Nose Flute Pioneers: Ernest W. Davis - Part I

With the "Nose Flute Pioneers" series, Noseflute.org enters a little cycle of research. I hope it won't be too arid for a blog, but I really think that the facts I found have to be published. The sources : Google patents, US Census and an access to newspaper archives. But also, depending on the topic, correspondence by e-mail with descendants. Let's better say : internet searching tools available for a Frenchie not able to access US real paper archives.

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Nose Flute Pioneers: Ernest Davis

What is the link between these 4 items ?



No idea? ... : Ernest W. Davis ! Yes, the father of most famous nose flute in the world, the plastic Humanatone, invented in 1939/40, has not been a "one shot" designer.
But who knows more about Davis? A so common name that it is very difficult to make researches about him, and since he was not famous... But I decided to focus many efforts in trying to know him better.


Patents : Ernest Davis' career

Ernest W. Davis applied for no less than 132 patents! And maybe more, since I found the trace of some others, out of Google search. Extremely prolific : 8 in 1924, 10 in 1925, 6 in 1926... and so on. From 1910 until 1949 (the last I found), Davis didn't stop filing patents, the most of them as assignor to big Chicago companies, but some in his own name, at his beginnings, and mostly after WWII.

Ernest's occupation name evolved in the time : On the 1910 census sheet, one can read "Mechanic (for a) Wire Chain(?) Co.", then "Mechanical Engineer" in "Auto(mobile) Access(ories)" in 1920, "Engineer" in "Experimental" business in 1930 and "Research Engineer" for a "Radio Manufacture" (we'll see it was Stewart-Warner, also auto accessory producer) in 1940.



From the patents, it becomes obvious that Ernest W. Davis was an engineer who specialized in lubricating systems : 118 among those 132 sets of innovations regard lubricant compressors, lubricating systems, lubricating means, grease dispensing apparati, a pneumatic motor for lubricant pumps,... and a few couplings, liquid dispensers, etc. Those devices were used mostly in car industry maintenance.



Now, the patents allow to trace Davis through his different jobs.

From 1910 to 1919, Ernest works in Chicago. The first years, he applies for some very personal patents, besides another job I wasn't able to identify (we know he is Mechanic in a Wire Chain(?) company, according to 1910 census). His first patents wear 2 following numbers (US1004382 & US1004383), but were filed on September 3 and on October 22, 1910.

The first one is a moving picture device which is a toy for kids with a ingenious system used to block an image, using the persistence of vision. The second one is an automatic electric switch dedicated to devices such as flashes. Then, in January 1911, Davis files a patent (US1014953) for an aerial toy : it is a small manual "helicopter".

Fun and serious! Engineering and entertainement! It is like Davis was destined to design a nose flute 30 years later...

From more or less 1917, armed with his cinema-related inventions, Ernest is employed at The Universal Camera and then for Burke & James Inc., 240-258 E Ontario Street. Burke & James was founded in 1897 and described themselves as manufacturers and representatives to the trade.



The Universal Camera is a "moving photography" device, developed and built by Burke & James, and dedicated to outdoor filming. It was used by ethnological expeditions for instance, but also as second camera in Hollywood.



For this camera, Ernest Davis filed 5 patents, and clearly is the inventor of the Universal Camera (patent US145433), and of some of its options or accessories, notably a focusing device, a turntable support (rotative tripod) and a very innovative dissolving apparatus that allows to produce image fadings.



In 1920, Ernest began at Bassick Manufacturing Co., then joined Alemite in 1924, then Stewart-Warner in 1934, which all were parts of the same conglomerate. Bassick had bought the Alemite Lubricator Co. after WWI to form Bassick-Alemite, specialized in high-pressure auto lubrication equipment, and in 1924, Stewart-Warner, manufacturer of vehicle instruments (and radios, refrigerators,...), bought Bassick-Alemite. The manufacture was established on Diversey Parkway.



For those companies, during 23 years until 1943 (this means the plastic Humanatone was conceived during this period), Davis conceived dozens of improvements on existing lubricating devices, and designed many new ones, from the smallest oil gun to the largest equipment.



But, sometimes, Ernest W. files a patent "for himself", besides his regular job.

In 1928, he applies for an improvement upon the safety razor, in order to prevent rust formation : « The operation of successfully drying a safety razor involves disassembling the entire razor, drying each part separately and the re-assembling. (...) I employ a substance that is electro-positive to the steel blade, and in electrical contact therewith, whereby a weal current of electricity is generated (...) with with any water remaining on the blade after using. »



In 1937, Ernest Davis invents a musical instrument, a kind of electric keyboard with an electric oscillator driven by moving a finger on a rail. This device is very interesting on 2 particular points : First, it's really the ancestor of the Stylophone, which was patented in 1968 in London by Brian Claude Jarvis, with no claim of Davis' invention (!!), and which, 31 years later was just a bit smaller and had replaced the finger by a stylus.



