P. F. Fischer

Biography

P. F. Fischer of London was granted a patent in 1835 for a method of producing piano hammer felt that was firm on one side and soft on the other, formed in sheets that tapered in thickness. According to the author, this description is identical to the invention of Henri Pape and can undoubtedly be traced back to Pape rather than originating with Fischer himself. Fischer's patent nonetheless represents one of the first documented attempts to formalize the manufacture of piano hammer felt in England, at a time when the felting trade was otherwise conducted as a house industry. No further biographical detail about Fischer is given in this text. Fischer of London, described as a friend of Henri Pape, obtained an English patent for piano hammer felt two years after Alpheus Babcock's 1833 Boston patent for a felt-covered hammer -- placing Fischer's patent around 1835. Dolge surmises, however, that this patent really represents an invention of Pape's, who was independently experimenting at that time with hair felt made from cut-up beaver hats. From Spillane (1890): Pierre Frederick Fischer, a merchant of Marlborough Street, London, was granted a British patent in 1835 whose specification dealt at length with "overstringing" and the manufacture and use of woollen felt in pianos. Fischer claimed the improvements had been "communicated to him from abroad" and was not personally involved beyond the legal filing. Comparing Fischer's patent specification with Jean Henri Pape's own contemporaneous writings on felt and stringing, Spillane concludes that Pape was likely Fischer's friend and the real party interested in the patent, a connection overlooked by Hipkins and other English authorities on the piano.

Highlights

• A friend of Henri Pape who obtained an English patent for piano hammer felt about two years after Babcock's 1833 Boston patent
• Dolge suggests the patented invention was really Pape's, not Fischer's own
• Received an 1835 London patent for a piano hammer felt firm on one side and soft on the other, made in tapering sheets
• His patented description is identical to Henri Pape's invention, suggesting the idea originated with Pape
• Of London; his patent of May 13th, 1835, set forth a method of hammer-felt making that anticipated early French felt manufacturers
• Merchant of Marlborough Street, London; obtained a British patent in 1835 covering overstringing and woollen felt, which Spillane argues was really Jean Henri Pape's invention communicated through Fischer.

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 98, 121.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), p. 28.

Public domain.