The inventor of the theater organ, Robert Hope-Jones, had an interesting death. Being an
Robert Hope-Jones Image via Wikipedia
inventor, he was quite clever and innovative. On September 13, 1914, he decided to commit suicide due to frustration with the Wurlitzer company who was now in control of his patents (at that time, they were paying him $50 a week to stay out of the factory).
Originally, Hope-Jones planned to commit suicide in a Universalist church using gas from a lamp behind the organ console of the church, but he arrived to find that the church had switched to electric light. He rented an apartment nearby and preformed the deed
there. He used a T connector attached to a rubber tube, and lit one end to hide the smell of the gas.
Some people go as far as saying that he also built a machine to turn off the gas and open a window to prevent anyone else from being harmed, but this is unclear at this point in time due to lost history and rumor.
Hope-Jones was the first organ builder to introduce an electric key action and a relay system for selecting registrations and much more.
Sources:
http://www.esm.rochester.edu/organ/PDF/Resonance5.pdf
