Lemuel Gilbert

Biography

Lemuel Gilbert of Boston was described as one of those versatile inventors never satisfied with building a plain piano. He experimented extensively with upright pianos fitted with all sorts of attachments, among them a piano with an Aeolian Attachment that made quite a sensation for a time and was later sold by Horace Waters to promote his published hymns. From Spillane (1890): Lemanuel Gilbert was one of two apprentices of John Osborn (with his brother Timothy) who began business independently in Boston in 1829, originally on Washington Street. He left the trade for a period before returning to his old quarters around 1839. In 1841 he was granted a patent for a modification of the square English fly action, and on June 18, 1850, he patented an upright piano action that projected the hammer line close to the strings in a manner resembling the modern soft pedal, among other included improvements. Spillane notes that Gilbert became well known among piano-makers as an expert but did not achieve comparable commercial success to his brother Timothy, and that instruments he examined compared unfavorably to those of Nunns & Clark, Chickering, and Loud Brothers from the same period. Lemanuel Gilbert went out of business in 1863 and died in Boston sometime afterward. Lemanuel Gilbert was among the apprentices trained in John Osborn's Boston shop after Osborn moved to Orange Street in 1819. Spillane names him, together with his fellow apprentice Timothy Gilbert, among the group who went on to become 'subsequently eminent men' in the piano trade, in contrast to other Osborn apprentices of lesser eventual note.

Highlights

• A versatile Boston inventor who experimented with upright pianos fitted with unusual attachments
• Invented the Aeolian Attachment, which Horace Waters used to create a sensation
• Apprenticed in John Osborn's Boston shop, grouped by Spillane among the 'subsequently eminent' trainees.
• Apprenticed under John Osborn before starting his own Boston piano business in 1829.
• Patented a modification of the square English fly action in 1841, and an upright action resembling a soft-pedal arrangement in 1850.
• Went out of business in 1863 and died in Boston sometime afterward.

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), p. 193.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 57, 89, 90.

Public domain.