Jay Coburn

there actually was a time where this kind of thing happened.

That's reporter Jay Coburn.

In the 19th century, Western Europe saw an explosion of instrument innovation where the entire landscape of instrumentation was shifting and where there was money to be made if your improvements caught on with the public.

But one of the greatest innovations to come out of this time was the saxophone.

The saxophone wasn't an improvement on a previous instrument.

It was a brand new invention, a hybrid of brass and woodwind that not only managed to secure a spot in the musical canon, but also went on to change American music forever.

His name, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Saxe.

His full name was actually Antoine Joseph Saxe, but at the time Adolphe wasn't, you know, taken.

Adolf Sachs was the eldest of 11 children, only four of whom made it to age 30, so the odds were stacked against young Adolf from the start.

And I'm going to need a deep breath before I list the ways he apparently nearly died as a kid.

He fell three flights of stairs and cracked his head on a stone floor.

He drank a mixture of vitriol, probably what we would call sulfuric acid today, and water, mistaking it for milk.

He was burned in a gunpowder explosion and then again when a frying pan was knocked over.

A stone fell off a roof and left a lifelong scar on his head.

And he once fell asleep in a room full of freshly varnished furniture, but was luckily found before he succumbed to the fumes."

She was right about the first part, but not about the second, because against all odds, Adolphe did survive his tragicomic childhood.

And as a young adult, he joined his father in the family business, making musical instruments.

That must have gone pretty well because soon he moved to Brussels and set up an instrument shop.

That's where young Adolf Sachs learned his craft.

Young Adolf clearly felt the pull of opportunity.