a more complex thought process; the musical instrument with a diaphragm was one of several instruments constructed for the experiments in the

study of acoustics, for which the invention of the

phonograph had been a great stimulus. We shall never know just what form the musical instrument took in 1879, or why Stroh decided not to introduce his new musical instrument rather sooner, but the

Figure 3. Violin patent - Stroh's BritishPatent No. 9418, 1899.

result after a twenty-year

gestation period, was the Stroh violin.

By 1881 Stroh had sold his factory at Hampstead Road to the Post Office, a sale from which he made a considerable sum of money. He was able to 'retire from business and to devote the whole of his energies to original work in connection with almost every branch of

physical and mechanical science'. Stroh continued his mechanical and acoustic investigations, and no doubt, his work on the 'new musical

instrument dependent on a diaphragm' at his home at 98 Haverstock

Hill, Hampstead. The patent for the Stroh

violin was registered first

22 Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol.28 February 27, 1879, pp.358-367.

23 Nature a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science Vol.XIX Nov. 1878 - Apr.1879, February 20, 1879, p.374. This announcement was also made in The London Times, 20 February 1879, p.10, column 'e'.

24 Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol.28 February 27 1879 sec.17 p.364.




in England in 1899 just before Stroh's seventy second birthday. An American patent application followed almost immediately; the application was filed on 21 August 1899 and was in fact finalized on 6 March 1900, a little earlier than the English patent. The patent was also registered in Austria in 1900 and in Germany the same year. The

American patent is a somewhat abbreviated version of the English patent and describes the invention as relating 'primarily, to a violin which has a

diaphragm or membrane and a resonator instead of the ordinary violin-body or sounding-board'. The

English patent is rather more detailed: In a stringed musical instrument in which the bridge supporting the strings is mounted on a rocking lever

and the vibrations of the latter are transmitted to a

diaphragm, the combination of the said diaphragm with a trumpet-shaped resonator adapted to receive

and distribute the sound waves produced by the vibrations of the diaphragm.

The Austrian patent was registered as an ' Or ch ester instrumente\ reflecting Stroh's own intentions for the instrument's use for orchestral

recording. One could assume that Stroh intended to export his instruments to central Europe, and

by registering his patent in Austria and Germany, was therefore protecting his invention there. Stroh violins were constructed using a standard gauge making mass production possible and allowing the easy replacement of damaged parts.25 The later 'invention' of the Tiebel violin in Markneukirchen in 1928 may well have relied to an extent on the existence of Stroh's European patents and the early presence of Stroh's instruments in Central Europe.

Export of Stroh violins to America and Europe would have started soon after the registration of the patents, and in the time of the Stroh family control of the business. Photographic images of instruments used in early recordings, both in Germany and America, shows Stroh violins

without the trademark, which was registered only in 1910. Among these are the instruments used by the Victor Company in America and listed in their

catalogues as 'Viol-horns'. The photograph of the one remaining instrument clearly has no transferred trademark decal on it. A second example of a Stroh violin without the trademark can be seen in the

photograph in Donovan's article in The Strand

Magazine of 1902.26 Of interest also is Stroh's final patent of 1901 for

a conically shaped, ridged diaphragm. It followed an earlier patent registered by the Edison Bell

Phonograph Corporation Limited, with Augustus Stroh for 'Improvements in or applicable to

Phonographs'. The improvement to the basic design of the diaphragm in the 1901 patent was to have

long-lasting implications for the amplification of sound. The cone-shaped diaphragm with three concentric corrugations around the circumference served to 'render the vibrations more uniform over the entire area of the diaphragm.' Curiously, unlike the Stroh violin patent, the diaphragm was

only patented in England. Even this 'improvement' had its earliest origin in the work of Preece and Stroh in 1879 on the examination of vowel sounds. After much experiment, they arrived at a new form of diaphragm, 'a stretched membrane of thin India rubber rendered rigid by a cone of paper'.27 This cone

shaped diaphragm appears not to have been made use of again until the diaphragm patent of 1901.

The first report of a performance using the Stroh violin was of a recital given at Prince's Restaurant,

/ -*/-. . -

Figure 4. Diaphragm patent. Stroh's British Patent

No.3393, 1901.

25 'The Stroh Violin' in Bazaar, The Exchange and Mart, 27 November, 1901. Reprinted in The Talking Machine Review International, No.35, August 1975, p.421.

26 D. Donovan, The Stroh Violin', The Strand Magazine Vol. XXIII, January 1902, No.133, pp.90-91. 27

Engineering an Illustrated Weekly Journal, March 7, 1879, p.200, and 'Improved Diaphragm for the

Phonograph', The Popular Science Monthly Vol.XV May-Oct. 1879, p.423-4. 28 'A Phonographic Violin' from The London Mail in The New York Times, Sunday January 26, (1902) p.9.




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Figure 5. Professor J.A.Fleming delivering his Christmas 1901/02 lecture at the Royal Institution. Illustration from The Graphic, 18

January, 1902. By permission of the State Library of Victoria

Piccadilly28 in November, 1901 by a Mr. George Collins, who was 'able to show that for sweetness

of tone, and power, it can compare very favourably with many of the old and celebrated makes of the violin...'.29 Within two weeks of the acceptance of

the diaphragm patent, Stroh's violin was introduced

again to the public on 4 January 1902, by none

other than John Ambrose Fleming, first Professor of Chemical Engineering at University College, London and inventor of the thermionic valve. He delivered a series of six Christmas Lectures in 1901/2 at the Royal Institution on the topic of

'Waves and Ripples' and the fourth of these lectures, on the principles of

resonance, used the Stroh violin as

part of an illustration of the action of air vibration in musical instruments.

The lectures were published in 191230 and the violin was described thus:

Quite recently an entirely new departure has been made in violin construction

by Mr. Augustus Stroh, a well-known

inventor. He has abolished the wooden

body and bridge, and substituted for them

an aluminium trumpet-shaped tube as the

resonant chamber, ending in a circular

corrugated aluminium disc, on the

centre of which rests an aluminium lever

pivoted at one point... The tone of the

new violin is declared by connoisseurs to

be remarkably full, mellow, and resonant.

The notes have a richness and power which satisfies the ear, and is generally

only to be found in the handiwork of the classical construction of the ordinary form of the violin. One great advantage of the Stroh violin is that every one can

be made perfectly of the same excellence.

The aluminium discs are stamped out by a steel die, and are therefore all identical.

The element of chance or personal skill

in making has been eliminated by a

scientific and mechanical construction.

Thus the musician becomes possessed of an instrument in which scientific

construction predominates over individ

ual art or tradition in manufacture, yet at

the same time the musical effects which

skill in playing can produce are not at

all diminished.

The lectures were also reported in detail in the London Times, the London Chronicle in January 190231 and in The Graphic. Fleming, according to that paper, was evidently a fine lecturer:

proving himself the equal of his predecessors alike in

the difficult art of accommodating a trained scientific

intelligence to the understanding of children and

in the not less difficult task of sustaining youthful interest in the subject matter.'32

A young lady played the instrument for the audience on that occasion. Possibly it is her

photograph which appeared in an article entitled

29 'The Stroh Violin', in The Talking Machine Review International, No.35 (1975), p.420-421. Reprinted from Bazaar, the Exchange and Mart, 27 November 1901. This article gives an admirably clear account of how the

instrument operates. My thanks to Cary Clements for sending me this article. 30

'Waves and Ripples in Water, Air and Aether, being a course of Christmas Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. December 1901/January 1902. Published by the Society for Promoting Christian

Knowledge, 1912, Chapter 4 'Sound and Music', pp.147-184. 31

Reprinted in The New York Times, 19 January 1902, p.25. 32 The Graphic (London) An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, 18 January, 1902 Vol.LXV, No.1,677 p.88.




Figure 6. Image of a young lady playing the Stroh violin, Strand Magazine, 1902. By permission of the State Library of Victoria.

'The Stroh Violin' in the Strand Magazine in 1902.33

(The instrument being played here is an early one; it has no second horn.) The 1899 patent does not have a second smaller horn. The directionality of the large horn assisted the recording process, but no doubt also made it harder for the musician to hear himself, thus, the addition of a second, smaller horn attached to the diaphragm housing or on the horn itself and directed toward the player (see Figure 7, colour supplement). How did the Stroh violin sound to contemporary

ears? Perhaps somewhat optimistically, one writer

said, 'Although the diaphragm is made of metal

aluminium there is no metallic sound audible... .

