Isaac Clark

inventor patent holder piano maker

Biography

Isaac Clark, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was granted a United States piano patent of a general nature on March 2, 1836, which included overstringing among its features. Spillane notes this patent preceded J. Goodwin's London overstringing patent by about six days, giving Clark a claim to priority, subject to Spillane's separate argument that Thomas Loud had already practiced overstringing even earlier. Isaac Clark, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was granted a patent on March 2, 1836, discussed by Spillane in an earlier chapter and partly quoted here: it described a metal frame with the sounding-board slung on, and a peculiar overstrung positioning of the strings, with the treble nearly at right angles to the bass and crossed over it.

Highlights

Granted a United States piano patent of a general nature including overstringing on March 2, 1836, about six days before J. Goodwin's London patent for the same principle.
Of Cincinnati, Ohio; granted a patent on March 2, 1836 for a metal frame with sounding-board and an overstrung stringing arrangement

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 40, 180.

Public domain.

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