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The John Geib Family of Musical Instrument Builders The Geib family was one of New York’s most eminent nineteenth century firms in the piano business. Immigrating to New York in 1797, with his family of seven children, John Geib & Son are listed as organ makers in 1802. His twin sons, John and Adam Geib, began making pianofortes in Mount Vernon (New York) in 1805. After the death of their father, John, Adam, George, [...] Click here to continue reading. The Edison Ideal or Idelia Phonograph The Edison Ideal Phonograph first became available for purchase by the public in October of 1907. The name Ideal was only used for the first two months of production, due to troubles with foreign marketing, as well as potential legal infractions with that name in the United States. The Ideal was renamed Idelia in January of 1908, and was Edison’s top-of-the-line phonograph until 1911, when it began to [...] Click here to continue reading. LeCoultre Music Box Instruments Credit for inventing the cylinder music box, circa 1790, is usually given to David LeCoultre, of Brassus, Switzerland. His descendent Francois Charles LeCoultre (1801 to 1850), also a maternal nephew of Isaac Daniel Piquet, founded his company in 1828. He was succeeded by his son, Charles Francois LeCoultre in 1865, who ran it until circa 1871, when it became Perrelet & Co. Notes on Mechanical Features of Music Boxes Feather Dampers: Music boxes generally have dampers to prevent a harsh grating sound from being heard as the cylinder pins strike the same vibrating tooth in rapid succession. Basically, most, but not all, of the early pieces had either no dampers or feather dampers, though some of the best early pieces had steel dampers arranged in some unusual ways. Tooth or Teeth: One of the most basic [...] Click here to continue reading. Cuff Music Boxes Cuff music boxes were designed and developed by Ferdinand Otto of the F. G. Otto & Sons Co. of New Jersey circa 1894 and sold under the Capital brand name. They were called cuff music boxes because of the shape of their music cylinders which resembles a gentleman’s shirt cuff. The cylinders were designed and developed by Patrick Kennedy of Brooklyn , New York , a machinist and designer for the [...] Click here to continue reading. A Brief History of Organettes Organette pioneer John McTammany held many organette related patents issued in the 1880′s and 1890′s, but but likely the first organette-type instrument, called the Cartonium, was built by J.A. Teste in 1861 in Nantes, France. The first commercial organettes sold in America were produced by The Munroe Organ Reed Company, organized in 1869. Located in Massachusettes, they grew to become one of the market’s premier firms with an [...] Click here to continue reading. Stella Music Boxes Stellas were the swan song for the Mermod Freres company of Ste. Croix, Switzerland. They were vastly over-engineered which led to extremely high production costs. This ultimately led to bankruptcy for Mermod; they could not compete profitably in a market dominated by Symphonion, Polyphon, and Regina, all of whom could produce comparably sized boxes at much lower cost, most of which were musically superior to the Stella product. Stellas do have [...] Click here to continue reading. |
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