Laurens Hammond
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laurens Hammond (January 11, 1895–July 3, 1973), was an engineer and inventor of the Hammond organ.
Contents |
[edit] Youth
Laurens Hammond was born in Evanston, Illinois, to William Andrew and Idea Louise Strong Hammond. Laurens showed his great technical prowess from an early age. His father, William, died in 1898, and shortly after this sad event in Laurens's young life, the Hammond family moved to Europe. Between the years of 1898 and 1909, they lived in Geneva, Dresden, and finally in Paris, before returning to America.
[edit] Early inventions
When the family returned to Evanston, the then-14 year old Laurens was as fluent in French and German as he was in his native tongue. By this time, he had already designed a system for automatic transmission for automobiles, but despite his mother's suggestion that he should present his drawings to the Renault company's engineers, he neglected to do so, and this remains one of Laurens's least known technical accomplishments.
[edit] University
Laurens studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University and was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He graduated with an honours degree in 1916. At this time most thoughts were concentrated on the ongoing World War I, and Laurens made his contribution to the war effort serving his time with the American Expeditionary Force in France.
[edit] Inventions
Following this, he moved to Detroit, where he was fortunate to occupy the post of chief engineer of the Gray Motor Company, a manufacturer of marine engines. In 1920, he invented a silent spring-driven clock. This invention brought Laurens enough money to leave Gray Motor Company and rent his own space in New York, where he was to develop the synchronous electric motor that he would use later in the manufacture of his electric clocks and which would ultimately lead to the invention of the tonewheel organ.
In 1922, Hammond invented the Teleview system of shutter glasses in association with 3-D films. One feature was made for the system, a film called Radio-Mania, that year. Hammond premiered his show at the Selwyn Theatre in New York in December of 1922 to major critical success, but the economics of installing the expensive machinary in the theater prematurely killed the project's success.
Hammond was not a musician; he did, however, see the great benefits of music, and was keen to bring a more sophisticated form of home music-making to the masses. In 1933, therefore, he turned his attention to the development of an electronic organ. He bought a used piano and proceeded to discard everything apart from the actual keyboard action. Using this piano keyboard as a controller, he was able to experiment with various different sound generating methods until he found the best one - the tonewheel generator. The company's assistant treasurer, W. L. Lahey, was the organist at the nearby St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, and so Laurens consulted with him during the design process and sought feedback on the quality of the new instrument's sound. With all his previous manufacturing and engineering experience, the tonewheel generator was incredibly well engineered by the time the organ finally went into production. The number of tonewheel organs still in regular use is a testament in itself to the quality of the original design and execution of the product.
Laurens filed his patent on January 19, 1934. At this time, unemployment was a major problem due to the Great Depression, and with this in mind, the patents office rushed to grant Hammond's application, with the hope of creating job opportunities in the area.
[edit] Military
World War II gave Laurens new areas in which to exhibit his technical skill. He helped design guided missile controls and was awarded patents for infrared and light sensing devices for bomb guidance, glide bomb controls, an aerial camera shutter and a new type of gyroscope. The glide bomb was the forerunner of today's guided missiles, carried by nuclear submarines.
[edit] Retirement
Laurens Hammond left his position as president of his company in 1955, to allow himself more time to concentrate on researching and developing new ideas. On February 12, 1960, at the age of 65, he retired. At the time of his retirement in 1960, he held 90 patents: he would be granted another 20 before his death.
By the time Laurens Hammond died, there were over thirty manufacturers of electric or electronic organs. This figure would increase still further towards the end of the 1970s, as the demand for easy-play home organs grew to incredible proportions.