The rich mellow tones...require no forcing. The

slightest contact of the bow will bring them forth, and make the player imagine himself a far better

player than he really is'.34 This article is one of the few contemporary references to the violin's use for

recording purposes. The Victor Company made the first American recordings using the Stroh violin in 1904. Their catalogue of 1905 said, 'The tone

of the Viol-Horn is very like that of the violin but much louder'.35 Recordings were also made at the

Edison Recording Studios around 1907-10.36 The relationship of the Stroh violin with the

phonograph was made quite explicit: The application of the principle of the phonograph to the violin is the latest musical curiosity.... The

instrument produces the tones of an ordinary violin,

but it is claimed that the tones are richer.37

Not all contemporary accounts were glowing, however:

Surrounded by these fortuitous gadgets of sound

concentration, the lot of the recording artiste in

those days was hardly an enviable one. Illustrative of

the dilemmas is a news item from December, 1904, which announces: Kubelik has made two records

with his own Stradivarius, not a Stroh.38

These contemporary reports made clear that

Stroh's instrument received serious and considered

attention, both from the press and from his

contemporaries.

By 1903, Stroh's phonograph had made its way into the popular imagination39 and the Stroh violin

was taking its place in the recording studios of the

day. Stroh lived to see the first solo recordings and orchestral recordings made in 1904,40 the same year that his son, Charles Stroh, established himself as a violin maker and manufacturer of Stroh violins. At the time of his death in 1914, aged eighty-six, it was remarked that:

He was one of the most modest and retiring of

men, and there can be but little doubt that but for these admirable qualities he might have received the

33 D. Donovan 'The Stroh Violin' The Strand Magazine Vol.XXIII January

- June No. 133, January 1902, p.89

91. It is probable that the subject was indeed one of Augustus Stroh's three daughters. 34 'The Stroh Violin', Bazaar, The Exchange and Mart, 27 November 1901, Reprinted in The Talking Machine

ReviewNo.35, August 1975 p.421. 35

George Paul, 'The Stroh Recording Violin' in The New Amberola Graphic January 1992, p.7. 36

Cary Clements, 'The Stroh Violin', Experimental Musical Instruments Vol.10/4 June 1995 p.137. 37 'A Phonographic Violin', The London Mail, reprinted in The New York Times, Sunday 26 January 1902, p.9. 38

Joe Batten's Book the Story of Sound Recording: Being the Memoirs of Joe Batten, 1956. 39

T. C. Hepworth, 'The Phonograph', CasselVs Popular Science, Vol.1, 1903. An admirably clear illustrated

explanation of the workings of the phonograph. 40

George Paul, 'Phonograph Forum - The Stroh Recording Violin', The New Amberola Graphic, No. 79,

Jan. 1992, p.7. Victor Records - no. 2828 -'

Military Serenade', No. 2770 - 'Donkey & Driver', No. 2920 -

'Andantino', no. 2804 - 'Favorite Hymns'.




highest honours41 in this and other countries; but he was honoured and beloved by all his friends, who know his worth and admired his character.42

Perhaps the lack of official recognition was also due to Stroh's German origins. He was buried in the Hampstead Cemetery. An illustration of a Stroh violin is at Figure 7 in the colour supplement.

AUGUSTUS CHARLES STROH AND GEORGE EVANS, VIOLIN MAKERS

Augustus Stroh's son Charles (1866-1923) is sometimes credited with a greater role in the

production and development of Stroh violins than was in all probability, the case. Charles Stroh trained as a mechanical engineer at the Government

Telegraph Works in London43 and at nineteen, left for Australia, arriving in Melbourne in June of 1884.44 He remained in Australia for over fifteen

years. Charles claimed to have been 'appointed to

responsible positions in the Government Telegraph Service of Australia' and to have held 'important positions as advisory engineer to various firms'.45

Charles returned to England by 1901 at which

point he appears to have taken up an active role in the production of Stroh violins, being listed as a violin maker in Albany Street, Regent's Park by 1904.

The whole question of Charles's involvement with Stroh violin production is confused by his

listing as a violin maker in the London Post Office

Directory, from 1904 to 1924 inclusive. In fact the Russell Hunting Record Co. Ltd., previously the

Sterling Record Company, had taken over the entire

production of Stroh violins by 1906. Charles's involvement with the Russell Hunting Co. was as a

director and a major shareholder of that company.

He was by his own account, involved at a practical level in the production and in 1906 spoke with enthusiasm about the expansion of the factory in

Bishop's Road, Cambridge Heath.46 However by 1908 the business had failed47 and was taken over

by George John William Evans in 1909. It was

Evans, not Charles Stroh who first registered the 'STROVIOLS' trade mark in England in April of

1910,48 giving his address as 94 Albany Street and his occupation as 'manufacturer'. Charles Stroh's

further connection with George Evans & Co. remains unclear. George Evans' choice of trade

mark was an interesting one; Augustus and Charles Stroh were still very much alive, and by omitting the 'h' from 'Stroviols' he was able to capitalize on the well-known Stroh name. The Great War saw the development of anti- German sentiment in Britain and as did many others with German

names, Charles divested himself of the Stroh name in 1915, less than a year after his father's death,

taking the name of 'Stroud'.49 Charles married in 1917 and remained in London until at least 1919.

He and his wife died within days of each other in

May 1923, in Hove, near Brighton. Charles's listing as a 'violin maker' was to remain in the London Post Office Directory for another year and George Evans was finally listed at the Albany Street address as a violin maker in 1925, fifteen years after he first used the address in 1910 in the registration of the Stroviols trademark.

Augustus Stroh himself had clearly signalled his intention of extending the application of his invention to 'violincellos, mandolins, guitars and other stringed instruments'.50 George Evans

produced violas, cellos, and ukuleles, guitars, and

string basses, all bearing the 'Stroviols' trademark

41 It is a matter of speculation whether Stroh's position as a Post Office employee was also a factor in his lack

of honours. While according to W.H.Preece, Wheatstone's telegraph apparatus had been 'entirely remodeled and

improved by the Post Office Electricians. Nothing but the original idea remains and the machine now turned out by Mr. Stroh is one of the most perfect pieces of mechanism employed in any art.' (The Telegraphic Journal Vol. 6 No.

118 p.358 September 1, 1878) a reply two weeks later was not so sympathetic. 'The officers of that service, [Postal

Telegraph] no doubt, effect some small improvements on apparatus submitted to their care; but it is not to them that

we must look for inventions.' (The Telegraphic Journal Vol. 6 No. 135 p.358 September 15, 1878). 42

Conrad W. Cooke, Obituary in The Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Vol.53, 1915, p. 872. 43

'Talking Machine Pioneers No.7 Charles Stroh' (from Phono Trader and Recorder Sept.1906) reprinted in The Hillandale News The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society No.73 June 1973 p.75 I am grateful to Cary Clements for sending me this article.

44 Public Record Office Victoria - Database: Unassisted Immigration to Victoria 1852-1911. [http://www.

proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search_results.asp] 45

'Talking Machine Pioneers No.7 Charles Stroh' from Phono Trader and Recorder Sept. 1906 reprinted in The Hillandale News The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society, No.73, June 1973, p.75.

46 Ibid. 47 V. K. Chew, Talking Machines, Science Museum, London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1967 p.55. 48

The Trade Marks Journal No.1676, Wednesday May 11, 1910, p.748 Trademark No.322,242. 49

The Times, September 25 1915, p.3 column a. (Name change registered on 21 September 1915). 50

Stroh's British patent No. 9418, 1899, p.4.




and all having the characteristic Stroh diaphragm. These instruments, according to the advertising, strictly adhered to the dimensions of the instruments

upon which they were modelled.51 The exception was a single stringed, horned

monochord with a diaphragm built into the body of the instrument itself. Instead of a transferred

trademark, it bore a stamped trademark on the external metal plate covering the diaphragm housing. This 'one-string fiddle' was advertised in 1931 as a

' "Stroh" Jap Fiddle'52 (see Figures 9, 10

and 11 in the colour supplement for three views of a Stroh 'Jap' fiddle, by permission of the owner,

John Ferwerda. Photographed by the author) In June 1924 George Evans registered the

Stroviols trademark in Australia,53 a strong indication that the instruments were exported there and possibly also connected with Charles Stroh's earlier years in Australia. The registration gives his full name as 'George John William Evans' and his

occupation as 'Musical Instrument Maker', again,

giving the Albany Street address. Two years later in July 1926,54 he also registered the trademark in America, listing 'Violins, Violas, Violoncellos,

Guitars, Mandolins and Jap Fiddles'. Certainly other companies also exported Stroh instruments.

