The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: Of Course L. Ron Hubbard is Involved

So much to do. No silly preambles this week. This week's long and rambly clue is brought to you by the letter Zzzzzzzzzz. (No, really, it's worth it. Read on!)

After California inventor Harry Chamberlin had developed and marketed his own line of electro-mechanical devices for a number of decades, one of his employees apparently took his designs to Great Britain in 1962, and struck a deal with a company to create a similar product (It's uncertain how much this was a sanctioned attempt to find a manufacturer who could execute an improved design, and how much it was a somewhat shady attempt to set up a competing product; in any event, later the two companies would reach an agreement by which restitution for the British versions's sales was made to Mr. Chamberlin).

The resulting device manufactured in Birmingham, England, was sold under a brand name that became moderately well-known within certain circles. The tempermental machines cost thousands of dollars, but nevertheless proved popular, and the most influential version -- the M400 -- sold over 1800 units after its release in 1970. It's novel characteristics were instantly appealing to many, and a number of celebrities, including Princess Margaret, Peter Sellers, King Hussein of Jordan and L. Ron Hubbard, were among the purchasers.

However, in reality these were usually purchased by commercial outfits and used only by professionals and for limited duration. Although they were not originally intended to be portable, there was increasing demand for the devices to be capable of moving from location to location, and the M400 and subsequent models were frequent used in this fashion.

Interestingly, one of the people who had worked at the Birmingham factory where it was developed, Michael Pinder, later got ahold of one of the devices and put it famously to use in 1967.

By what commercial name was this invention known when it came into use?

First correct answer posted to comments gets a virtually unused set of children's rainboots, size 7, in periwinkle. No Googling or using the abbreviation, "T.M.I." By that I mean: please don't use that abbreviation anymore. Let's just put it to rest. One guess per comment, but comment as often as you like.

Comments

The orgon box

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 09:52 AM

The primal scream megaphone

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 09:53 AM

The phantom tollbooth

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 09:54 AM

The Tesseract.
OK, I've had enough coffee now.

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 09:55 AM

The Moog

Posted by: boxjam | April 20, 2007 10:04 AM

Maxwell's Demon

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 10:16 AM

Subdermal Prison

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 10:17 AM

SpaceTime Donuts

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 10:18 AM

Nuthin' yet.

Posted by: BT | April 20, 2007 10:24 AM

That instrument that has like a thousand buttons, each of which plays a short piece of recorded music.

Posted by: boxjam | April 20, 2007 10:25 AM

Boxjam sounds serious. Shan will amp: The Thing that makes Knights in White Panties sound so super swell?

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 10:55 AM

I'll give ye a riddle that holdeth two clues
I offer it up for your quiz-solving use
Consider these things in your quest for the name
And put them together for Wombatly fame:
The first part appears in a song that's a peach
Of a hit that was penned by a Brit name of Leitch.
The second part echoes the name of a flick
That, in '82, performed the impressive trick
Of making it seem that old Disney was right
For an audience newer than that of Snow White.
If you meditate on all of this in your brain long
Enough you'll find out what Page used in his "Rain Song"

Posted by: BT | April 20, 2007 11:55 AM

Or that instrument that you don't touch - you just move your hands through the magnetic field. But I don't think those would've ever been non-portable.

Posted by: boxjam | April 20, 2007 11:55 AM

Note -- if "peach/Leitch" is strictly a visual rhyme, sorry about that. I don't remember how the guy pronounces it.

Posted by: BT | April 20, 2007 11:57 AM

Scantron

Posted by: boxjam | April 20, 2007 11:58 AM

Orgasmatron

Posted by: boxjam | April 20, 2007 11:59 AM

Bang a tron

Posted by: boxjam | April 20, 2007 12:00 PM

The "mellotron"?

I could use those boots, I think.

Posted by: herbivorous | April 20, 2007 12:27 PM

The Herbivore gets it! The "mellotron" -- with its dozens of tiny tape drives playing individual strings/woodwinds/voices was meant to allow a single keyboardist to emulate a live orchestra. The resulting weird, hard-to-categorize, ghost-in-the -machine, cyborg-tabernacle-choir kinda sound is one of my favorite things about prog rock.

(Shananan, incidentally, hit the nail on the head with the Moody Blues reference -- Mike Pinder played it all through the hit Days of Future Past record.)

Boots to you, Herbivorous.

Posted by: BT | April 20, 2007 12:49 PM

Mellow-freakin-Tron!

Posted by: shananan | April 20, 2007 12:53 PM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

The Wombat File is a Delaying Tactic that May Save Your Life

The Friday Quiz: Of Course L. Ron Hubbard is Involved

Comments

Post a comment