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
