Link: Electronic Musical Instrument 1870 - 1990.
"I recall two pleasant social events of that winter: one a little party given at the Clemenses' home on New-Year's Eve, with charades and storytelling and music. It was the music feature of this party that was distinctive; it was supplied by wire through an invention known as the telharmonium which, it was believed, would revolutionise musical entertainment in such places as hotels, and to some extent in private houses.
"The music came over the regular telephone wire, and was delivered through a series of horns or megaphones – similar to those used for phonographs – the playing being done, meanwhile, by skilled performers at the central station. Just why the telharmonium has not made good its promises of popularity I do not know.
Mark Twain: A Biography,Albert Bigelow Paine (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912), 1364-1365
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