1000's more vintage prints available - CLICK HERE Visit our main site at http://www.jnniepce.com/ Calliope - The Wonderful Operonicon (1874) Chromolithograph. A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles. A calliope is typically very loud. Even some small calliopes are audible for miles around. There is no provision for varying the tone or loudness, the only expression possible is the timing and duration of the notes. The name originates from the name of Calliope, pronounced /kəˈlaɪ.əpi/, from the Greek for beautiful voiced. In Greek mythology, Calliope was a daughter of Zeus, chief of the Muses and mother of Orpheus. The pronunciation of the instrument name varies, often pronounced /ˈkæli.oʊp/ with the stress on the first and last syllables. The steam calliope is also known as a steam organ or steam piano. The air-driven calliope is sometimes called a calliaphone, the name given it by its inventor, however the Calliaphone name is registered by a particular manufacturer. In the age of steam, the steam calliope was particularly employed on riverboats and in circuses. In both cases, a steam supply was already available for other purposes. Riverboats supplied steam from their propulsion boilers. Circus calliopes were sometimes installed in steam-drive carousels, or supplied with steam from a traction engine which might also supply electric power for lighting and tow the calliope in the circus parade, in which it traditionally came last. Other circus calliopes were self-contained, mounted on a carved, painted and gilded wagon pulled by horses, but the presence of other steam boilers in the circus meant that fuel and expertise to run the boiler were readily available. Calliopes can be played by a player at a keyboard or mechanically. Mechanical operation may be by a drum similar to a music box drum, or by a roll similar to that of a player piano. Some instruments have both a keyboard and a mechanism for automated operation, others only one or the other. Some calliopes can also be played via a MIDI interface. The whistles of a calliope are tuned to a chromatic scale, although this process is difficult and must be repeated often to maintain quality sound. Since the pitch of each note is largely affected by the temperature of the steam, accurate tuning is nearly impossible; however, the off-pitch notes (particularly in the upper register) have become somewhat of a trademark of the steam calliope. A calliope may have anywhere from 25 to 67 whistles, but 32 is traditional for a steam calliope. The largest steam calliope yet built is on the Mississippi Queen with 44 whistles. Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrom is frequently used. Chromolithography replaced colouring prints by hand, and eventually served as a replica of a real painting. Lithographers sought to find a way to print on flat surfaces with the use of chemicals instead of relief or intaglio printing. Depending on the number of colours present, a chromolithograph could take months to produce. To make what was once referred to as a “chromo”, a lithographer – using a finished painting as a model – gradually built and corrected the print to look as much as possible like the painting in front of him, sometimes using dozens of layers. The process can be very time-consuming and cumbersome, contingent upon the skill of the lithographer. A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-orientated artists. The word also describes the performance that they give, which is usually a series of acts that are choreographed to music and introduced by a "ringmaster". The traditional circus is held in an oval or circular arena called a ring, which has tiered seating around its edge. In the case of travelling circuses this location is often a large tent which is nicknamed the "big top". European Zoological Association. Description Source Wikipedia