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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
A Sketch of British Pianoforte Inventions.
CURIOUS AND CRAZY INVENTIONS.
A Study of Some Old British Pianoforte Patents.
THE FIRST ENGLISH MUSICAL PATENT—TUMPE 'S
ENHARMONIC PIANO—PARCHMENT INSTEAD
OP SOUNDING-BOARDS—RYLEY'S TRANS-
POSING PIANO —LOESCHMANN'S
KEYBOARD — GUNTHER'S
DOUBLE SOUNDING-
BOARD.
ROLFE *S SELF-ACTING PIANO—WOLF'S CURIOUS
SOUNDING-BOARD—FISCHER'S CROSS-STRUNG
PIANO—WHEATSTONE 'S STRINGING SYS-
TEM—DANIEL HEWITT'S ABSURDI-
TIES—NICKEL'S COMBINATION
INSTRUMENT — BAIN'S
INTRODUCTION OF
ELECTRICITY,
. ETC.
age of sixteen, he had some little experience as a
cabinet maker, and immediately found employ-
ment in the shop of Tabel, the favorite English
harpsichord maker of the day. In 1732 Shudi
went into business in Great Pultney street, on
the site of the extensive premises at present
occupied by Broadwood & Co., his descendants.
The foregoing sketch of Shudi may not be amiss
in this article, although that famous maker of
harpsichords can hardly be booked as eccentric
in any sense.
In 1792 John Geib, of London, exhibited two
instruments, combinations of the spinet and
harpsichord with the pianoforte. For these he
was granted patents. The instruments were a
fiasco, however, notwithstanding Geib's intelli-
gence and status as the inventor of the hopper
action for squares. James Davis also took out a
patent two months after Geib for a combined
harpsichord and piano, the upper row of keys
being for the '' pianoforte and the lower for the
harpsichord." Two years later—October 17th,
1794, Sebastian Erard, of Paris, who had just
arrived in London, fleeing from the Revolution,
was granted a patent for a pedal principle, which
has frequently been experimented with since
that year, but never with lasting success.
Erard's invention dealt with a method for pro-
ducing harmonies by pressing each string exact-
ly in the centre. This was merely an item in a
general patent taking in several important
mechanical improvements, which he later on'
brought to a successful climax in his grand
repetition action.
It is presumed that William Rolfe and Samuel
Davis knew something about the use of vellum
in Turkish stringed instruments of the modern
banjo class, when they attempted to discard
modern sounding-boards in favor of parchment
and pasteboard in 1797. Rolfe and Davis's in-
vention was a nonsensical one. The patent
granted January 31, 1797, is an illustration of
utter incapacity, and its wording shows a
strange unacquaintance with the acoustics of the
piano, which they fancied they were about to
revolutionize. At least they had a very poor
conception of the uses of the sounding-board.
The employment of " vellum, parchment, paste-
board, etc., varnished or oiled for sounding-
board instead of wood, " was the subject of the
foregoing record.
In 1799—October 3—Joseph Smith took out a
patent for the use of metal bracings in the piano
in place of wood, " so as to admit the introduc-
tion into the internal part of the instrument of
a drum, tabor or tambourine with sticks or
beaters," also a triangle, all being played by
means of levers and cranks. The silliness of
Smith's object need not be commented upon.
Apart from the introduction of '' iron bracings,''
his money, energies and enthusiasms were ex-
pended upon an invention which could not serve
any sensible or useful purpose in connection
with piano making or the art of music.
The introduction of the Erard double action
system for harps was followed—or preceded—by
an attempt to make pianos with strings adjusted
on a similar plan. John Conrad Beeker, of Lon-
don, essayed the task in 1800, and in 1801 he
procured a patent for enabling a performer to
produce '' half and quarter tones by causing the
wrest pins to move partly round their centres,
thereby altering the tension of the string as may
be required." Beeker's futile scheme ended
where it began.
Continued next week.
Patent Office at Washington, is known
to be a kind of repository for a vast number
of useless or undeveloped inventions—a sort of
graveyard wherein a large quantity of the in-
spirations of genius, real and fancied, are
buried. The department devoted to musical in-
ventions contains a variety of impractical and
far-fetched ideas relating to the piano and other
instruments, but the majority of these are too
modern to afford any special interest in an arti-
cle such as this. There are some old patents of
significance there, it is true—either oddities or
records of historic technical value—but I fancy
that they have been brought out in tedious con-
troversies, in the columns of the trade press, and
otherwise, from time to time in the past, so that
there is very little to write about in that con-
nection. The attempts to improve the piano in
Europe, meantime, gave rise to a variety of ec-
centric and strange inventions from the middle
of the last century upward, and these have
never been written upon.