Stroh instruments were exported from England by John E. Dallas & Sons in the 1920s. 'George Evans & Co. violin makers' was listed for the last time in 1941. Demand for the Stroviols instruments had dwindled to such an extent that the Stroh violin had finally become completely obsolete. There was no listing in 1942, but from 1943 until 1957, the business was listed as 'mechanical engineer', after

which the listing finally disappeared altogether. Stroh violins were used for recording purposes

for only a few years. Columbia started electrical

recording in 1924, Victor in 1925, ahead of Edison discs in 1927. By the early 1920s, recording technology had advanced to the point at which the Stroh violin had moved out of the recording studio and into the music hall. This is strikingly illustrated in a patent registered by a Miss Evelyn Barton 'otherwise known as Eva Evalda' in 1922:

I fit by means of clips, or the like, a number of

electric lamps, to the horn, or any part of a Stroh

violin, or other similar stringed musical instrument,

played with a bow, and intended for use on music

hall stage. I preferably use 6 small electric lamps in parallel, fitted round the edge, of the large end

of the horn. The power for the lamps is preferably

':'''^^M________________E1' 'ii^^Bllll:

Figure 8. Stroviols ukulele. Photo by permission of Frank Ford.

obtained from a battery or accumulator, carried on

the person of the player, & connected by flexible leads.

Rather a contrast to Stroh's Austrian 'orchesterinstrumente' patent! It later became a

popular instrument for Morris dancing, and was

occasionally used by folk fiddlers, such as James Scott Skinner.

ONE-STRINGED FIDDLES WITH HORNS

Within a few years of the invention of the Stroh

violin, another mechanically amplified instrument, a, horned, one-stringed monochord made its

appearance. They were produced by a number of companies, among them, Rose Morris & Co.,

George Evans & Co., (see above) and A.T.Howson & Co. One-stringed fiddles with no amplification had existed, prior to this, both in England and in America. The English instruments were known as

'Japanese fiddles' or 'one stringed fiddles' and date

quite possibly from the 1860s. The music hall artist, George H. Chirgwin, was

51 Mugwumps Vol.5, No.l, 1976. Stroviols Advertisment.

52 Julian Pilling, 'Fiddles with Horns', The Galpin Society Journal, Volume XXVIII, 1975, p.90.

53 Australian Official Journal of Trade Marks Vol.19 No.34, 5 September 1924, p.593. Trademark No.39152. 54

US Trademark, Series No.234,570.




J

Figure 12. Single string fiddle by John Grey, 1909.

an early player of the instrument. According to a notice in the music hall journal, 'The Era\ of 1877, Chirgwin played the violoncello 'like an artiste', and was also proficient on 'guitar, the Japanese violin, the banjo, the violin, the flageolet, and other instruments'. Quite possibly the origins of the Japanese fiddle can be found in the musical instruments used by Japanese variety artists, such as Tannaker's Minstrels, who worked in the music halls from the 1860s until the early years of the twentieth century. Just when the 'Japanese fiddle'

departed from the form of the original Japanese instrument that it was based on, and became an English 'Japanese or one-string fiddle', is an

interesting question. The appearance of the amplified one-string fiddle

around 1906 did not entirely supersede the non

amplified instrument. Joseph Wallis & Son Ltd, was

advertising nine different forms of 'Japanese' fiddle in 1906,55 and they were still being advertised as late as 1931. An American, John Grey, patented an instrument of this type without a horn in England

in 1909, an interesting indication that it was not unknown in America. He claimed that his

single string instrument... [was] a simple and practical instrument... novel and attractive in appearance and

which may be effectively used for entertainment with

a piano or orchestral accompaniment.

Perhaps it was a little ambitious to imagine that it would stand up to an orchestral accompaniment.

The need for greater volume was no doubt the

inspiration behind the instruments of Rose Morris, Evans and Howson.

One-stringed horned fiddles made by George Evans & Co. bore the 'Stroviols' trademark, stamped on the metal diaphragm cover. Rather

longer than a violin, it has a range of two and a half octaves. Evans's American 'Stroviols' trademark registration of 1926 mentions these

specifically as 'Jap Fiddles' and by 1931, they were advertised as 'The "Stroh" Jap Fiddle'.56 These

one-stringed fiddles were different from all the other instruments manufactured by George Evans in that the diaphragm was set into the body of the

55 Joseph Wallis & Son Ltd, Catalogue, 15 September 1906.

56 Page from Rose Morris Catalogue. Julian Pilling, 'Fiddles with Horns' The Galpin Society Journal, Volume

XXVIII, 1975 p.90.



Rabinovici ? Stroh Violin 111

instrument, rather than as an exterior attachment

to the structural framework. A rare two-stringed Stroviols fiddle exists in which the diaphragm is attached externally, as with the four-stringed Stroh violin. The 'Jap' fiddles and phonofiddles generally use a mica diaphragm instead of the profiled aluminium one used in the violins, cellos, guitars and mandolins. A.T.Howson & Co. was the other

important maker of one-string fiddles; many of his instruments were distinguished by a curved stem and a flared bell.

WHO INVENTED THE PHONOFIDDLE?

It is commonly assumed that the Stroviols 'Jap' Fiddle or single-string fiddle was the first amplified horned single-stringed instrument, of its type, and that the Howson 'Phonofiddle' was merely a copy. This was the view of Julian Pilling,57 but not a view readily supported by the facts. It seems that no patents were registered for either 'Jap' Fiddles or Phonofiddles, as such, by either George Evans or A.T.Howson, but Howson registered his trademark 'A.T.Howson Phono Fiddle' in 1906,58 four years before George Evans registered the Stroviols trademark, effectively preventing any other maker from using the term 'Phono Fiddle'. Howson's first employer in London in 1886 was the firm of Joseph Wallis & Son, musical instrument

makers, whose trade catalogue of 1906 advertised Howson's Phono Fiddle, simple model. By 1910 the Wallis catalogue advertised five different models of

'Howson's Patent Phono Fiddle'. The use of a horn resonator was obviously

inspired by the Stroh violin of 1899, but Howson used a diaphragm arrangement that was sufficiently different from the Stroh to avoid accusations of breach of Stroh's patent copyright. The term 'Phonofiddle' has come to be used rather

indiscriminately in reference to both Stroh violins and horned one-stringed instruments. For the sake of clarity I will use the terms as they were used

originally; 'Jap Fiddle' for the Stroviols instrument and 'Phonofiddle' for Howson's instruments.

Augustus Stroh's 1899 patent gave no suggestion of a one-string instrument, although the guitars and mandolins that Evans later produced were

mentioned in the Stroh's specification. George Evans could hardly have introduced the one

stringed Jap Fiddle until after he took over 94 Albany Street in 1909. It is more likely, then, that George Evans picked up Howson's idea of a one-stringed horned fiddle with its smaller

:..? iÂ *

Figure 13. Phonoftddle. By courtesy of the Horniman Museum. Note the copper horn; the Howson

phonoftddle more usually had a brass horn, although the early, cheaper models had aluminium horns.

diaphragm based on a gramophone sound box, an instrument that was clearly being made by

Howson by 1906, and added it to the Stroviols collection of horned instruments. The placement and type of diaphragm made the Jap Fiddle the 'odd one out' of the Stroh instruments. Howson's

Phonofiddles had a distinctive horn, usually with a curved stem and a widely flared bell connecting to the stem by means of a screw thread, rather in the

manner of a French horn. The Stroviols Jap fiddle has a narrower horn, differently tapered from that of the Stroh violin and relating more closely in

appearance to an early phonograph horn.

