Calliope

John Dauphin went with us to the Circus Parade (click here for the earlier reference and explanation) this afternoon and we all had a good time. There was a huge crowd, but we lucked into a spot by the courthouse out of the sun, high enough to see over the folks on the sidewalk and with a bit of a breeze. The parade itself lasted about an hour.

One of the highlights for Tom, John and me was the America steam calliope, named for the circus car that carries it.  A calliope, if you are unfamiliar with it, is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles—originally locomotive whistles.

 Our friend Bernie Hotzel, who is the senior engineer at the little railroad, also volunteers at Circus World, helping maintain the antique circus wagons and operating the steam boiler that powers the calliope. After the parade, he invited us to look inside and even let me finger the brass keyboard. Below is a short video of what we saw. You will get a slight glimpse of Bernie towards the end -- the bearded fellow in the red shirt and suspenders. And no, that is not me playing the thing. This is someone else's video.

Pretty nifty.

And my "Not my circus, not my monkeys" t-shirt was a huge hit.

Finally, I would no be doing my duty as a librarian if I failed to tell you that the word calliope is from the Greek name for the muse of epic poetry, Calliope (or Kalliope), meaning "beautiful voiced."