Frank C. White

Biography

Frank C. White represented the third generation of a family credited with imprinting its inventive capacity on the pneumatic-automatic musical instrument industry, said to have inherited the combined inventive faculties of his grandfather and father while adding a superior grasp of modern technical developments unavailable to his forbears. By the time he took charge of the Wilcox and White Company's factories in Meriden, Connecticut, the firm's Angelus player mechanism was already an established success occupying a leading position in the field; it fell to White to maintain that position against numerous competitors. He is credited with twenty United States patents for improvements to the player-piano mechanism, including work on the tracker board, music sheets, means for producing perforated note sheets, an adjustable finger manual for cabinet piano-players, and self-opening and closing pedal arrangements. His most notable patents, granted April 23, 1912, covered controlling and expression devices allowing the solo, accompaniment, and soft pedal to be operated independently or simultaneously by a single lever. White, son of James Henry White, was placed in charge of the mechanical department of the Wilcox & White factory after the deaths of his uncles Edward and Howard White. The text describes him as always having a decidedly inventive turn of mind, crediting him with many valuable improvements and devices that helped make the Angelus player piano world renowned.

Highlights

• Son of James Henry White
• Placed in charge of the factory's mechanical department after the deaths of Edward and Howard White
• Credited with valuable improvements and devices that made the Angelus world renowned
• Represented the third generation of a White family credited with inventive contributions to the pneumatic-automatic musical instrument industry
• Took charge of the Wilcox and White factories after the Angelus player mechanism was already an established success, and worked to maintain its leading position against competitors
• Held twenty United States patents for player-piano mechanism improvements, including an April 23, 1912 controlling device and expression-controlling mechanism covering the solo, accompaniment, and soft pedal

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911); Vol. II (1913), pp. 200, 201.

Public domain.