Telharmonium

Telharmonium *electrophonic instr. of the electromechanical type, invented by Prof. Thaddeus Cahill of New York in 1906, based on his development in 1897 of a rotating electromagnetic generator. The telharmonium was the first instr. to employ such a generator; it precedes applied electronics by several decades. The inventor intended transmitting its tones over telephone wires, but this did not prove feasible. Also called dynamophone.