St. Louis, Missouri
John E. Maier  

Metal, rubber, leather, cloth
ca 1972 C.E.
Length: 12 feet
Wind Instruments – Brasswinds – Tubas / Sousaphones / Helicons

In 1973, John E. Maier, a high school humanities teacher at Jennings High School was featured with his wide and wild collection of horns of dubious origins including this Serpentine Pedalphone, on the CBS “On the Road with Charles Kuralt.”  In the show Mr. Maier demonstrated on this ‘Horn with Wheels.’  John Maier also authored, “Bizarre Brass of Four Milleniums or, Arcane Artifacts and Indigenous Instruments.”(1982)

This functioning sousaphone he called a Serpentine Pedalphone was played by Maier, not only on the CBS show, but also at various parades (4^th of July) downtown St. Louis in the 1970s.  It consists of bicycle wheels, a bike banana seat, and vacuum pipes that extend from one end to the other underneath for support, while the blown air passes through the horn tubing.  The lead-in pipe, mouthpiece and valves are all at one end for the player to manipulate and play while riding the bike that also has trainer wheels on the back wheel.