Thaddeus Cahill

{{short description|American inventor}}

{{Refimprove|date=September 2011}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Thaddeus Cahill

| image = Thaddeus Cahill.jpeg

| alt =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = June 18, 1867

| birth_place = Iowa, USA

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1934|4|12|1867|6|18}}

| death_place = New York City, USA

| nationality =

| other_names =

| known_for =

| occupation = Inventor

}}

Thaddeus Cahill (June 18, 1867 – April 12, 1934) was a prominent american inventor of the early 20th century. He is widely credited with the invention of the first electromechanical musical instrument, which he dubbed the telharmonium.

He studied the physics of music at Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio. After working as a clerk for Congress in Washington D.C. to pay for his college studies, he graduated from the Columbian (now George Washington University) Law School in 1889. He became convinced that music could be made with electricity (and also worked on an electric typewriter). He showed his first teleharmonium to Lord Kelvin in 1902. That year he established a laboratory at Holyoke, where he was joined by his brother, Arthur T. Cahill, and where the two would first demonstrate the teleharmonium to a public audience.{{cite journal|title=Electrical World (McGraw-Hill)|year=1906|volume=47|issue=13|pages=656|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6wVRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA656|accessdate=26 September 2011}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Cabinet Magazine|archive-date=March 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301074718/https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/9/dewan.php|url=https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/9/dewan.php|quote=Cahill patented the Telharmonium in 1897 and in 1902 he and his two business partners founded the New England Electric Music Company. The Telharmonium was first publicly demonstrated in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1906, and later that year he had it moved to New York City. It weighed 200 tons and required 30 boxcars to ship.|last=Dewan|first=Brian|date=Winter 2002|title=Thaddeus Cahill's 'Music Plant'}}

Image:Teleharmonium1897.jpg

Cahill had tremendous ambitions for his invention; he wanted telharmonium music to be broadcast into hotels, restaurants, theaters, and even houses via the telephone line.{{cite book|last=Holmes|first=Thomas B.|title=Electronic and experimental music: pioneers in technology and composition|year=2002|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=0-415-93644-6|pages=42–49|author2=Thom Holmes }} At a starting weight of 7 tons (and up to 200 tons) and a price tag of $200,000 (approx. $5,514,000 today), only three telharmoniums were ever built, and Cahill's vision was never fully implemented.