The first British patent issued for aa inven-
tion relating to musical instruments, was one
granted to George Joyce and P. East, on Octo-
ber 20th, 1694, for a " self-acting harpsichord."
This is said to be a clue to the origin of the
modern mechanical piano of the street order.
Reference to harpsichord inventions, must be re-
garded as of relation to the piano. In 1730,
William Barton sought to substitute metal
plectra in these instruments for the crow quills
in general acceptation. He took out a patent
on December 17th of that year, for a mechanism
employing his method, but it never brought its
author anything, and was devoid of merit. Bar-
ton was an intelligent man, acquainted with the
harpsichord, and yet so blinded by an evident
desire to be an inventor, that he was unable to
estimate the downright practical value of his
idea. He was not a very rich individual, yet he
dissipated nearly all he had in this craze. That is
merely an instance of the curious effect which a
mania for invention has upon a very large
number of people.
Burkart Shudi, founder of Broadwood & Sons,
London, was granted his first and only patent on
December 18th, 1769, for a "Venetian swell
over the strings." This is said to have sug-
gested the principle of the organ swell. It was,
however, a trivial thing and hardly worth
Shudi's while to patent. At that date the cele-
brated harpsichord maker was 67 years old, and
THE Pease Piano Co. are meeting with great
his fame was European. Snetzler, the great or- success with their pianos, and the business done
gan builder, is reported to have assisted Shudi in the last two months, especially their Western
in bringing out the idea referred to. Shudi was trade, has been far beyond their greatest expec-
a Swiss by birth. On going to London at the tations.
293
's Red letter Day.
CHICAGO, NOV. 4, 1892.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
New York, N. Y.
: The writer, Bush, Jr., came down
to the store yesterday morning with blood in
his eye. For three days it had been raining
continually, and we had been dragging along
getting out eight or ten pianos per day. This
was simply unbearable, and at 8 A.M. he started
in with the firm determination to beat all
previous records. By 11 A.M. all previous re-
cords had been broken and all of twenty-four
pianos had passed through the shipping room
on their way to the happy purchasers. By 6
P.M. all previous records were left far in the
background, and we closed our doors with a total
of forty-five pianos shipped from our warerooms
from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., November 3d, 1892. This
will always be looked upon as '' Red Letter
Day" by the Bush & Gerts Piano Co., ami we
shall always endeavor to celebrate its anniver-
sary, but doubt whether we shall ever be able
to establish a new record, unless we put on our
pneumatic tires and use a running mate.
Yours truly,
DEAR SIR
BUSH & GERTS PIANO CO.
M. P. Bush, Sec.
Ortl?.
MILWAUKEE, Wis., November 7th, 1892.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
3 East 14th St., New York, N. Y.
DEAR SIR : My piano arrangement of the
'' Advance and Retreat of the Salvation Army
March," by Chas. J. Orth, has had such a great
success with the famous bands of the country,
such as Gilmore's Band, Cappa's Band, The
Marine Band at Washington and Sousa's New
Marine Band, that several imitations have
sprung up. The first and only Salvation Army
March is composed by Chas. J. Orth, a young
and talented pianist and composer of Milwaukee,
and I am the sole owner of it. Gilmore's Band,
100 strong, opens at the Academy of Music here
next Thursday evening for five performances.
Yours very truly,
Jos. FLANNER. •
OTTO WISSNER, the Brooklyn piano manu-
facturer, is full of push and energy, and as a
result his business has increased enormously in
the comparatively short time of two years. Com-
mencing as he did, almost unknown as a manu-
facturer two years ago, he has, through his
business ability and enterprise, built up a trade
surpassing many older houses in other cities.
The "Wissner" is known far and wide, and a
visit to the large establishment at Nos. 294 to
298 Fulton street, Brooklyn, N. Y., will amply
repay any dealer wishing to find a good selling
piano.
ONE of the greatest attractions of the Ladies'
Fair, held at the Church of our Lady of Grace,
Hoboken, NJ., was the enameled white and gold
piano manufactured by Muehlfeld & Co. The
piano is a beauty, and whoever becomes the pos-
sessor of it will be fortunate in securing '' a
thing of beauty and a joy forever.''
ROBT. M. WEBB finds the Cooper-Hewitt wire,
for which he is sole agent, meeting with great
favor among the trade, and the demand for it
keeps him very busy supplying the wants of his
customers. At the warerooms, 190 Third
Avenue, may be seen a large variety of cloth,
felt, punchings and the patent paper piano
covers. Mr. Webb also carries piano hardware
of every description.