John Isaac Hawkins

engineer inventor of an upright piano with vertical strings, full iron frame, and check action piano maker inventor patent holder maker civil engineer poet preacher phrenologist

Biography

John Isaac Hawkins of Philadelphia patented an upright piano around 1800, twenty years after Johann Schmidt built the first upright. Hawkins's design featured vertical strings, a full iron frame, and a check action, and Dolge calls it notable for its many ingenious devices. Nonetheless the instrument was not accepted commercially because of its unsatisfactory tone. A. J. Hipkins is quoted describing it as "a remarkable bundle of inventions," but not a genuine musical instrument. Dolge notes that Hawkins was an engineer by profession rather than a trained piano maker or musician, which the text implies may explain the instrument's mechanical ingenuity paired with its tonal shortcomings. An illustration of Hawkins's upright piano, showing its internal vertical-string mechanism, accompanies the text. From Spillane (1890): John Isaac Hawkins was an English civil engineer, poet, preacher, and phrenologist described by piano historian Hipkins as 'the real inventor of the upright piano in its modern and useful form.' While living in Philadelphia around 1800, Hawkins developed a 'cottage piano' or 'portable grand' with perpendicular stringing descending nearly to the floor, a folding keyboard raised to a convenient height, an iron frame with bracing rods, mechanical tuning screws, an upper metal bridge, equal string lengths throughout, and metal action supports; he also experimented with coiled bass strings and sought a sustaining (sostenuto) mechanism. Because Hawkins was not a musical instrument maker by trade, some doubt exists about how much of the actual construction he performed versus a practical maker such as Taws. His father, Isaac Hawkins, filed the English patent for the invention in 1800 on his behalf. Thomas Jefferson admired one of these instruments in Philadelphia in 1800 and ordered one for Monticello. Hawkins abandoned piano making in Philadelphia in 1802 and left the city; his later career is unknown. He is also credited elsewhere with inventing the ever-pointed pencil. John Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman and civil engineer by profession who had lived in Philadelphia for many years, was responsible for the permanent introduction of metal into the piano in America and for producing the first upright approximating the modern instrument's shape. He patented his 'portable grand pianoforte' on February 12, 1800, an instrument extensively using metal, and took a second U.S. patent on October 10, 1800, for improvements in musical instrument construction; his father, Isaac Hawkins, secured British patent rights the same year. Spillane judges Hawkins's pianos to have had little musical value, but credits his ingenuity in the action, the novelty of the case, and his method of slinging the belly within an independent iron frame. Not being formally a piano-maker, Hawkins failed to turn his ideas into a lasting practical success, though his example of using iron and economizing space proved invaluable to successors. His 1800 instrument is described as the first meritorious anticipation of the present upright piano, though soon shown to be of little practical account.

Highlights

Patented an upright piano with vertical strings, a full iron frame, and a check action in Philadelphia about 1800, twenty years after Johann Schmidt's first upright.
A. J. Hipkins described the instrument as "a remarkable bundle of inventions" but not a true musical instrument, owing to its poor tone.
Was an engineer by profession, not primarily a musician or piano maker.
Maker of a pianoforte dated A.D. 1800, illustrated in the text as an example instrument then in the possession of Messrs. Broadwood, London.
Sometimes reported (per the historian Hipkins) to have originally lived in Bordentown, New Jersey, before producing his "portable upright grand," a claim Spillane disputes.
Actually lived in Philadelphia in 1799-1800 and several succeeding years, and took out his patents while residing there.
As early as 1800, carried tuning-pins through the metal "wrest-plank" of his upright pianos in Philadelphia
His idea is cited as an early precursor to Henry Hartye's later patented method
Possibly exported several of his 'portable upright grand' pianos to England in 1800 and 1801, sending them to his father in Manchester
Credited elsewhere in the text with introducing the upright piano and iron plating in piano development.
Appeared as a manufacturer of his specialty instrument in Philadelphia at the end of 1799; his first U.S. patent was granted in February 1800.
Made and sold iron-framed 'portable grands' from 15 South Second Street, advertised at about half the price of imported grand or square pianofortes.
Patented (Feb 12, 1800) the 'portable grand pianoforte,' an early upright piano that made extensive use of metal
Took out a second U.S. patent (Oct 10, 1800) for improvements in musical instrument construction, and his father secured British patent rights the same year
Devised the method of slinging the piano's belly within an independent iron frame; produced, per Spillane, the first meritorious anticipation of the modern upright, though it proved of little practical or musical value
Invented the modern upright piano ('cottage piano'/'portable grand') while living in Philadelphia around 1800
His father, Isaac Hawkins, patented the invention in England in 1800
Thomas Jefferson admired and ordered one of his pianos for Monticello in 1800

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 53.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 29, 30, 33, 81, 82, 83.

Public domain.

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