Robert Hope-Jones
Robert Hope-Jones (born February 9, 1859 in Hooton Grange , Cheshire , Great Britain ; † September 13, 1914 in Rochester , New York , USA ) was an important inventor in the field of organ building around 1900 .
After training as a telephone technician, he worked at the National Telephone Company before 1892 in Birkenhead the Hope-Jones Organ Electric Co. Ltd. founded to initially manufacture electrical components for the organ. He was able to find 20 companies as licensees for his patents in this area. In 1898 his company moved to Norwich . The most important organ of the company, which produced a total of around 100 organs, was that of Worcester Cathedral . Among other things, organ pipes with a tone generator developed by him based on the principle of deflecting tongues were built into it, in which the blowing pressure periodically lifts a plate - comparable to the membrane in Membranopipes - from the air passage and closes it again. This principle is still used in diaphones today . His company built other organs in 1897 for McEwan Hall at Edinburgh University , St Mary's Church in Warwick and St George's Church in Hanover Square in the City of Westminster in London.
In 1903 Hope-Jones emigrated to the United States for economic reasons, where he worked for a short time at Lewis C. Harrison (New York), Austin ( Hartfort ) and Skinner ( Boston ) before joining Hope in 1907 -Jones Organ Company became self-employed. Disputes with the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company , to which he had ceded his company in 1910 in order to work as an employee, made Hope-Jones commit suicide in 1914.
One of his innovations is the cinema organ The Wurlitzer-Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra , which was called The Mighty Wurlitzer because a musician could apparently produce any sound with it.
literature
- Relf Clark: Hope-Jones, Robert. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
- Thomas Lipski: Hope-Jones, Robert. In: MGG Online , November 2016 ( Music in the past and present , 2003)
Web links
- Stevens Irwin: Homage to Robert Hope-Jones. The Creator of the Theater Organ. American Theater Organ Society (at Internet Archive)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hope-Jones, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British inventor in the field of organ building |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 9, 1859 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hooton Grange , Cheshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 1914 |
| Place of death | Rochester , New York |