Babcock

Biography

Babcock, a Boston piano-maker, relocated to Philadelphia in December 1829 after having manufactured pianos in Boston together with his former agent, Klem. In 1830 he took out a patent for cross-stringing pianofortes along with an iron ring for string-hitching purposes, a device the text says gave rise to the phrase "Babcock's iron ring." The author argues Babcock continued using his iron plates for several years after 1830 and that surviving instruments demonstrate he understood the practical value of his invention. The text discusses a controversy over whether Conrad Meyer's later iron-plate exhibits were derived from or identical to Babcock's work, suggesting that since Babcock lived in Philadelphia in 1833, he may have permitted Meyer to use his invention. While defending Babcock's priority as an inventor, the author does not claim his frame was fully modern, describing it instead as a preparatory step toward Chickering's 1837 plate and, ultimately, Steinway's improved overstrung grand plate of 1859. Elsewhere his name is invoked, alongside Stewart and Hiskey, as one still remembered by history.

Highlights

• Patented "cross-stringing pianofortes" together with an iron hitch-pin ring in 1830, giving rise to the term "Babcock's iron ring"
• Moved from Boston to Philadelphia in December 1829, having begun manufacturing in Boston in conjunction with his former agent, Klem
• His iron-frame work is presented as a link between early pre-1825 attempts and Chickering's 1837 plate and Steinway's 1859 overstrung grand plate

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 123, 129.

Public domain.