Thaddeus Cahill: The Start of the Electronic Music Era
Written in 2018-19 by Wesley Patterson, Bonner Scholar at Oberlin College and Volunteer Researcher and Docent at Oberlin Heritage Center.
Oberlin, since its creation in 1833, has been the catalyst for many important figures throughout the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. One of note is Thaddeus Cahill, born in Mount Zion, Iowa on June 18th, 1867.[1] Raised in Oberlin, he invented a musical instrument called the “Telharmonium,” for which he has multiple patents. Ultimately, his invention was not a commercial success, due to complications with practicality of use. After this disappointment, he found success in a company he operated with his brothers producing lights.[2] By utilizing his upbringing in Oberlin and the support of his family, Cahill is remembered today as an innovator in the technological, business, and political worlds. During his early life, Cahill showed academic promise and dedication to his education. He and his sister Mary were homeschooled by their father, Dr. Timothy Cahill, a
Fig. 1: Thaddeus Cahill.
(McClare’s Magazine, July 1906)
Harvard graduate, who believed the usual forms of education were too simple for the brilliant minds he created. He referred to them as primarily “Golden Children” during their youth.[3] This led to overwhelming support for young Thaddeus’s creative and independent nature. His precocious drive is exemplified by the fact that he served as the official stenographer for the court at only the age of fourteen.[4] Cahill also graduated top of his class at Oberlin High School after attending from 1883-84.[5] Later, he attended Oberlin Academy, a preparatory academy for the college, and studied physics and music.[6] Even though he left the school after one year to pursue law and inventing, Cahill gained the knowledge and Oberlin mentality to follow his passions. This mentality is portrayed in his decision to leave school. Understanding the needs of oneself takes a certain level of insightfulness which Oberlin inspires people to reach, through
following one’s true passion. This understanding, along with Cahill’s overall behavior during his youth, conveyed promise. Thaddeus’s family was supportive of his academic and creative pursuits. All of his siblings, except his brother Arthur, attended Oberlin College.[7] Thaddeus was not the only one of his siblings to have a creative mind. Arthur mainly aided Thaddeus with the development of the Telharmonium and the electric typewriter, and even was credited with a progression of the motion picture projection and two patents related to keyboards. Cahill’s other brother, George, invented a
Fig. 2: Excerpt from Thaddeus Cahill Biography in Electrical World. (McGraw-Hill. Electrical World “Dr. Thaddeus Cahill.” (books.google.com))
glareless duplex floodlight projector, which aided in the installment of night time events.[8] Later in life, Cahill’s desire for perfection led to an unattainable goal, due to labor and funding. During his fleeting time at Oberlin, he worked on multiple patents with the support of his family, predominantly his brothers and father.[9] After three years, in an attempt to fund his works and create a sense of “leisure,” Cahill decided to go to Washington D.C. to pursue a career in the political realm working for a United States Representative from New York, Amos J. Cummings.[10] This position progressed to a successful career in legal studies and ended with Cahill holding a position as a stationary clerk for the House of Representatives. This also allowed for time to be spent drafting designs (Figure 4, next page), and making models of what would become the Telharmonium—a first in its field, being a musical instrument that is entirely electronic.
The Telharmonium was mainly comprised of alternators, transformers, wires, gears, and other electrical equipment. This musical marvel was utilized by a plethora of property owners from hotels to restaurants during its prime. The instrument was broadcasted through telephone lines, out of an adapter for the telephone receiver.[11] They used just the instrument within Telharmonium Hall and utilized wires run from the primary instrument to telephone poles or the building themselves to get the music within a subscribers home or business.
Fig. 3: Excerpt from Thaddeus Cahill Biography in Electrical World. (McGraw-Hill. Electrical World “Dr. Thaddeus Cahill.” (books.google.com))
In 1885, Hammond V. Hayes joined the Telephone Company to assess Cahill’s instrument and reported contradictions to the praise the instrument had been receiving. The Telharmonium, with its own hall in New York, (Figure 4) gathered a lot of support and praise for being the first electronic instrument and Hayes, even though not musically inclined, was believed to be able to assess the functionality of the instrument. Hayes criticized the notion that the instrument mimicked sound produced by real instruments and conveyed to his colleagues in the company that investments in the Telharmonium would be expensive and not produce a return for many years.[12] He also noted that the telephones lines would be disrupted from the broadcasting of music from the Telharmonium. This was a preliminary review, since the Telharmonium was still being perfected and to the dismay of Hayes, the warning was not heeded.
