Frank Morse Robb (January 28, 1902 – October 5, 1992) was a Canadian inventor and entrepreneur who resided in

Belleville, Ontario Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its popula ...

. He is best known for his invention of the first electronic tone wheel organ, the

Robb Wave Organ The Robb Wave Organ is an electronic organ invented in 1927 by Canadian inventor F. Morse Robb in Belleville, Ontario. It uses a unique type of tone wheel synthesis to reproduce pipe organ tones and is one of the first electronic organs ever made. ...

,Brown, J. J. "Ideas in Exile". Toronto, McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1967. pp. 236-345. however he has several patents to his name, in areas such as television, fuel draught carburetors, and for devices such as an 'Electronic Viewscope for the Blind'. Robb's organ, when it was introduced in 1927, was the first electronic instrument which could mimic an acoustic organ, and predated the more well known Hammond organ, which was brought to market in 1934.

Early life

Morse Robb, the son of William Doig Robb and Catherine Haggart Black, was born in Belleville, Ontario in 1901. Robb was the youngest of his siblings, among Joseph Robb, founder of Canadian company Robco Inc, and

Wallace Havelock Robb Wallace Havelock Robb (May 19, 1888 – January 29, 1976) was a Canadian poet, naturalist, and philosopher known for his poetry and prose on Canadian life and Iroquois lore. He was the founder of Abbey Dawn – a bird sanctuary, museum, art gal ...

, poet and founder of the bird sanctuary "Abbey Dawn". William and Catharine were both

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

-born. William's father had emigrated from Scotland to help build the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

. William joined the GTR in 1871 and moved from city to city before settling into Belleville. He became vice president of the GTR before becoming vice-president of the

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

and spearheading the

CNR Radio CNR Radio or CN Radio (officially the Canadian National Railways Radio Department)McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, studying Arts, Science, and Commerce. He also studied music under Frederick H. Blair, the organist of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal.
Upon his return to Belleville in 1926, he began serious work on his electronic organ design, of which he had a working prototype of by November, 1927. Robb married Edleen Rose in 1930, and they had a son, Skye. In 1934, he released a two-manual, 32 pedal

to the public. Unfortunately due to the Depression, Robb was unable to find adequate funding to continue with his organ project, and in 1938 the Robb Wave Organ Company closed its doors. After his work on the organ, Robb turned to other pursuits, including designing and making hand-wrought sterling silver dishes. Once WWII came around, Robb found himself employed by his brother's firm Joseph Robb Company, where he developed and oversaw the manufacture of an improved lanyard ring for the recuperative chambers of large guns. He continued on with the company after the war, and eventually became the General Manager of the Anchor Packing Company Division. By the time he withdrew from the business world in 1957 he was a Senior Vice-President of the parent company. After his retirement from industry, Robb continued work on his inventions, obtaining patents in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom for his Electronic Viewscope for the Blind, among other inventions. The Viewscope is a headworn device that fits over the forehead, and converts light into tactile impulses. It was patented on November 28, 1972 in the United States, under patent number 3,704,378. Robb is also a published author, releasing his first and only novel, "Tan Ming", in 1955 under the pen name Lan Stormont. He has also published several short stories under the name Michael Shane.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robb, Morse Electronic organs 1902 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Canadian inventors Businesspeople from Belleville, Ontario Canadian people of Scottish descent