Theodore P. Brown

Biography

Theodore P. Brown of Worcester is described in Alfred Dolge's history of the player piano as the inventor who succeeded where P. J. Bailey's electric self-playing device had failed. After completing pianos fitted with Bailey's unsuccessful mechanism, Brown was granted patents for an interior player mechanism under dates of April 7, June 15, and December 7 and 14, 1897. Pianos containing his mechanism were marketed under the name 'Aeriol Pianos' and proved commercially successful. In 1898 Brown sold his patents to the Aeolian Company, and, following the example set by the Wilcox & White Company, went on to construct a cabinet player of his own design. Brown was the inventor of an interior player-piano mechanism dated 1897, which the trade came to know as the "Simplex." Dolge illustrates Brown's device as an example of the cabinet/interior player technology that briefly competed with, and was eventually eclipsed by, external player-piano attachments such as Edwin Votey's Pianola. No further biographical detail about Brown is given in this portion of the text.

Highlights

• Of Worcester; granted patents for an interior player mechanism (April 7, June 15, December 7 and 14, 1897) after P. J. Bailey's electric self-playing device failed
• His pianos, marketed as 'Aeriol Pianos,' proved a commercial success
• In 1898 sold his patents to the Aeolian Company and, following the example of the Wilcox & White Company, went on to build a cabinet player
• Invented the Interior Player of 1897, known in the trade as the "Simplex"

Source

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

Public domain.