Fig. 4: Page Four of Thaddeus Cahill Patent for Art and Apparatus for generating and Distributing Music Electronically. (Thaddeus Cahill, “US580035A” (patents.google.com))
Due to need for perfection within this design, Cahill made a very complex and thorough design that required heavy amounts of machinery to operate. This led to the need for an excessive amount of funding, monetary and personal, especially surrounding the transportation of the instrument.[13] This conveys the complications within the idea created by Cahill and its pitfalls in a sense. In contrast to usual depictions, Cahill’s family members, mainly his brother George Cahill, expressed concerns during his planning and creation of the Telharmonium based off of Cahill’s personality traits. George believed that due to Thaddeus’s need for perfection, he drove the Telharmonium to failure.[14] This can be deduced since the need for perfection could be the cause for the complex design which, both literally and figuratively, weighed down the design and overall product. After the panic of 1907, the Telharmonic Hall shut down in 1908 due to not being able to provide music to homes.[15] The company ran out of finances due to the depression and high operating costs from the Hall. This resulted in many subscriptions being cancelled or not filled, losing a lot of support for the Telharmonium and even resulting in
Fig. 5: Image of Telharmonium in Telharmonium Hall in New York. (Jon Turi, “Time Machines: Dial a Tune”(www.engadget.com))
threats of prosecution for no fulfillment by bigger entities.[16] The lack of funds resulted in a shortage of wires so when trying to fill subscriptions they could only cover two-mile distance.[17] These financial reasons led to the closure of the company and the Cahill family to move on from this endeavor. In the end, the family was successful in creating a company that was profitable, with the New York Firm, even with the pitfalls of the Telharmonium.[18] This firm focused on the floodlight patent that helped with nighttime sporting events. An argument can even be made for how the other siblings, in particular George and Arthur, are more successful, due to having patent ideas that were actually feasible. On the other hand, Thaddeus created something too complex for reality so it truly depends on the weighted value being either design or practicality, or even more abstract, intelligence or vision.
Bibliography
- Steve Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio (Eastern Michigan University, 1990) pg. 1
- Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio. pg. 3
- Ibid. pg. 4
- Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio. pg. 5
- Ibid. pg. 2
- Electrical World Excerpt, Oberlin Archives, 2018
- Steve Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio (Eastern Michigan University, 1990) pg. 4
- Ibid.
- Steve Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio (Eastern Michigan University, 1990) pg. 2
- McGraw-Hill. Electrical World “Dr. Thaddeus Cahill.” (books.google.com)
- Reynold Weidenaar. Magic Music from the Telharmonium. (Metuchen, N.J, Scarecrow Press, 1995). pg. 193
- Ibid. pg. 188-89
- Steve Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio (Eastern Michigan University, 1990) pg. 1
- Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio. pg. 6
- Reynold Weidenaar. Magic Music from the Telharmonium. (Metuchen, N.J, Scarecrow Press, 1995). pg. 223
- Ibid.
- Reynold Weidenaar. Magic Music from the Telharmonium. (Metuchen, N.J, Scarecrow Press, 1995). pg. 223
- Steve Wilcox, Thaddeus Cahill Bio (Eastern Michigan University, 1990) pg.
- Cahill, Thaddeus. “US580035A.” Google Patents. June 8, 2019. patents.google.com
- McGraw-Hill. Electrical World “Dr. Thaddeus Cahill.” Google Books. June 13, 2019. books.google.com
- Turi, John. “Time Machines: Dial a Tune.” Engadget. June 14, 2019. www.engadget.com
- Weidenaar, Reynold. Magic Music from the Telharmonium. Metuchen, N.J, Scarecrow Press, 1995.
- Wilcox, Steve. Thaddeus Cahill Bibliography, Eastern Michigan University, 1990, Oberlin Archives, Oberlin College, 2018