Weird drums from the past

In about a century of modern drum making many skilled craftsmen have dedicated their lives to the developing of the technical aspects of the instrument we play.
Until now, only minor changes (like double pedals and tom suspension systems to name a few) have been accepted by the drummers community and the drumsets have retained their usual basic structure.
During the past fifty years, some people and companies have tried to start a personal revolution in the concept of crafting their instruments.
In this section (Weird drums from the past) I'll try to dig out some information about these people and companies.

NORTH DRUMS

In the late 60's, Roger North was a professional drummer and graduate in structural engineering at MIT.
While he was playing his traditional drumsets he started thinking that the sound produced from his drums wasn't directing towards the audience, and the sound he heared from his stool simply wasn't the same sound heared by the audience. So, he started to feel the need of having a drum that could project it's sound towards the listener.
One of his first attempts was a lucky one, he built a fiberglass 12" tom tom shaped like a horn (see picture) that had an incredible volume and sounded lower and deeper than a regular 12" drum.
It was 1971 when he got his idea patented and started producing the first sets by hand from fiberglass, but it was in 1976 when the production moved to Music Technology incorporated, that could grant full-scale production with a high-pressure injection mold process.
Unfortunately, in the middle 80's, the advent of mass produced drums from the east set the end for this peculiar brand.
North drumsets where usually equipped with small diameter tom toms and had outstanding powerful and deep sound, so that they where weapon of choice for the hard rock drummers.

For more information and a wonderful image gallery check out: North Drums