Rudolf Kreter

Biography

Rudolf Kreter, a New York inventor, patented a hammer-covering machine in 1850, one of two such American patents that year. Dolge describes it as 'most ingenious but very complicated,' noting its main fault was that manifold attached springs and levers made it impossible to use felt over half an inch thick, at a time when the trade wanted larger, heavier hammers. Despite this limitation, the machine contained many elements that reappeared in later hammer-covering machines. It came into the possession of Alfred Dolge in 1871, who eventually sold it as a curiosity to Brooks of London. Kreter's iron-frame design was later used as the starting pattern for Benjamin Collins' improved machine of about 1863. From Spillane (1890): Rudolph Kreter was the inventor of a machine capable of covering a whole set of piano hammer-heads with felt in a single operation, which he patented (No. 9526) and assigned in advance to Nunns & Clark. The firm began using the machine as early as 1850 and, through it, became among the first anywhere to adopt the improved method of hammer-covering -- a development Spillane credits with marking an era in the acoustic and musical development of the pianoforte. Kreter's original machine later passed into the hands of Alfred Dolge in 1870 and was subsequently sent to Brooks & Company of London.

Highlights

• Patented a hammer-covering machine in New York in 1850, described as 'ingenious but very complicated'
• Machine's manifold springs and levers limited it to felt no thicker than half an inch, despite demand for larger, heavier hammers
• Machine was acquired by Alfred Dolge in 1871 and eventually sold as a curiosity to Brooks of London
• Invented and patented (No. 9526) a machine that covered a whole set of piano hammer-heads with felt in one operation
• Assigned his hammer-covering patent to Nunns & Clark, which used the machine as early as 1850
• His original machine later passed to Alfred Dolge in 1870

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 99.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 153, 154.

Public domain.