Stonehouse

Calliope
Thursday, Friday, Saturday

A calliope is a large, one-of-a-kind wagon-mounted mechanical organ that was featured by circuses from the 1850’s to the 1910’s.

Invented in the early 1850’s, the first calliope used steam to sound the whistle. In this form, they were most commonly used with circuses, floating theatres and excursion steam boats, where loudness and not musical perfection, was of primary concern.

The last old time steam calliope was built about 1928, and today, only a dozen originals still exist. Except for the earliest steam callopes, which were fitted with pinned cylinders, most steam instruments were played by hand via a standard keyboard

 

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