57 Julian Pilling, 'Fiddles with Horns' The Galpin Society Journal, Volume XXVIII, 1975 p.91.

58 The Trade Marks Journal No. 1504, Wednesday, 23 January 1907. Registered Trademark No.287,991.




ARTHUR THOMAS HOWSON (1866-1928) A.T.Howson was born in Nottingham, the son of Matthew Howson (1833-1906), a Nottingham accordion maker, with whom he worked, making accordions, at least until the age of fourteen. Howson began his employment in London in

1886, aged nineteen, with the large musical instrument making firm of Joseph Wallis & Son.

Howson would have had ample opportunity to

acquire the skills needed to make his extraordinary Phonofiddle horns when working for this firm, who made and sold violins, Japanese fiddles, musical

boxes, banjos, concertinas, clarionets, flutes,

flageolets, harmoniums, pianos, and military musical instruments. By 1890, aged twenty-three, Howson was working independently in Deptford, London as a musical instrument maker. Matthew

Howson (senior) continued to make accordions in

Nottingham until around 1900, after which he worked in London, making and selling concertinas.59 He died in Nottingham in 1906. Matthew Howson

(junior) (1869-1952), brother of A.T.Howson, worked in Middlesbrough in the piano trade, but came to Deptford at some point and worked with A.T.Howson in the business. Matthew eventually opened his own instrument repair business in 1935 after the closure of A.T.Howson & Son.

LAURA ELLEN HOWSON (1861-1917) If the earlier existence of Howson's trademark

registration and the Joseph Wallis Catalogue listing of 1906 does not clearly enough support his claim to invention of the Phonofiddle, a remarkable

publication by Laura Ellen, violin teacher and wife of A.T.Howson, certainly reinforces that claim.

L.E.Howson published a tutor for the phonofiddle in 1910,60 a year later an Album of Melodies for

Phonofiddle, with pianoforte accompaniment, and in 1916, the year before her death, a second edition of the Phonofiddle tutor. The title page of the 1910 tutor indicates that the instrument is 'Howson's Invention' and that 'No Phonofiddle is

genuine without the above Trade Mark', while the second page encourages the reader to 'Beware of

Worthless Imitations'. The tutor comes complete with a notation/fingering chart, which, for

beginners, could be stuck on the fingerboard. It is a

persuasive document, which no doubt was intended to encourage the sale of phonofiddles. It warmly

recommends the

clear tone of wonderful carrying power, which is

mellowed and intensified in richness and volume of

sound by means of the trumpet.

Further,

The Phono-fiddle is a remarkable instance of the

intimate sympathy and relationship which can exist

between a performer and his instrument, and in this

respect it is only rivalled by the human voice. This

makes it specially suitable for solos and obbligatos. Its power in the hands of a good performer to express

musical ideas in melody is inexhaustible, as it is

capable of yielding effects of wondrous beauty.61

The tutor is written with the requirements of the beginner in mind. One of the virtues of the Phonofiddle was its 'extreme simplicity, having only one string, which is reinforced by a trumpet... It is almost as easy to play the Phonofiddle by ear as it is to whistle or hum a tune'. Holding the instrument and bow, position of right hand and arm, rudiments of music, fingering, glissandos and tremolos are all covered. The repertoire was decidedly lightweight, leaning towards sentimental popular tunes and folk songs. It was not to be compared with the full orchestral capabilities of the Stroh violin. There is

certainly something of a feminine touch in Laura Howson's writing. It is 'A graceful instrument for a

lady,' It is 'ungraceful and inconvenient' to hold the

phonofiddle too high. The movement of the arm

'should appear free and graceful' and holding the instrument too far from the body would 'appear ungainly'. One could even avoid annoying others:

The Phono-fiddle has one advantage over many other instruments, that is, by removing the trumpet the student when practicing can play so softly as

not to be in any way an annoyance to those who are

compelled to listen to it.

Only a woman would have written in this way!

Contrary to the view of Julian Pilling, who saw

the single-stringed instrument as lending itself to

slides and glissandi for sentimental affect, Laura Howson's opinion was that 'The close shake, or tremolo ... is very much abused by being used too frequently. It is bad taste to use tremolo upon

nearly every note'. One gets the impression that

despite the advertised recommendation by George H. Chirgwin, music hall artist, Laura Howson was

trying to give this instrument a touch of gentility hoping, perhaps, to elevate it to a place in the

drawing room.

59 Tracy Howard, great granddaughter of A.T.Howson.

60 L. E. Howson, Phonofiddle Tutor. A New Musical Instrument. (Howson's Invention), London 1910;

L.E.Howson, Album of Melodies for Phonofiddle, with pianoforte accompaniment, or for One String Fiddle.

Arranged...by L.E.Howson Composer: L.E.Howson. Publication: London L.E.Howson 1911. L.E.Howson,

Phonofiddle Tutor, etc. London L.E.Howson [1916]. 61

L.E.Howson, Phono Fiddle Tutor, p.2.




HOWSON'S PATENT PHONO FIDDLE. R*fi?t<>rrd No. 423256, ^

Invented and made by A. T. Howson, 314 New Cross Road, S.E. _|L*

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?THE PHONO FIDDLE

HOWSON.

Figure 14. Joseph Wallis & Son - Catalogue, 1910 with photo of George Chirgwin, (The White

eyed Kaffir). Collection of Tony Bingham, London.




Laura Ellen Howson would have been one of a very small number of women who either wrote or published instructional material for a musical instrument in the early part of the twentieth

century. She died aged fifty-six on 30 December

1917, a year after the publication of the second edition of her phonofiddle tutor.

The Stroh Violin and the Howson Phono Fiddle were from two different worlds. Stroh's instrument was in its day, at the leading edge of technological development, and indeed made its first appearance in scientific circles. Howson's Phono Fiddle, on the other hand, had its roots in the musical instrument

making trade. Stroh's instruments were exported to Europe, to America, and to the British Empire. Burma, even today is still producing copies of the Stroh violin for sale in the west. Of the few

contemporary articles about the instrument, one,

entitled 'A.T. Howson Father of the Phonofiddle' was published in The Hippodrome,62 a music hall journal. Augustus Stroh and A.T.Howson were responding to the needs of two quite different markets. Howson supplied the music hall entertainers with 'curiosity' instruments that were used effectively in comedy routines and, more

importantly, provided much needed amplification in large and crowded music halls. The Stroh

instruments, at least initially, were built for use in the early recording sessions. They necessarily required trained musicians to play them while

performance on the single stringed phonofiddle was much more within the reach of the musician who lacked formal or extensive classical training.

GEORGE CHIRGWIN AND THE PHONO FIDDLE

The early success of Howson's Phonofiddle was due in no uncertain terms to the great music-hall artist,

GeorgeH. Chirgwin, (1854-1922) 'The White-Eyed Musical Kaffir' (see Figure 14). Probably the first music hall artist to play the Howson Phonofiddle, he was one of a handful of entertainers who

played the little-known 'Japanese Fiddle', the non

amplified originator of the Phonofiddle. Chirgwin was on the music hall stage for well over fifty years, from the age of six, until some years after he celebrated his jubilee in May 1911. On stage, his

appearance was unique; a 'burnt cork' artist with

an individual twist, a diamond shaped white patch

over one eye, an enormously tall hat, emphasizing the extreme thinness of his youthful days, and

always dressed in black and white. In this way, he made the reference to his minstrel origins, while

maintaining a style that was, to use the language of the day, 'grotesque' and certainly individual. Apart from his musical talents, he was an exceptional dancer, and could and did sing at times with an

extraordinarily powerful falsetto voice. A talented

musician, his skills were acquired early in his career

when performing with the minstrel troupes. In his

fifty years on the stage, he appears to have had no

equal as an instrumentalist. He played cello, violin, the bagpipes, the banjo, flageolet, and the Japanese fiddle, the latter mentioned in reviews as early as

1877. It was with this instrument that he became famous for the sentimental song 'My Fiddle is

My Sweetheart.' It is extraordinary to think that with this small instrument, Chirgwin produced a

sound that could be heard in music halls that often had the capacity to accommodate two or three thousand people. Not only that; audiences were

often noisy, with drinking and smoking allowed in the auditorium.

Chirgwin, who played '

"The Minstrel Boy" on the Japanese fiddle in a manner that should obtain him the appointment of chief fiddler to the

Mikado',63 was one of the most famous music hall artists at the time Howson invented his phonofiddle, which was on the market by 1906. For Chirgwin to take up Howson's instrument virtually ensured its success and must have been warmly welcomed

by Chirgwin and other players of the Japanese fiddle, both for the novelty of its appearance, but

primarily for the significant increase in volume.

