Johann Baptist Schalkenbach
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In the 1860s Schalkenbach developed an act in which he played on an amalgamation of instruments he called the Piano-Orchestre Électro-Moteur (built around a reed harmonium). Whilst playing, he would simultaneously trigger musical, noise and optical effects via the electromagnetic triggering of circuits connected to objects placed around the hall. It's a delicate precursor to the noise machines of the Italian Futurists. Over the decades, the apparatus gradually became more spectacular as new features were added. [1]
In the 1870s Schalkenbach assisted in the construction of acoustic magic tricks for celebrated magicians Maskelyne and Cooke. [2]
