Music brings back memories in an instant, whether it be a favorite song or a favorite instrument that you played. Our family has many singers and band members in it, and even a Grammy winning conductor. But today I want to concentrate on an instrument that I think older people might remember hearing maybe without knowing what it was.
I have been given the care of my great grandfather's, Foster Heacock, Military Dinner Chimes. They came from Foster to his daughter Helen, then to Helen's niece Peg then to her children and finally to me, Peg's niece.
Foster Heacock was born in 1869 in Illinois, He was of a Quaker family and moved around a bit before settling in Bedford Co, Pennsylvania. He was a teacher and a noted agriculturist and orchardist. I do not know how he came to own this set of Dinner Chimes but he may have had some kind of interest in music. Or they could have been used in meetings as a call to order. This does make sense for Foster as he held memberships in varied organizations over his lifetime. Historically, they were used in military schools and the armed forces as a call to dinner, hence the name. The chimes were also used in railroad cars and steam cruise ships for dinner call and even small churches used them. The Deagan Co of Chicago started making the chimes about 1910. They were known for their high quality chimes. Some chimes used metal plates for the tones and some used round open ended tubes. A soft hammer or mallet was used to strike the plates. The Dinner Chimes commonly came in three sizes, 3,4 or 5 strike plates. Ours is a three plate on a carved wooden box. The notes that it plays are G, C, and E. It came with it's mallet and a small booklet of chime music to play. Unfortunately. most of the music in the booklet cannot be played on a 3 plate chime, but the NBC tune can. And this is where we older people may remember hearing them on old time radio or television shows. The NBC network used them in their broadcasts.
Our chime hangs on the wall above my desk. I may give it new life and try this out as a dinner call on Thanksgiving this year!
For a Video of our chimes playing Taps and the NBC chime go here on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmHVW44XuM
The Deagan Dinner Chimes
The Music Booklet from 1917
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