Indeed, his enthusiasm for the instrument was

obvious, judging from his endorsement of the instrument advertised in L.E.Howson's Phonofiddle

tutor: 'Dear Mr. Howson, I must say that the last Phono-fiddle you made for me is the finest one

stringed instrument I have ever played on; it far

surpasses anything in that line'. The phonofiddle was Chirgwin's instrument of choice64 for his

appearance at the Royal Command performance for the King and Queen, which took place at

the Palace Theatre, 1 July 1912.65 Chirgwin was

followed by a number of other entertainers who also played the phonofiddle, but it is possible that the phonofiddle heralded the end, finally, of the

62 'A.T.Howson Father of the Phonofiddle', The Hippodrome, 1911.

63 The Era April 28, 1888, p.15 64

L.E.Howson, Phonofiddle Tutor, 1916, reprint of article from 'Keynotes', 1913 entitled 'The Phonofiddle and

its Inventor'. 65 A.Dent, 'At the Music Hall The Good Old Days of the Famous Halls', The Strand Magazine, Vol. 117, No. 705,

September 1949.




Japanese, or one-stringed fiddle.66 Perhaps the last of the variety entertainers to play a Howson

phonofiddle was Rupert Alexander Hazell. (See later entry).

Figure 15. Phono Fiddle (Ukulele Model) O.S.Hocuson. Reproduced by kind permission

from the collection of Roger Lewis, Melbourne.

A.T. HOWSON & CO.

As noted above, after starting his working life in London in the firm of Joseph Wallis & Son, Howson set up his own business as a musical instrument

maker in Deptford in 1890, a business that lasted until 1934. He occupied a remarkable number of business premises in and around Deptford over the years, listed either as 'Arthur Thos. Howson'

or 'A.T. Howson & Co.'. Howson's specialty, the

Phonofiddle, was of relatively simple construction; the 'stick' was sufficiently narrow to be cut from a

single piece of wood while the diaphragm, which was set into this stick, was easier and cheaper to

produce than that of the Stroh violin. The tuning was different, also, from the Stroviols 'Jap' fiddle, which is generally tuned to D, while the Howson

phonofiddle was a C instrument.67 The phonofiddle was a 'popular' instrument, easy to play and an

ideal instrument, as we have seen, for the music hall. The establishment of Howson's business in

Deptford in 1890 coincided with the great era of the British music hall and his various locations in and around South East London were ideally situated to

service, repair and provide musical instruments for entertainers and musicians working in the many

music halls in South East London. Similarly, his

pianoforte dealership in King Street Hammersmith was also close to the Hammersmith Palace of Varieties.

By 1910, Howson was making five different models of the one-stringed Phonofiddle.68 Scrolls were differently shaped; on some models the

fingerboards were fretted, while others had pearl positions, size and quality of the sound boxes differed and the lower segment of the horn was either curved or straight. Horns were of different diameters and those of the better quality models were of brass; others were of aluminium, and in the case of the Horniman Museum Phonofiddle, of copper. The single-stringed 'Grand Concert'

models, as played by Chirgwin, had a compass of over three octaves.69

Howson also produced two phonofiddles which are now very rare, a two-stringed and a

four-stringed phonofiddle.70 George Evans & Co. also made a two-stringed instrument,71 perhaps better described as a two-stringed cello than as a two-stringed 'Jap' fiddle, as the diaphragm is

externally placed, in exactly the same manner as the Stroh violin and the Stroviols cello, rather than the interior arrangement common to both the Stroviols 'Jap' fiddle and Howson's Phonofiddle. It is interesting to speculate here just where the two

stringed instruments fitted in the chronology of Stroviols and Howson manufacture.

66 The news archive of British Pathe can be found at www.britishpathe.com Williams 6c Bennett (Quiet Please)

Film ID is 1572.32. 67

L.E. Howson, 'Phonofiddle Tutor' 'It resembles the concert flute in many respects, the lowest note being the same pitch on both instruments'.

68 Joseph Wallis & Sons Catalogue 1910 'Howson's Patent Phonofiddle' p.265.

69 L.E. Howson, Phono-Fiddle Tutor, London 1910.

70 Confirmed by Tracy Howard, great granddaughter of A.T.Howson.

71 Mugwumps Vol. 5, No. 1, July-August 1976. Front cover illustration.




A book about banjos may seem an unlikely place to find a phonofiddle, but Akira Tsumura's Banjos: the Tsumura Collection72 includes an illustration of what is most probably a 4-stringed, fretted, Howson phonofiddle. It is labelled 'Phono Fiddle

(Ukulele Model) O. S. Hocuson' (see Figure 15), probably a mis-reading of Howson's trademark

signature, 'A.T. Howson'. L.E.Howson referred to

fretted phonofiddles in her Tutor: 'They are made with or without frets. It is no more necessary to fret a Phonofiddle than to fret a violin or 'cello, but the fretting makes the Phonofiddle much easier to learn.'

The four-stringed 'ukulele model' has the same

widely flared bell of the one-stringed Howson Phonofiddle and like the other Howson instruments; the bell is attached to the stem with a wing nut. Both the Tsumura instrument and the two-stringed phonofiddle have the same heart-shaped wooden

backing plate/knee grip attaching to an equally distinctive footplate. Both also appear to be fretted, hence the term 'Ukulele Model' in the Tsumura text. Howson's single-stringed phonofiddle, on the other hand does not have frets, the nature of the instrument requiring too much sliding for frets to

be practical. Unlike the Stroviols ukulele, which is played in a horizontal position, the Howson 'Ukulele Model' phonofiddle is positioned vertically and played with a bow in exactly the same manner as the other Howson instruments. One final point of comparison is the scroll. Both the two-stringed and the four-stringed instrument have a slightly angled scroll, finishing with a cube shaped end. Both also have guitar-type machine head tuning pegs. Is the Tsumura Phono Fiddle, then, perhaps the only surviving illustration of a Howson four

stringed ukulele model phonofiddle?

THE ELECTRIC PHONOFIDDLE

On 14 May 1913, Howson registered a patent for an electrically amplified phonofiddle (see Figure 16), thus making a fascinating contribution to the history of amplified stringed instruments. It was for 'Improvements in or connected with

Phonofiddles, Violins and other Stringed Musical Instruments'.

My invention relates to the electrical transmission

of the sound of a stringed musical instrument to a

horn or sounding device...the invention being mainly intended for use in connection with the musical

instrument known as the phonofiddle, but being also

applicable to other stringed instruments.73

Howson advocated a peculiar arrangement

whereby a microphone transmitter diaphragm is placed next to the mechanically activated

diaphragm, which connects to the string bridge. The two diaphragms are connected with a spiral spring, which transfers the vibrations from the

bridge diaphragm to the transmitter diaphragm. The vibrations from the microphone diaphragm would be transmitted electrically in the same

manner, as would be the case in a telephone of the day. The sound quality would necessarily have been poor, due to there being too many mechanical connections between the bridge and the microphone diaphragm. In particular, the spring connection between the two diaphragms would not transmit a true vibration - there would be a lag and residual vibrations would lead to a very poor quality in vibration transmission.74

Howson's electrically amplified phonofiddle, although ultimately not successful, would have been one of the earliest examples of an electrically amplified stringed instrument. There had been

many earlier instances of electrical activation of musical instruments, but most were novelties such as Edison's talking doll, for instance, or the automata -

self-playing musical instruments that

would have been activated by a coin in the slot and were to be found at fairs and seaside resorts. There were many such self-playing musical instruments

patented around 1910, particularly in Germany. Howson's patent has detailed illustrations of the

diaphragm or reproducer, which afford interesting comparisons with the Stroh violin patent diaphragm drawings. The two diaphragms are

quite different. This was Howson's own adaptation of a gramophone reproducer for use in a musical instrument. Perhaps George Evans had been able to use a similar diaphragm in his own 'Jap' Fiddle because Howson had never registered a patent for his own Phonofiddle.

