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Around 1844, the US government approved an unusual project designed by a group of innovators comprised of Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail which they called it the telegraph.  Morse and Vail were given the funds to set up the lines between Washington DC and Baltimore, Maryland.  Using sequenced pulses of electrical current, a message could sent and decoded over great distances.  The first message to ever have been sent and interpreted was, "What hath God Wrought!"  This new form of electronic communication, technically the first synthesizer, opened numerous doors to other technological advances. 

Another new idea, first coined by Nikola Tesla, was wireless communication.  He thought that a person could transmit electricity over long distances without the use of wires.  Meanwhile, in Italy, a man named Guglielmo Marconi created the first radio, which in fact wirelessly transmitted information from one place to another.  He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909, and later developed the shortwave radio system which is the base of all long distance wireless communication systems used today.

The next synthesizer was invented by accident by young Russian scientist by the name of Leon Theremin.  He was trying create a gas meter, but instead stumbled upon one the most eerie sounding instruments ever made.  Even more interesting the musician doesn't make physical contact with the a theremin, as the instrument was named after its creator, to play it.  Of it's unique sound, Rob Schwimmer, a professional "thereminist," said, "It's like you're fingerpainting in space.  Playing Theremin is like having sex with ghosts." (Schimmer).  Portishead is a modern band that makes use of the Theremin.

The Hammond Novachord was the first polyphonic analog synthesizer to be introduced to the musical industry.  It was introduced in 1939 and used vacuum tubes to regulate the flow of current from the oscillator banks.  

One of the earliest forms of electronic sound generation was the Electronic Telegraph.  Image courtesy of: http://www.telegraphlore.com/technology/simplest_early.gif

The first polyphonic analog synthesizer, the 1939 Hammond Novachord.  It used vacuum tubes to regulate the flow of current.

A demonstration of "Over the Rainbow" on a 1929 RCA Theremin.

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