The first documented formal use of a brass bugle as a military signal device was the Halbmondbläser, or half-moon bugle, used in Hanover in 1758. It was crescent-shaped (hence its name) and comfortably carried by a shoulder strap attached at the mouthpiece and bell. It first spread to England in 1764 where it was gradually accepted widely in foot regiments. 

18th-century cavalry did not normally use a standard bugle, but rather an early trumpet that might be mistaken for a bugle today, as it lacked keys or valves, but had a more gradual taper and a smaller bell, producing a sound more easily audible at close range but with less carrying power over distance.

Bugles are primarily used in the military, to indicate daily routines of camp, by cavalry to relay instructions, or to assemble leaders. In most military units, the bugle is sometimes fitted with a small banner or gold fringed tabard with arms of its reporting service branch. Taps or Last Post is a traditional military bugle call to signify the end of a day, or at a military funeral to indicate a soldier going to his final rest.

Klemm and Brothers were importers, manufacturers, and wholesale dealers of musical instruments. Their first shop was established in 1819 in Philadelphia by John George Klemm, selling  instruments made in Germany by the Klemm family. 

In 1825, they opened a piano factory and by 1838 were also making bugles. The Klemm Brothers supplied CF Martin with machine heads and strings in the 1860s and also sold Martin’s guitars. Fredrick’s sons John and Edward joined the family firm but by 1900 their instrument import & distribution business appears to have closed.