But more important for us, nose flute lovers, is the goal pursued by Davis because, despite the hand playing and the sound source radically different from a nose flute, the instrument tries to regulate 2 parameters (pitch/volume) with one "move" :



The next year, in 1938, Davis applies for a patent of a boad game! It is composed of an hexagonal board, a "spinner", 2 x 24 cards and tokens. The rules are a bit complex...



On January 22, 1940, Davis files... a "musical instrument" that will become the famous Humanatone, with its "true tremolo" hole [check this post]. And, funny coincidence, the Time Magazine issue dated of the very same day shows Siegfried blowing his horn.



And, in 1941, it's the turn of an "acoustical device", including a transmitter, an amplifier and a loud speaker, designed to produce a "sound effect derived from a single sound" "choral effect"...



From 1943, Davis multiplied "personal" patents, *serious ones*, for improvements upon lubricating devices. It seems that he has stopped working for Stewart-Warner and has established as a free-lance inventor until 1948. But he filed absolutely no patent between September 22, 1943 and June 15, 1945 (8 were filed in 1943, and 6 in 1945). We can assume that Ernest (who was around 62 years old in 1944) was recruited or applied as an engineer for the US army hereafter involved in WWII. This could be the reason of his resignation from Stewart-Warner Co. (which converted to war production, though).

Finally, in 1948 and 1949, Ernest Davis files 2 last(?) patents as an assignor to, respectively, Oil Rite Corp. and Gits Brothers Mfg. Co.
Ernest was 67, and probably opted then for a well-deserved retirement.


To be continued...


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On the same topic :

- Nose Flute Pioneers: William G. Carter - Part I
- Nose Flute Pioneers: William G. Carter - Part II
- Nose Flute Pioneers: William G. Carter - Part III
- Nose Flute Pioneers: Ernest W. Davis - Part I
- Nose Flute Pioneers: Ernest W. Davis - Part II
- Nose Flute Pioneers: Nelson Ronsheim
- Nose Flute Pioneers: Garrett J. Couchois

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NF.Org Holidays - Part V : Baglamas and Nose Flute

As a conclusion for this tour of the Noseflute.org holidays, I also recorded a "World premiere" performance : a baglamas/nose flute tune. The baglamas is a greek stringed instrument. It's a kinf of "half bouzouki" (the neck is half long and the tuning at the octave), but with a much smaller body.
Mine was built by the master luthier Ioannis Alexandris, in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2002.

NF.Org Holidays - Part IV : The Nosy Diva's Holidays

Nosy Diva's holidays were very noseflutistic! Indeed, before and after the Pied-Pouzin RAOUL gathering, she traveled in France, from historic sites to touristic places, recording here and there short nose flute melodies.



In Pied-Pouzin, with Luthval, she worked at a World premiere : a duet with Lute, violin and nose flute!



And then, the Diva offered a spontaneous performance in the garden, before a very attentive audience. Her Queen of the Night aria was a real success!



Later, in Normandy, she played the Badinerie, by J.-S. Bach, with her ukulele :



But the Diva's holidays have also been very pedagogic, even proselytistic. As you may know, the Nosy Diva's mission on earth is to spread the nose flute virus... And she did well, at Pied Pouzin, and then, in Normandy :

NF.Org Holidays - Part III : Our video clip

One of the highlights of the RAOUL gathering in Pied Pouzin was the recording of "30 millions d'Amis" in Ukeval's farm. A real cacophony, but quite a funny moment.

NF.Org Holidays - Part II : RAOUL Concert in Melle

During our holidays, we gathered with some ukulelist friends in the Poitou-Charentes region, gently hosted by our friend Luthval. On Saturday evening, we all performed in a café in Melle. Quite a difficult job, since we never had played together, and the environment, although very friendly, was terrible : 100°F temperature and a lot of background noise. Anyway, a World Premiere happened : Lute and Nose flute duets, by Luthval and the Nosy Diva.
The video is quite long, but lazy listeners may like to know that the nose flute parts are located at 2'53, 7'18, 10:40 and 13:32.



We had a nice newspaper article :

Feed the Diva, back on your screen !

New video by Feed the Diva, with a super glow-in-the-dark Bocarina^™, a violin and a resonator ukulele.



The Nose flute has been home-painted with several coats of phosphorescent spray, and flooded with the light of a UV led torch.

NF.Org Holidays - Part I : Back home!

Yes, since the 8th of August, all the posts were pre-programed and automatically posted on the blog. Our holidays have been very noseflutey, with pictures, videos, a meeting, a concert and spreading the virus! They've been also very touristic (in France) and here are some narcissistic autoportraits made as souvenirs.

