MANZER, LAWRENCE LARRY.
Timpanist with the St. Paul Symphony (ca. 1911) and the Detroit Symphony (from its inception, ca. 1917, until ca. 1952),
Lawrence Manzer
was the first to use the prototype Ludwig & Ludwig hydraulically tuned timpani, which worked by means of water pressure inside a rubber tube at the rim underneath the head. [Ludwig abandoned this method when it was discovered that the rubber deteriorated after six months, allowing the water inside to explode!]
