Marlin L. Ryan - York, PA Traditional Christmas Carols
Here's a record that I found at Amazon.com amongst its Christmas LPs for sale. Who knew that you could make Christmas music from a factory steam whistle? Apparently, Marlin L. Ryan, the whistlemaster for the New York Wire Company in York, PA has did just that from 1955 to 1990. The cylindrical, variable pitch whistle is 15 inches long and 5 1/8 inches in diameter. The exact age of the whistle is not known nor was it intended to be a musical instrument. The factory whistle was used to signal the start and end of the workers' shifts and breaks and was part of York's World War II civilian defense alert system. In addition to being an unusual instrument, the Guinness Book of World Records issued a certificate in 2002 stating that the steam whistle produced a peak reading of 134.1dBA during a recording. This qualifies the whistle's songs as the world's loudest music without amplification from a non-musical instrument. This is a recording of those caro...