Kuronen Darcy 2002 Alpheus Babcock Piano Maker Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Early on A. Babcock Piano Wooden Audio Lath with Iron Strings

Alpheus Babcock (September eleven, 1785 – April 3, 1842) was a piano and instrument maker in Boston, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the early 19th century. Babcock is best known for patenting a complete atomic number 26 frame in a single casting used to resist the strain of the strings in square pianos, he also patented a system of stringing in squares, and improvements in piano actions.

Biography [edit]

Babcock was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and worked for musical instrument maker Benjamin Crehore (d.1828) before 1809. He established a workshop and music warehouse in Boston with brother Lewis at 44½ Newbury Street, but by 1812 they entered a partnership with organ maker Thomas Appleton (1785–1872) with workshops at half dozen Milk Street. Following Lewis' expiry in 1814 the surviving partners formed a brief partnership with brothers Charles and Elna Hayt, the business organisation was taken over by Mackay & Co., with Crehore's quondam partner, organ maker William Goodrich (d. 1834) equally i of the partners, and by 1817 reorganized as The Franklin Music Warehouse with Joshua Stevens as foreman, continuing at Milk street under John Rowe Parker through 1823. Babcock may accept worked during this period in Philadelphia, only by 1822 worked at the rear of eleven Marlboro street, Boston and moved the post-obit twelvemonth to Parkman'due south Market, Cambridge street. The Mackays continued an clan with Babcock throughout the 1820s, with many of the instruments labelled "for G. D. Mackay" and "for R. Mackay".^[1]

Babcock received a silver medal at the 1824 Exhibition of the Franklin Found in Philadelphia^[ii], also every bit in 1825, and in 1827 a silver medal and special mention for a square with his patented solid bandage-iron frame (1825).

In 1830 he relocated to Philadelphia, at the time the largest producer of pianos in the United States, where he patented what he called "cross stringing",^[three] and introduced resilient textile hammer coverings. He was associated with instrument maker and seller John C. Klemm, his former agent, and by belatedly 1832 worked as foreman for pianoforte maker William Swift, at whose warehouse at 142 Chestnut street, he advertised in The Daily Chronicle in 1833, i could see iron framed pianos for which he claimed sole manufacturing rights. Babcock won honors at the 1833 Franklin Plant exhibition, along with C. F. 50. Albrecht of Philadelphia, and Nunns & Co. of New York.

Babcock returned to Boston in 1837 employed by Chickering & Mackays^[4] who had formed a partnership in 1830. Babcock's improvements helped Chickerings lead the American piano industry through the 1850s.

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Ripin and Kuronen point "G. D. Mackay" equally George Mackay, d. 1824, nephew of John Mackay (Boston Industrialist), and "R. Mackay" every bit Ruth, (1744–1833) widow of Mungo Mackay, and mother of John Mackay, just Holman writes she died 1820, and that John Mackay was married to her girl Fanny.
2. ^ For "the best horizontal piano", a square "made for J. Mackay, of Boston" with "the strings of the lower octaves... covered with flattened wire" Spillane, p. 86
3. ^ Not related to over stringing, this invention involved twisting shared wires at the hitch pins.
4. ^ Babcock assigned his 1839 patent to John Mackay, William H. Mackay and Jonas Chickering. John Mackay, like George D. Mackay in 1822, had given Babcock's address in 1825, 1828, and 1829 Boston Directories.

References [edit]

• "Biographical Memoir of William 1000. Goodrich, Organ Builder." (1834) The New England Magazine
• Stevens, Paran. (1870) "Manufacture of Pianos in the The states." Reports of the United States Commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposition, 1867. Govt. Print. Off., Washington, D. C.
• Teele, J. One thousand. (1887) The History of Milton, Mass.
• Spillane, Daniel (1890) A History of the American Pianoforte D. Spillane, New York.
• Holman, Mary Fifty. (1929) Ancestors and Descendants of John Coney. N. E. Hist. Genealogical Society, Boston.
• Harding, R. (1978) The Piano-Forte. Gresham Books. Old Woking, Surrey.
• Belt, Philip R. (1988) The New Grove Piano. Due west. W. Norton & Co., New York.
• Kuronen, Darcy. (2002) "Alpheus Babcock, Piano Maker" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
• "Music Trades". Music Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on Baronial 6, 2008.
• Arzhruni, Ahan. Liner notes. Childhood Memories. New World Records 80590-2

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheus_Babcock

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