By 1925, Howson had added the word

'phonofiddle' to his entry in the Post Office London

Directory. The company had become A.T.Howson & Son, by 1927. Following Howson's death in November 1928, the company passed into the hands of his son, Thomas Moss Howson (1899 1983), musical instrument manufacturer. By 1930,

A.T.Howson & Son were listed as 'Inventors and sole manufacturers of "The Phonofiddle"' as well as

being 'musical instrument manufacturers & dealers

72 A. Tsumura, Banjos: The Tsumura Collection Harper & Row, NY 1984, p.87.

73 Specifications of Inventions, Vol. CXXXI - No. 26,143

- A.D. 1913. 74

I am grateful to Peter Lourey for clarifying the content of this patent and for his comments regarding its

feasibility.




Mffl Fu/2 . b

' h

LH!|h_T__J r r\ p

Figure 16. A.T.Howson, Patent No. 26143, 1913

for electrical amplification of stringed instruments.

& gramophone & wireless supplies dealers...'75 The association of musical instruments and gramophone

parts was not uncommon at the time, and was an

early instance of the later common association of

the sale of musical instruments in the same store as

electrical equipment. Other companies making and

selling both musical instruments and gramophone parts included Rose Morris & Co., the Gramophone Co. Ltd., and the English Violin Manufacturing Co. The last and final listing for 'A.T. Howson & Son' was in 1934, six years after A.T.Howson's death.

Thomas Moss Howson retired to Eastbourne and died there in 1983, at the age of 84.

Arthur Howson worked in the Deptford/ Lewisham area, making, selling, inventing and

repairing musical instruments. The business itself survived for forty-four years, from 1890 until 1934 and would have formed a unique part of local commercial enterprise. Howson died in Forest Hill, South London not far from where he had worked all his life. Arthur Howson's brother, Matthew

(1869-1952) after working for A.T.Howson & Son, opened his own business as a musical instrument

repairer in Lewisham, in 1935. The closure of his

repair business in 1944 marked the end of over fifty years of three generations of Howson involvement with musical instruments in South London.

THE CELLO CORDO - AN AUSTRALIAN HORNED FIDDLE

A strong Howson influence can be seen in the

four-stringed look-alike 'ukulele model Phono Fiddle' found quite by chance in a second hand musical instrument shop in Melbourne.76 It has a transferred decal with the following text: 'Cello Cordo Rupert Hazell Patent applied for'. Cut from a single piece of timber, it is 66cm in length. The 'Cello Cordo' has six pegs, but only four strings. It has a flat, fretted fingerboard and a flat metal

bridge connected to a nickel-plated sound box or

reproducer, which in turn is attached to a fixed metal three-part horn. The horn is nickel silver with a crudely attached bell of aluminium. It also has what appears to be a bow guide and is

played in the same manner as a one-string fiddle or a Phonofiddle. The three patents registered for this instrument proved to be an excellent source of information about the maker, Rupert Alexander

Hazell, and the instrument itself. (Figures 19, 20 and 21 showing general views of the Cello Cordo will be found in the colour supplement.)

RUPERT ALEXANDER HAZELL (1886 - 1958)

Rupert Hazell was born into a working class

family in East Ham, London in 1886. By the age of fourteen he was working as a clerk at the Royal Naval Stores. By the nineteen twenties, Hazell had left his position there and was on the stage. With his

wife, Elsie Day, he became one of the many British music hall entertainers who also appeared on the Australian vaudeville circuit. By the 1930s, Hazell had returned to London, where his comedy routines for the BBC included the telling of humorous tales about life in the Australian bush. Remarkably, archival film footage survives showing Hazell

playing a Howson phonofiddle.77 Rupert Hazell died in Hampstead on 18 April 1958. His career had coincided with the dying years of the music

hall; he started as a vaudeville artist and by the end of his working life he was a B.B.C. radio star.78

Hazell's first patent,79 for a 'Musical instrument of the stringed type' was registered in Australia

75 Post Office London (1930), 317 New Cross Road, London SE4. 76

Instrument from the collection of Roger Lewis, Melbourne. 77

Film Archive of British Pathe can be found at: www.britishpathe.com 78

Obituary in The Times, Monday April 21 1958, p.10. 79

Commonwealth of Australia, Specifications of Inventions 1925 Vol. 422 Patent no. 26,067/25 (1925).




-mix j. m M^t <3F

.(?222229 jz?->rnev>raf

Figure 17. Hazell's American patent (US Patent

No. 1625538, 1927) for the Cello Cordo. The drawing is identical to the Australian patent drawing.

in 1925. An identical patent was registered in America in April 1927. The drawings for both

patents are the same (see Figure 17). The Australian

specification gives Hazell's address and profession as 'Tivoli Theatre, Bourke Street, Melbourne, in the State of Victoria, Commonwealth of Australia,

Musical Entertainer'. Twenty years after George Chirgwin first played a Howson Phono Fiddle, we find Rupert Hazell, also a variety artist, not only playing the same instrument, but also patenting his own version. The shop in which the Cello Cordo was found is just a few hundred yards from the Tivoli Theatre where Hazell performed.

The Cello Cordo has much in common with Howson's instruments, particularly the four

stringed 'ukulele model' Phono Fiddle. The

fingerboard with seventeen frets, knee grips, detachable horn and widely flared horn bell and a bridge connecting to the stylus are all features common to both Hazell and Howson instruments. Howson also made phonofiddles with straight stemmed horns resembling the Cello Cordo horn. The main point of difference is Hazell's 'straight edged bridge [which] enables all strings being

\ / F*0.1.

Figure 18. Hazell's British patent (British Patent No. 276416, 1927) for the Cello Cordo.

bowed simultaneously, thereby obtaining chords...' Hazell also suggests that the bridge could assume 'an opposite angular inclination' or 'a very slight curve' for an easier combination of chords and solo lines. The provision of a detachable bowing guide is also peculiar to this instrument, to be removed 'when one becomes skilled in the manipulation of the instrument...'.80 In keeping with the sentiments

of Howson's Phonofiddle Tutor, the Cello Cordo

'may be handled successfully by one who is quite unskilled in the usage of stringed instruments and in a remarkably short space of time play tunes

wholly in chords, or in part...'.

In almost every aspect, the Cello Cordo is closely related to Arthur Howson's phonofiddles. Hazell has not, however, made reference to 'Jap' fiddles, one-string fiddles or used the term 'phonofiddle' at

any point in the Australian or American patents. In 1927 Rupert Hazell registered his third patent

for 'Improvements in Stringed Musical Instruments' in England. Again, the terms 'Cello Cordo' and

'phonofiddle' do not appear. The drawings bear a much closer resemblance to the instrument itself than the slightly earlier Australian and American

patents. By now, Hazell was in Sydney, still

performing on the Tivoli Theatre circuit, and has this to add to his earlier patents:

80 Australian Patent no. 26,067/25 Column 2.




Figure 22. Rupert Hazell. Photograph from British Pathe.

This invention... in which a sound amplifier horn

or other amplifying device is employed for emitting the sound... Instruments of this type are now known

under the name of ukulele'.81

Although I have found no record of Howson

using the term 'ukulele', this does help to make the connection with the 'O. S. Hocuson Phono Fiddle

(Ukulele model)' illustrated in Tsumura's Banjos: The Tsumura Collection. A peculiarity of the Cello Cordo is that it had the possibility of six strings, having six tuners, but it was set up with only four

strings. The British patent refers to six strings, while

allowing that 'In its simplest form the instrument has four strings attached...' it was suggested that

new effects could be obtained 'by playing upon three, four or more strings simultaneously.'82 The combination of six strings and a flat bridge would probably have been unplayable, so it is not

surprising that the Cello Cordo does not appear to have ever been set up with six strings. The rest of this patent is essentially the same as the Australian and American ones, with a more detailed account of the arrangement of the diaphragm.83 Again, the

possibility of an angled bridge is explored in detail.

For example an instrument may be constructed

having only four strings all in one plane, or

the bridge may be of inverted V-shape so that

three of the strings are in one plane and the

other three in a plane inclined at an angle to

l the first. It is then possible to play on either

set of three strings in harmony or to play solos on the outermost strings or the strings nearest the middle simultaneously.

