Gianni Bettini

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Bettini in 1898. Image from “The Phonoscope” magazine

Gianni Bettini (* 1860 in Novara ; † 1938 in Sanremo ) was an Italian inventor and entrepreneur who dealt on the one hand with phonography and on the other with cinematography and influenced the technical development in both areas.

Life

Gianni Bettini was born in Novara , a town in the Piedmont region , in 1860 as the son of Geremiah Bettini and Sophie Maretzek and grew up in a privileged upper-class family. As a result, he received a school education that corresponded to his social class, which in addition to the study of classical literature also included the teaching of basic knowledge in the subjects of art and music. With completion of this began Bettini most diverse countries in Europe to visit, where he, during an excursion to France , in Paris , the US-American Daisy Abbott, E. real name is Jeanie Abbott, from Stamford in the state of Connecticut met. After their departure and return to the United States, Bettini decided to follow her to New York City in order to convince her to marry him and finally to get married, thereby giving up his military career in the Italian army. In the following years, looking for a meaningful activity in his new home, Bettini turned to the improvement and development of mechanical-technical devices, among other things, following his musical training and interests, including that of Thomas Alva Edison in 1877 invented phonograph .

Phonography

Share certificate of Soc. of the Bettini micro-phonograph dated February 2, 1901

Bettini's main focus was on improving the quality of recording and playback of the speaking machines, which were initially designed as dictation machines , with the most important objective in his view of being able to reproduce the voices of singers close to the original. After numerous experiments, he located the problem of inadequate reproduction of speech and song in the sound boxes used at the time , in particular at the point where the sapphire scanned the sound groove and the sound-generating membrane. As a result of this knowledge, Bettini constructed a new type of sound box in which the diaphragm was not made of the mica that was often used until then, but of a softer, more flexible material and the sapphire found its place on a multi-armed spider with increased contact with the membrane. This structure now made it possible to reproduce lower frequencies better and middle frequencies attenuated, in total with a more balanced frequency response . For those sound boxes that were further developed and improved in their reproduction, Bettini was awarded a total of three patents after submission, which enabled him to offer the new designs for the phonographs available at the time, such as Edison and Columbia, to interested customers for sale.

A few years later, in 1892, Bettini founded his own company, which traded as Bettini Phonograph Laboratory and moved into its offices in the Judge Building in New York City, in order to turn to the financial evaluation of the patents awarded. In addition to the production and sale of sound boxes, horns and phonographs, the company was also active in the manufacture of recorded phonograph cylinders with borrowed or self-made recordings. When making his own “recordings”, Bettini succeeded in winning over the most important musicians of the time for himself and his company due to the social status of his wife, which allowed him access to higher social circles. In addition to Enrico Caruso , this included Nellie Melba , Victor Maurel , Mario Ancona and Rosalia Chalia .

The Bettinis company recorded steady growth in the following years and brought the owner a financial success, which led him to the conclusion to expand his field of activity beyond the United States. In 1898, the Société des Micro-Phonographes Bettini was founded in France with a capital of 850,000 francs. The company's headquarters were at 23, boulevard des Capucines in Paris.

Ventures

  • Bettini Phonograph Laboratory

Patents (selection)

Sound boxes for receiving and playing back phonograph cylinders .

  • U.S. 409,003; Method of recording and reproducing of sounds. Issued August 13, 1889.
  • U.S. 409,004; Apparatus for the record and reproducing of sounds. Issued August 13, 1889.
  • U.S. 409,005; Apparatus for the record and reproducing of sounds. Issued August 13, 1889.

literature

  • Herbert Jüttemann : Phonographen und Grammophone , 4th edition, Funk-Verlag Hein, Dessau 2007, ISBN 978-3-939197-17-1 .
  • Martin Fischer: Fascination of shellac: gramophones, shellac records, needle boxes , 1st edition, Battenberg Gietl Verlag, Regenstauf 2006, ISBN 978-3-86646-008-9 .
  • Frank W. Hoffmann & Howard Ferstler: Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, Routledge, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48427-4 .
  • Walter L. Welch, Leah Brodbeck Stenzel Burt: From Tinfoil to Stereo - The Acoustic Years of the Recording Industry 1877-1929 , University Press of Florida, Florida 1994, ISBN 0-8130-1317-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Bettini: Method of recording and reproducing sounds. In: Google Patents. Retrieved June 15, 2018 .
  2. ↑ G. Bettini: Apparatus for the record and reproduction of sounds. In: Google Patents. Retrieved June 15, 2018 .
  3. ↑ G. Bettini: Apparatus for the record and reproduction of sounds. In: Google Patents. Retrieved June 15, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Bettini, Gianni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian inventor
DATE OF BIRTH 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Novara
DATE OF DEATH 1938
Place of death Sanremo