Big Bertha Drum - University of Texas Austin, Texas
Controversially claiming the title of world's biggest bass drum, UT's Big Bertha was once made radioactive by the Manhattan Project.
THE BIG BERTHA DRUM WAS named for the Big Bertha Howitzer, a German cannon used in World War I, and its low rumble punctuates each University of Texas football game. Known as the “Sweetheart of the Longhorn Band,” it was originally commissioned by the University of Chicago in 1922.
C. G. Conn Ltd. built the drum from the largest animal hides they could find in the Chicago stockyards, and the completed drum was so huge that part of a wall had to be removed just to get it out of the factory. Used at the Chicago football games, Big Bertha also made a trip to New York at one point in 1938, just to play one note in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem directed by Toscanini in Carnegie Hall.
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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/big-bertha-drum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bertha_(drum)
https://thedailytexan.com/2018/04/12...-radiant-past/