Alpheus Babcock

Square piano with a cast iron frame

Alpheus Babcock (* 1785 in Dorchester , Massachusetts; † 1842 ) was a piano and musical instrument manufacturer in Boston , Massachusetts and Philadelphia , Pennsylvania during the early 19th century.

Babcock became known when he was granted a patent for a one-piece, full cast iron frame. He used this to withstand the pull of the strings in table pianos . Babcock also invented some improvements to piano mechanics .

Life

Babcock was born into a family from the Netherlands. Before 1809 he worked for the musical instrument maker Benjamin Crehore († 1828). He founded a workshop and music store in Boston with his brother Lewis at 44½ Newbury Street.

In 1812 they began a partnership with the organ builder Thomas Appleton (1785–1872) and ran a workshop at No. 6 Milk Street. After Lewis' death in 1814, the Babcock brothers began a short-lived partnership with brothers Charles and Elna Hayt. This business was taken over by Mackay & Co., with Crehore's former partner, the organ builder William Goodrich († 1834) as one of the partners, and was reorganized in 1817 as The Franklin Music Warehouse with Joshua Stevens as managing director, further at Milk Street. The business was then under the direction of John Rowe Parker until 1823.

Babcock may have been working in Philadelphia during that time, but in 1822 he worked in the back house of 11 Marlboro Street, Boston, and moved to Parkman's Market, Cambridge Street the following year. The Mackays continued to work with Babcock into the 1820s; many instruments were created during these years that are labeled "for GD Mackay" or "for R. Mackay".

Babcock received a silver medal at the exhibitions of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1824 and 1825, as well as in 1827, this time together with a special mention of his square piano with the one-piece sprue patented in 1825.

In 1830 Babcock moved to Philadelphia. He was the largest piano maker in the United States at the time. He introduced the crossing of the strings in square pianos and also dealt with the durable cladding of the hammers hitherto leather-covered with fabrics and felt.

Babcock worked at that time with the instrument maker and music salesman John C. Klemm, his former agent, and he worked until late 1832 as a foreman for the piano maker William Swift in his music house at 142 Chestnut Street. He advertised in The Daily Chronicle in 1833; you could see the iron frame drawn, for which he claimed sole manufacturing rights. Babcock won honors at the Franklin Institute's 1833 exhibition, along with CFL Albrecht from Philadelphia, and the New York piano maker Nunns & Co.

Babcock returned to Boston in 1837 and was hired by Chickering & Mackays, who had a partnership since 1830. Babcock's improvements helped Chickering become the leading piano maker in the States, which lasted well into the 1850s - until the new Steinway & Sons company saw a rapid rise, overtaking Chickering in the late 1860s.

literature

• "Biographical Memoir of William M. Goodrich, Organ Builder." (1834) The New England Magazine
• Stevens, Paran. (1870) "Manufacture of Pianos in the United States." Reports of the United States Commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposition, 1867. Govt. Print. Off., Washington, DC
• Teele, JK (1887) The History of Milton, Mass.
• Spillane, Daniel (1890) A History of the American Pianoforte D. Spillane, New York.
• Holman, Mary L. (1929) Ancestors and Descendants of John Coney. NE Hist. Genealogical Society, Boston.
• Harding, R. (1978) The Piano-Forte. Gresham Books. Old Woking, Surrey.
• Belt, Philip R. (1988) The New Grove Piano. WW Norton & Co., New York.
• Kuronen, Darcy. (2002) "Alpheus Babcock, Piano Maker" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
• Arzhruni, Ahan. Liner notes. Childhood Memories (PDF file; 126 kB). New World Records 80590-2