Brit invents cyber-bugle for US military funerals

Sound Engineer Simon Britton was born in Newcastle, but moved to New York in the late 1980s. He invented the Ceremonial Bugle, a little electronic insert which slips into a real bugle. Press the red play button, wait 5 seconds, and it will play 'Taps'. The sound is generated by a speaker and a 40 watt amp. It resonates through the horn, apparently sounding reasonably realistic. Despite costing $525, business is good. Every day, 1,800 former US service personnel die. They all have the right to a military funeral, and the 500-odd military buglers are completely overworked. In 1999, Congress passed a law allowing a recorded version of Taps to be played at military funerals, but families were dismayed to see a boombox instead of a bugler. The Ceremonial Bugle solves the problem, and the Pentagon has ordered 700. Despite irritated real buglers and reports of people buying a Ceremonial Bugle then charging $50 to play at funerals, they've been generally successful. His updated version contains a chip which can play 10 different calls. The full story is in this fantastic article from the St Petersburg (Florida) Times.

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

right out of starship troopers

# posted by

jmobley : 1:07 am

1.5years ago at my grandfathers funeral, a soldier had one of these. He started out playing fine and then slowwwwwwwllllllyyyyy died to the point that it could no longer be heard but everyone stood still till the soldier put the trumpet down. I don't think many people knew that he wasn't actually playing it as I am sure the soldier didn't realize the batteries were low.

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:43 am

looks like they're being used in the UK as well now. there's an article in a national newspaper this very morning!

not sure how it 'resonates' through the bugle though when it's practically just tucked inside the bell...

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:19 am

This is so sad. It reminds me of 'a brave new world' and a bit of 'logans run'. it's all fake.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:53 pm

I think if so many people are dying that 500 buglers can't handle the load, the solution is not "more buglers".

# posted by

Wombat : 4:51 pm

Wombat: To be fair, I think most of the 1,800 deaths per day are WWII veterans (when 16 million people served).

# posted by

Tom Whitwell : 4:55 pm

Bogus.

I am all in favor of synthesized music, but this is just cynical Pentagon penny-pinching.

It's the same as Donald Rumsfeld signing condolence letters with a machine.

Maximus
Voltage

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:47 pm

This is a non-trend. Thirty years ago, when I was in high school, I made pocket money playing "Taps" at veteran funerals.

I'd get to skip school for the afternoon, and they'd pay me five or ten bucks to boot, which was a pretty fair deal back in the '70s.

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:23 pm