This day in music history.

August 27, 1889, Charles G. Conn received a patent for the metal clarinet . Conn, (at the age of 17) enlisted in the Union Army in 1861. He served as a private until discharged. He reenlisted and was wounded and taken prisoner. After the war he started a grocery business. In 1877 he began to manufacture band instruments. He was elected mayor of Elkhart , Indiana in 1880 and was a member of the State house of representatives in 1889, the same year he invented the metal clarinet. He established the Elkhart Daily Truth in 1890 and was owner of the Washington (D.C.) Times.
DLAK note: Kind of makes you feel lazy, dont it?