A musical instrument intended for outdoor use and operated by steam or compressed air. It was invented by Joshua C. Stoddard (b 26 Aug 1814; d 4 April 1902), who settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1845; he supported himself by keeping bees while working on a variety of inventions and experiments. His invention of the calliope (named after the Greek muse of eloquence) is said to have been inspired by his noticing the great carrying power of locomotive steam whistles.
Stoddard’s completed instrument was first introduced to the public in 1855. It consisted of a steam boiler, a set of valves, and 15 graded steam whistles, played from a pinned cylinder. It was claimed that it could be heard for 8 km – the Worcester City Council banned Stoddard from playing it within the city limits. Having nevertheless secured financial backing from some Worcester industrialists, he developed a keyboard model and founded the American Steam Piano Co. After financial difficulties a few years later, Stoddard was supplanted as head of the company by Arthur S. Denny, who changed the firm’s name to the American Steam Music Co., and later claimed Stoddard’s invention as his own. In 1859 Denny took to England a 37-note calliope that played from both keys and barrels (see illustration). A low-pressure, 5 lb (2·27 kg) model, it was exhibited at the Crystal Palace, London, but Denny assured potential purchasers that outdoor models were available that employed up to 150 lbs (68·2 kg) of steam pressure and could be heard for 19 km. The instrument never caught on in the British Isles, although it achieved popularity in a variety of applications in the USA.
As early as 1858 calliopes were installed on river showboats, either on the top deck or on a steam towboat, and their music became familiar to several generations of dwellers along the banks of the Mississippi and other great rivers. One such steamboat, the Delta Queen, continues to maintain a regularly played calliope in the 1990s; at night its clouds of steam are illuminated by coloured spotlights. One of the few calliopes to be exported in the 19th century was used by the pasha of Egypt on his private steamer. Calliopes also replaced the large and cumbersome barrel organs of some circuses and fairgrounds, doubtless because they were considerably louder. After the turn of the century compressed-air calliopes were developed; these proved more popular (and more portable) for such purposes and were even used in parades and political rallies, while steam instruments were retained for riverboats with their ready supply of steam. The air calliopes could be played from either a keyboard or a paper roll, and were manufactured by the Artizan Co. (Air-Calio), the Tangley Co. (Calliaphone), the Harrington National Calliope Co., and the Han-Dee Co. Some had as many as 58 notes, but the ones heard at carnivals and in parades are usually much smaller, and are almost always played from a keyboard. Air calliopes based on the 43-note Tangley Calliaphone were still being made by the Miner Mfg. Co. of Fort Madison, Iowa, during the late 1980s.
The one feature common to all calliopes is their whistle construction, which is the same as that of factory and locomotive steam whistles: a mouth surrounds the circumference of the pipe, the top and bottom being attached by four brackets or ears. Those in steam calliopes are invariably made of heavy brass; other materials are sometimes used for air calliopes. The music played, often in just two parts on short-compass instruments, is always of a simple nature, consisting usually of familiar songs, dances and marches; a calliope makes an appearance in the film Showboat (1951).
P. Graham: ‘Showboats and Calliopes’, Midwest Folklore, v (1955), 229–35
A.W.J.G. Ord-Hume: Barrel Organ: the Story of the Mechanical Organ and its Repair (London, 1978)
L.C. Swanson: Steamboat Calliopes (Moline, IL, 1981, 2/1983)
BARBARA OWEN