In an age before computerised synthesizers, everyday objects and strange, home-made devices were used to generate electronic sounds. Delia Derbyshire’s Coolican lampshade was one of her favourite things to make artificial sound with, gonged with a drumstick, recorded on tape and then manipulated – sped up, slowed down, played backwards. At the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, Delia and her colleagues pioneered this work – wine bottles filled with different amounts of water and piano wires stretched out and struck (the base note for the Dr Who soundtrack). Her experimentation with sounds and compositions were hugely influential in what we now think of as electronic music.

 There’s a good blog about Delia’s work on the Science Museum website and even more about her on the Coventry Museum Museum website.

Image: with thanks to the Science Museum.