Saxophone is named after its Belgium inventor, Adolphe Sax. The life of Sax was wind instruments. He not only played the flute and clarinet, but also worked in the family business as an instrument maker. He developed an improved version of the bass clarinet and various different versions of the saxophone.
Finding Belgium too small, he moved to Paris where composers, including Berlioz saw one of the earliest versions of the instrument. A patent was taken out in the 1840s.
Sax travelled internationally, selling the invention. In the course of his travels he also presented the saxophone to numerous composers, such as Rossini, Donizetti and Liszt. But he also made his case for the saxophone as a military instrument.
And so it is fitting that the word came into English in marketing documentation. At the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851, effectively, the first world fair, Sax offered not only the saxophone but a “complete set of instruments for military bands”, presented by the inventor himself.
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