J. C. Deagan Dinner Chimes: 3 Models, 3 Keys

Описание: Listen to three models of the most famous chimes in history, created by J. C. Deagan in the 1920s and 30s, for calling passengers to dinner! These chimes are famous for historic use on railroads and steam cruise ships for announcing meals, theaters and concert halls for announcing the start of performances, and are even the source of the famous “NBC Chimes” station identification broadcast on old-time radio.

Deagan produced several model series, and some series were tuned to different musical keys. This video demonstrates the differences in sound between three vintage Deagan models, each tuned to one of the three keys available for these dinner plate chimes. The music score shown in the video helps illustrate the differences between each chime’s musical key.

On railroads and steam cruise ships, conductors or waiters would announce meals using chimes, usually with just three notes. These three notes were usually the music notes G, E, then C – you may recognize these as the famous “NBC Chime” notes broadcast as station identification on old-time NBC radio. The (controversial) story is that these notes were chosen for the initials of General Electric Company, a major owner of NBC (and maker of the first diesel-electric railroad locomotives).

There were several models of these dinner chimes made by the J. C. Deagan company, and used by railroads, steamships, and radio stations across America. Though each model series may have been tuned to different keys, they all kept the same relationship between the notes. Therefore, each chime, regardless of model, could play the same tune as any other, just by striking the plates in the same order.

For more details about J. C. Deagan dinner chime models and features, and our models in particular, see my page at https://sites.google.com/view/marksmo....

For a downloadable and printable copy of the detail article above, see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pUwo....

For a video/sound recording of old-time radio announcer and actor Kelvin Keech playing the NBC chimes on a Deagan model 20 chime for an NBC radio station, see    • NBC Chimes 1933  .