Rupert Hazell's invention was so similar to the instruments made by

A.T.Howson twenty years earlier that it

was essentially a copy, with particular reference to Howson's four-stringed 'Ukulele model' phonofiddle. Hazell, did, however, completely avoid using the word 'Phonofiddle', a term 'Coined and

registered by A. T. Howson'.84 The new features of Hazell's instrument, the flat

bridge and the bow guide, rather than

constituting an improvement, would

only have served to make the instrument less playable. Rupert Hazell's Cello

Cordo, while at first appearing to have been altered at some time, as it has four

strings but six tuning pegs, is probably, in this respect at least, exactly as it was

at the time of manufacture.

What is unique about the Cello Cordo is not so much its intrinsic value as a musical instrument, but the way in which the patents clarify the intentions of both its inventor and his model,

A.T.Howson. The similarity, indeed, the derivative

aspects of the patents give indirectly a wider view of Arthur Howson's own phonofiddle, and the

extraordinary relationship to Howson's much

lesser known instruments, the two-stringed and the four-stringed phonofiddles. It also highlights

Howson's importance in the world of music hall. That Hazell was familiar with Laura Howson's

phonofiddle tutor is clear from the way in which he highlights the value of the instrument to

beginners. The connection of phonofiddles with music hall and variety entertainment is again made

extraordinarily immediate. Rupert Hazell must stand alone in being the only practicing 'musical entertainer' to write in such detail about 'a new musical instrument', one that obviously held an

important place in his professional life. The phonofiddle, invented around the turn of the

81 Provisional specification, p. 1, lines 6-10.

82 British patent GB 276416, page 2, lines 69-84. 83

'...since the diaphragm is exposed at its inner face to the hollow interior of the instrument, vibrations may be

imparted not only by the direct connection to the bridge but also by the body of the instrument itself and the sound vibrations resulting there-from in the hollow body.'

84 Back cover, Howson's Phonofiddle Tutor, 1916 edition.




century, had a brief but interesting life in the world of music hall and vaudeville. Despite its relatively recent invention, the story of this instrument had

slipped out of view leaving little trace. Hazell's instrument and his patents have helped to bring to life again this intriguing instrument and its

history.

THE TIEBEL VIOLIN

Many patents for horned string instruments were

registered in the first half of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately very few extant examples of these instruments survive today. One such survivor is

an instrument patented by Claudet & Co.,85 in both Switzerland and France, and the other, of which several examples survive both in Europe and Australia, is the instrument patented by Willy Tiebel in October 1928 in Markneukirchen, a centre of musical instrument production in Saxony, east Germany.

The Tiebel was a close copy of the Stroh violin, somewhat lighter in weight, characterized by a

rectangular post, rather than the distinctive round

post of the Stroh violin, with a horn of spun aluminum. There are some significant differences in the way the oscillations from the bridge are

transferred to the diaphragm. The bridge sits on a heart-shaped aluminium 'ring', which completely surrounds the post. It is connected to the

diaphragm by a metal pin, in a similar fashion to the Stroh violin connection. The Stroh violin has just one curved lever

connecting the bridge to the diaphragm, rx___,

and the design is ingenious in the manner nr^~r in which oscillations are transferred, *r?~"

allowing great freedom of movement with A

very little direct pressure transferred to the \\

diaphragm.86 The diaphragms of both the Stroh and the Tiebel violin are of a similar size and shape. The Tiebel uses the same

knife-edge rocking lever system as the

early Stroh violins, and although the violin

playing parts are well made, the diaphragm casing is not well designed and it therefore lacks the volume of the Stroh violin. Tiebel

made some instruments with an additional monitor horn attached directly to the base of the main horn. The better quality

Stroh violins have a monitor horn mounted on the

diaphragm casing, which can be rotated to direct the sound to the player's ear.

Willy Tiebel would have been familiar with the Stroh instruments used for orchestral recording in the early part of the century in Germany and the Stroh patents, registered in Austria and in Germany in 1900. His design was sufficiently different to enable him to register his own patent. (Figures 24 and 25 in the colour supplement show two views of the Tiebel instrument.)

THE VIOARA CU GOARNA87

The Romanian musicologist, Tiberiu Alexandru,

writing in 1980, had this to say about the vioara cu goarna:

During the inter-war period a curious kind of violin

began to spread in the country, with a metal horn, or even two, instead of a sound box, with its bridge

supported on a mica membrane...Originally it was a

factory-made instrument (the 'Tiebel-Radio system

violin') like the Stroh violin in England and America which the lautari [village musicians] call vioara cu

goarna, or vioara cu corn, or lauta cu telcer (bugle

fiddle, horn fiddle). By 1980, villagers were making the instrument for themselves.88

The vioara cu goarna is still played today in the Bihor county of Transylvania, a region of Romania.

Transylvania is an ethnically diverse region with

Figure 23. TiebeVs German patent, 1928.

85 See Appendix for patent.

86 See figure 9 of the drawings from the Patent No. 9418, GB, 1899. 87

Museum of the Romanian Peasant http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Instruments/Anglais/mpr_c_

txt04_en.html The Ethnographical Museum (Neprajzi Muzeum), Budapest, also has a vioara cu goarna in their

collection but do not regard it as a Hungarian folk instrument. 88

Tiberiu Alexandru, Romanian Folk Music (translated by Constantin Stihi-Boos, translation revised by A.L. Lloyd), Musical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1980, p.105.



Rabinovici?Stroh Violin 121

both Romanian and Hungarian populations but it is the Romanians who firmly claim this instrument as their own. The instrument is also known in

Hungarian as 'Higheghe' or 'Tolcseres Hegedu\ The repertoire of the vioara cu goarna is part of the

ethno-musicological treasure of the region. Played both by gypsy fiddlers and by the perhaps more

formally trained musicians from the small towns, such as the Rada family, many older Romanians have memories of hearing the vioara cu goarna

played around railway stations and public places. (Figures 26 and 27 in the colour supplement show two views of the Transylvanian fiddle, vioara cu

goarna.) The vioara cu goarna is rather lighter and

smaller than the Stroh violin, with a smaller

diaphragm and a correspondingly narrower horn. Less sturdily attached to the diaphragm, the horn is supported by a cross-arm connecting with the

body just below the neck. The diaphragm itself is set into the wooden body of the instrument. The

bridge of the vioara cu goarna has one foot on a

metal pin attached to the belly, and the other foot sits on a rather larger metal pin, which connects

directly with the reproducer, or diaphragm. It is, of course, easier to make and less fragile than a

conventional violin, and as one would expect of a

cottage industry, it can be found in several different

forms, one of the more unusual being that made by Dumitru Vranceanu, a peasant musician from the

Bihor region. His instrument does not entirely lack a body, but has the lower bouts of nickel tin, made from his own moulds and soldered together.89

This journey began with the intention of

investigating the emergence of the vioara cu goarna in Transylvania, and perhaps of finding closer and

more detailed connections with its ancestor, the Stroh violin. The search led to other unexpected and

fascinating discoveries, but just how the idea of the horned fiddle reached Transylvania still remains a

subject for further investigation. One could assume that Stroh violins were available in the cities of Central and Eastern Europe and, somehow, the idea of a horned, mechanically amplified fiddle90 filtered through to a remote corner of the former

Austro-Hungarian Empire. What can be added to that is to note the further connection with the 'Jap'

fiddle and the phonofiddle. All three instruments have a gramophone-like sound box, set into the

body of the instrument, making it likely that these instruments all came from the same source. It

may well have been the export of George Evans' Stroviols instruments, 'Jap' Fiddles included, that led to the appearance of the vioara cu goarna. Its continued use in Transylvania was a consequence

of a way a life in villages that changed little over

the years and where traditional musical structures remained an integral part of village tradition and

identity. It provided a simple means of amplification for the fiddle, a traditional folk instrument and one with a long-standing repertoire. The 'laurtari' or village musicians were often virtuosic

players who would not have found a use for the

single-string phonofiddle, with its technical and musical limitations. The adoption of phonofiddle amplification served its purpose.

The Stroh violin made a remarkable and

fascinating journey. Starting life as a musical instrument at the cutting edge of Victorian

technology, it was peculiarly representative of some of the more imaginative and strange inventions of the Victorian age. After a brief 'golden age' it was soon made obsolete by new developments in recording technology, yet it also found a new

validity and vitality in the music halls of London,

strikingly illustrated in Evelyn Barton's patent for the Stroh violin 'intended for use in the music hall'.

