The bazooka is a

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

musical instrument several feet in length which incorporates telescopic tubing like the

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

Radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

Bob Burns is credited with inventing the instrument in the

1910s File:1910s montage.png, From left, clockwise: The Ford Model T is introduced and becomes widespread; The Sinking of the RMS Titanic, sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'' causes the deaths of nearly 1,500 people and attracts global and historical attenti ...

, and popularized it in the

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Owens Thompson, Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central Uni ...

. It was also played by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

musicians Noon Johnson and Sanford Kendrick.

Name

The name "bazooka" comes from an extension of the word "bazoo", which is slang for "mouth" or "boastful talk", and which ultimately probably stems from Dutch ''bazuin'' ( buisine, a medieval trumpet). The name appears in the 1909 novel ''The Swoop, or How Clarence Saved England'' by

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

's new M1

anti-tank weapon Anti-tank warfare refers to the military strategies, tactics, and weapon systems designed to counter and destroy enemy armored vehicles, particularly tanks. It originated during World War I following the first deployment of tanks in 1916, and ...

, a man-portable recoilless

anti-tank Anti-tank warfare refers to the military strategies, tactics, and weapon systems designed to counter and destroy enemy armored vehicles, particularly tanks. It originated during World War I following the first deployment of tanks in 1916, and ...

rocket launcher A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile. History The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few i ...

, rapidly became universally known by its nickname the "

bazooka The Bazooka () is a Man-portable anti-tank systems, man-portable recoilless Anti-tank warfare, anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the "stovepipe", th ...

" because of its resemblance to this musical instrument.

Instrument

From its start within a lipreed mouthpiece – which may consist of nothing but the bare tube or may employ a mouthpiece which is handmade to emulate one from a low brass instrument – the air column expands into a length of large-diameter pipe that slides freely around a length of narrower-diameter pipe, which, in turn, terminates in a widely flaring bell. Although the slide action of the bazooka appears as if it would alter the pitch in the same way as the slide of a trombone, this is not the case, due to the extremely wide diameter of the bazooka's tubing relative to its length. Manipulating the horn's length changes only the tone quality, as subtle harmonic overtones fluctuate. This effect gives the bazooka its characteristic warbling, echoing sound. All of the bazooka's notes are produced purely in falset. In other words, the player's lips produce pitches as they vibrate on the bare pipe end (or on the optional mouthpiece and leadpipe unit), but the pitches produced by the lips cannot generate a standing-wave vibration of the air inside such a wide tube. Therefore, unlike the

, the remainder of the bazooka works mainly as a

megaphone A megaphone, speaking trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loudhailer is usually a portable or hand-held, cone-shaped horn (acoustic), acoustic horn used to amplifier, amplify a person's voice or other sounds and direct it in a given direction. ...

to amplify the volume of the sound. It can be seen being played by Bob Burns in the 1936 movie '' Rhythm on the Range'' during the song " I'm an Old Cowhand".

References

External links

Bob "Bazooka" Burns
* — the inventor explains and demonstrates his instrument {{Authority control Brass instruments Bass (sound)