Robert Moog's First Prototype Synthesizer in Henry Ford Museum, 1983

This prototype synthesizer--a collaboration between engineer Robert Moog and composer Herbert Deutsch--is a musical icon. Synthesizers create unique electronically produced sounds. Moog's solid-state synthesizer was musically superior and much more portable than earlier vacuum-tube-based systems. In 1968, the album Switched-On Bach introduced the Moog synthesizer to a wider audience. Synthesizers quickly became a mainstay of popular music.