Howson's phonofiddle, a more peculiar offshoot of the Stroh, was primarily an instrument for the

working classes and the music hall. As a 'radio'

instrument, the Stroh violin appeared in Switzerland in the form of Claudet & Co.'s 'violiphone' and in

Germany as an invention of Willy Tiebel. Finally it maintains a continued musical validity today in the form of the 'vioara cu guarna', Romania's own

folk 'horned fiddle', an instrument that is part of an unbroken tradition in Transylvania from the time of its introduction. The Stroh violin itself continues to be used in folk music, both in Australia, the United States and Europe.91 In an age of digital and electronic music, the peculiar mechanical and tonal

characteristics of the Stroh violin are coming to life

again in the field of experimental composition and

contemporary composition and performance.92

89 'Mastile si viorile lui Mos Tach fac inconjurul lumii' in Curentul, New Series, No. 305 91276), 29 December, 2001.

90 I came across a (fairly unlikely) suggestion that the instrument was first played by a folk ensemble from

Chechnya in 1953 as a normal violin with a gramophone attached and that the addition of a horn and the

modification of the body was the idea of a Romanian from Oradea (Capital of Bihor). 91 Marcus Holden (Australia), Piotr Sapejta (France), Marcel Stefanet, Moldova.

92 Hugh S. Davies (England), Jon Rose (Australia, Germany), Aleksander Kolkowski (England, Germany),

TomWaites(USA).




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My sincere thanks go to Paul Davies for the loan of the Tiebel violin, John Ferwerda for the loan of the Stroviols 'Jap' fiddle, Roger Lewis, owner of the Cello Cordo and my brother, Andrew

Bottomley, who, when looking for a Stroh violin, found the Cello Cordo instead. Thank you also to Tony Bingham for the catalogue images. I am most grateful to Dr. Robert Horvarth of the

University of Melbourne and Morfydd Campbell, who both read preliminary drafts of this paper and made valuable suggestions. To my husband, Dan, I am ever grateful for introducing me to the

mysteries and delights of on-line databases. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Cary Clements who shared with such generosity his own research materials. To Aleksander Kolkowski, I owe an

equally large debt of gratitude for a critical reading of the text, for many valuable suggestions, and for clarification of much technical detail. Aleks's

knowledge of instruments, which I have not, at

the time of writing, had the opportunity to study first hand, was invaluable, as was time spent in

the British Library on my behalf. Thanks are due also to Dr E. Bradley Strauchen, Deputy Keeper of

Musical Instruments at the Horniman Museum, and Tracy Howard, great granddaughter of A.T. and L.E.Howson

APPENDIX A

Augustus Stroh's published papers:

William H. Preece and Augustus Stroh, 'Studies in Acoustics. I. On the Synthetic Examination of

Vowel Sounds' Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol.28, (1878-1879), 27 February 1879,

pp.358-367.

Augustus Stroh, 'On the Adhesion of Metals Produced by Currents of Electricity', Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, Vol.IX, 1880,

pp.182-191.

Augustus Stroh, 'On Attraction and Repulsion Due to Sonorous Vibrations, and a Comparison of the Phenomena with Those of Magnetism' Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, Vol.??, 27 April 1882,pp.l92-228.

Augustus Stroh, 'On a New Form of Stereoscope', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol.40, 1 April, 1886, pp.317-319.

APPENDIX B

Horned String Instruments - Measurements

Stroviols one-stringed 'Jap' fiddle:

Length: 875mm

Depth: 100mm

Width: 110mm

Fingerboard width: 22mm

Fingerboard length: 545mm

Sounding length of String: 630mm

Diameter of horn: 185mm

The Horniman Museum Howson Phonofiddle

(This instrument appears to be Model 1 in the

Rose, Morris & Co. Ltd. Catalogue, 1931, in

Julian Pilling, 'Fiddles with Horns', with the

exception of the horn, which is copper, rather

than brass.) Overall measurements at largest points:

Length: 820mm

Depth: 150mm

Width: 390mm

Sounding length of string: 750mm


Howson two-stringed Phonofiddle

Length: 685mm

Depth: body 10mm

Width: knee grip 10mm


Sounding length of string: 445mm

R. A. Hazell Cello Cordo

Total length: 660mm

Fingerboard length: 330mm



For APPENDIX C see next page




APPENDIX C

Patents - all patents with the exception of those marked * can be found on the European Patents Office

website at [email protected]

Column A is the date of application, and column B the date of acceptance.

A B NUMBER_PATENT_

1869 * GB 3028 J.M.A. Stroh -

'Improvements on Electro-Magnetic Clocks, Part of which

Improvements are Applicable to Mechanical Clocks'.

1870 GB 2897 C. Wheatstone and J.M.A. Stroh - 'Improvements in Fast Speed Electro

Magnetic Telegraphs, and in Apparatus Relating Thereto'.

1871 GB 2172 C. Wheatstone and J.M.A. Stroh - 'Improvements in Electro-Magnetic

Telegraph Apparatus'. (Provisional Specification only)

1872 * GB 39 C. Wheatstone with J.M.A. Stroh -

'Improvements in Musical instruments in

which Vibrating Tongues acted upon by Air are Employed'.

1872 1872 * GB 473 C. Wheatstone, J.M.A. Stroh -

'Improvements in Electro-Magnetic Telegraphs and in Apparatus connected therewith...'.

1877 1877 * GB 4133 J.M.A. Stroh - 'Regulating the Speed of Clockwork for Telegraphic and other

Purposes'.

1896 1897 GB 17103 Edison Bell Phonograph Corporation Limited, and Augustus Stroh -

'Improvements in or applicable to Phonographs'.

1899 1900 GB 9418 J.M.A. Stroh - 'Improvements in Violins and other Stringed Instruments'.

1899 1900 US 644695 J.M.A. Stroh - 'Violin or other Stringed Instrument'._ 1900 1901 AT 3436 J.M.A. Stroh - 'Saiteninstrument mit Schalltrichter zur Verstarkung der Tone'.

1900 1900 * DE J.M.A. Stroh - 'Saiteninstrument'.

1125481405

1901 1901 GB 3393 Stroh - 'Improvement in the Diaphragms of Phonographs, Musical Instruments, and analogous Sound-producing Recording or Transmitting Contrivances'.

1909 1909 GB 7961 J.M. Gray -

'Improvements relating to Violins or similar Stringed Musical

Instruments'.

1913 1914 GB 26143 A.T. Howson - 'Improvements in or Connected with Phonofiddles, Violins and

other Stringed Musical Instruments'.

1913 1913 GB 2565 L.E. Howson - 'Improvements in Knife-boards'.

1915 1915 GB 422 W. Thompson and A.T. Howson - 'Improvements in Means for Opening

Envelopes', (provisional specification)

1921 1922 GB 189321 Evelyn Barton - 'Improvement relating to Stringed Musical Instruments'.

(provisional specification) 1925

* AUSTRALIA R.A. Hazell - 'Musical Instrument of the Stringed Type'.

_26,067/25_ 1926 1927 US 1625538 R.A. Hazell - 'Musical Instrument of the Stringed Type'. 1926 1927 GB 276416 R.A. Hazell -

'Improvements in Stringed Musical Instruments'.

1925 1928 DE 467709 Willy Tiebel in Markneukirchen, Sa. - 'Saiteninstrument'.

1926 1927 CH 118019 Claudet 6c Co. Vufflens-laVille (Schweiz) -

'Streichinstrument'._ 1926 1927 FR 617080 Claudet & Co. - 'Instrument a cordes'. (violiphone) 1927 1928 GB 294806 J. Dopyera

- 'Improvements in Stringed Musical Instruments'.

1927 1930 DE 507102 J. Dopyera -

'Saiteninstrument'._




Augustus Stroh's Phonographic Violin -

Alison Rabinovici

il!___K y' _____i

Figure 7. A Stroh violin fitted with both large horn and small horn.

Photograph ? Aleksander Kolkowski.



Colour Supplement 221


Alison Rabinovici

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Colour Supplement 223


Alison Rabinovici

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Figures 24 and 25. Two views of the Tiebel instrument. From the collection of Paul Davies, Castlemaine. Photo by kind permission.





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Figures 26 and 27. Two views of the 'vioara cu goarna* or horned fiddle. Instrument from the collection of Cary Clements. Photo by Gary Clements.



Documents

Augustus Stroh's Phonographic Violin