14 Facts About Laurens Hammond

Laurens Hammond was an American engineer and inventor.

Laurens Hammond's inventions include the Hammond organ, the Hammond clock, and the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizer, the Novachord.

Laurens Hammond was born in Evanston, Illinois, on January 11,1895 to William Andrew and Idea Louise Strong Hammond.

Laurens Hammond studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University, and was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

In 1922, Laurens Hammond invented the Teleview system of shutter glasses in association with 3-D films.

Laurens Hammond premiered this show at the Selwyn Theatre in New York in December 1922 to critical acclaim, but the cost of installing the expensive machinery in the theater was prohibitive, and the process was never used again.

Laurens Hammond was responsible for a number of other inventions, such as an electric bridge table.

In 1933, Laurens Hammond bought a used piano, and discarded everything apart from the keyboard action.

The company's assistant treasurer, W L Lahey, was the organist at the nearby St Christopher's Episcopal Church, and Hammond consulted him concerning the quality of the new instrument's sound.

Laurens Hammond was awarded the Franklin Institute's John Price Wetherill Medal in 1940 for the invention of the Laurens Hammond electric organ.

Laurens Hammond left his position as president of his company in 1955, and retired from the company in 1960, at the age of sixty-five.

Laurens Hammond was married to Roxana Scoville, and had one daughter.

Laurens Hammond died in Cornwall, Connecticut on July 1,1973, aged 78.

In 2017 the Laurens Hammond Museum was founded in Kielce, Poland as a division of the Museum of Toys and Play.