First, we celebrated the blog 1st anniversary in our hotel room in Vezelay, and I received the Jenny's Birthday Book as a present! :

so, we were...

At the Basilique in Vezelay :	At the Palais Jacques Coeur in Bourges :

At our friend LuthVal in Pied-Pouzin :


At Azay-le-Rideau castle :
At the Mont Saint-Michel :

And at our friend Guy, in Normandy :


To be continued...

1920's Piano-bar atmosphere!

The number 36 of Mister Swing's Nickelodeons is a great collab session with a swooning sensual dancer (Aranea Peel), a pianist (Hans-Jürgen Osmers), a mute alabaster bust (Richard Wagner) and a crooner-noseflutist (Hans Christian Klüver), with a great vintage piano-bar atmosphere! Don't miss!

Huma... something.

It is very difficult not to confuse several early nose flute names, since many manufacturers chose on purpose very similar brands to market their product. Let's make a tour...

Humanatone

This is the name of the original tin nose flute produced by James J. Stivers and the Humanatone Co., N.Y.C. As stated by Stivers himself : « This trade-mark has been continuously used in my business since July 6th, 1903 ». The brand has since been used continuously until now, acquired by Fred Gretsch Mfg. Co. in 1947 to market the new plastic model, and later by Grover-Trophy Music Co.

But, as the Humanatone was soon (and still is) a best-seller, the name Humanatone has oftenly used as a generic name for ny nose flute. To add to the confusion, the tin design as the plastic model were both imitated — when not forged - by other makers.

Humanotone (Humantone, Human-a-tone,...)

As far as I know, this name has never been a nose flute brand. However, one can easily find it written here and there, as Humantone, Human-a-tone, Human-tone, Hum-a-tone.

Humanaphone

The Humanaphone was British, and produced in the 1925. Its a tin nose flute, very similar to the Humanatone, but offered a celluloid version regarded as a "hygienic line".

Humanophone

This nose flute would have been produced in the USA as early as 1920. Harvey Jones, Louisville jug band musician, used to play one : « The Humanophone was purchased at Lyons & Healy music store at Wabash and Jackson, Chicago, soon after Jones arrived in 1920, and when he was looking for novelty instruments. Jones knows of no one else who ever captured the technique of the Humanophone. »
However, I have never seen a picture or an ad for the Humanophone.

Humanophone/Humanaphone

But with those names (Humano- Humana- phone), problems arise : the name Humanophone has been used for other "instruments"!

Indeed, the Humanophone is an instrument invented by George Edward Ives (1845-1894), father of the famous Charles Ives, in New England, and made of a group of humans behind a curtain. Each of them sings a single note and only their heads appear, arrayed like a xylophone.

Logansport Journal (Indiana), Oct. 25, 1887 :

Ives Studies, edited by Philip Lambert, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997 :

But Humanophone was also for a phonograph brand and Humanaphone a theater play title.
And moreover, most of the newspapers confused this "o" and that "a", even using both spellings in the same article!

So, in some cases, thanks to the context and the publishing date, there is no confusion possible. In 1886, the "instrument" is the Ives' Humanophone choir, no doubt :

Harrisonburg Rockingham Register, Jul. 29, 1886 :

Or later, when the text clearly mentions Ives' instrument (because of the presence of several musicians):

Adams County Press, May 4, 1904 :

Ada Evening News, Nov. 3, 1939 :

Idem for the theater play "Humanaphone" :

Parnell Iowa County Advertiser, May 19, 1910 :

Idem (probably) for the phonograph :

Belleville Telescope, Jan. 23, 1903 :

But, most of the time, it is not possible to know which Humanaphone or Humanophone is mentioned. However, some late articles could possibly mention the nose flute...

Bar Harbor Record, Apr. 16, 1902 (with both spellings!):

Wills Point Chronicle, Nov. 11, 1909 :

The Clintonian, Nov. 18, 1915 :

Winnipeg Free Press, Nov. 28, 1925 :

And sometimes, but rarely, we got it, for sure! (the date, the solo...) :

The Sioux City Journal, Apr. 11, 1922:

Nevada State Journal, Reno, Feb.7, 1935 :

The Twig, Raleigh, Apr. 27, 1943 :

Conclusion ?

Humanatone, despite the misspellings Humantone, Humanotone, Human-a-tone... has always been standing for ... 2 nose flutes : the Stivers' tin one, and the Gretsch's then Grover's plastic one.

Humanaphone was a British tin nose flute, marketed in the 1925's. It was also the name of an early century american theater play. The name has been oftenly misspelled into Humanophone.

Humanophone was an american tin nose flute, marketed at least from 1920. It was also the name of 1886 George Ives' choir instrument, and of a phonograph. The name has been oftenly misspelled into Humanaphone.

And it is a real mess in the newspapers archives :)