Thomas Loud, Jr.

Biography

Thomas Loud, Jr. was one of four sons of the emigrant Loud who composed the Philadelphia firm of Loud Brothers. On May 15, 1827 he patented an ingenious but commercially unsuccessful down-striking square piano action. In 1835 he patented a cast metal plate with compensating tubes, modeled on the London-patented Thoms & Allen plate and adapting Alpheus Babcock's earlier iron-frame scheme, with tubes seated in sockets cast into a two-piece frame. On December 7, 1837 he patented a further extension of this plate idea together with two new square actions, none of which survived commercially, though his compensating tubes were widely (if imperfectly) adopted by New York makers from 1838 and soon after in Albany. Loud Brothers failed around 1831-1837 after an unsuccessful North Carolina gold-mine investment. Thomas afterward assisted his son, Thomas C. Loud, in rebuilding the family's piano business, which flourished until about 1848. His last patent, covering a piano action, was granted in 1847 but proved of little consequence. was a Philadelphia piano maker in business as early as 1816, located at Prune and Fifth streets in 1817. In 1818 he took his brother John into partnership as Thomas & John Loud, moving to 361 High (now Market) Street; in 1822 a second brother, Philologus, joined, and the firm became Loud Brothers. By 1824 Loud Brothers was the most extensive piano-making concern in the country, claiming 680 instruments produced that year, and the firm exhibited prominently at the 1825 Franklin Institute exhibition, winning the premium for best upright piano (though losing the square-piano premium to Alpheus Babcock of Boston). Loud also patented piano actions and separable plates with compensating tubes on December 7, 1837. In 1826 the firm built an extraordinarily elaborate and expensive seven-and-a-half-octave grand piano for an eccentric Louisiana planter named Gordon, said to be the most remarkable instrument made in the United States up to that time, though reportedly musically worthless. Thomas Loud, Jr., of Philadelphia, took out a United States patent in Washington on May 15, 1827, for a down-striking piano action similar to the one Jean Henri Pape publicly exhibited in Paris later that year. Spillane argues that Loud clearly anticipated the French maker, citing evidence that Loud had shown the editor of the Franklin Institute Journal the basis of his technical scheme at his Philadelphia shop as early as April 1826, well in advance of filing his patent, which he applied for only after completing his experiments to his satisfaction. is identified by Spillane, through correspondence with a family member, as the father of Thomas C. Loud and probably the son of the London Thomas Loud, Sr. He must have been established in Philadelphia as early as 1811. It is unclear from the record whether he and his brothers came from London to America separately or together, sometime before 1824.

Highlights

• Of Philadelphia; patented a down-striking piano action in Washington on May 15, 1827, anticipating Jean Henri Pape's similar French invention.
• Demonstrated the invention to the editor of the Franklin Institute Journal at his Philadelphia shop in April 1826, before filing for the patent.
• In business in Philadelphia as early as 1816; took brother John into partnership in 1818, forming Thomas & John Loud, and brother Philologus in 1822, forming Loud Brothers.
• By 1824 Loud Brothers was the most extensive piano-making firm in the country, producing 680 instruments that year.
• Patented piano actions and separable plates with compensating tubes on December 7, 1837.
• In 1826 built an extravagant seven-and-a-half-octave grand for the eccentric planter Gordon, the most elaborate pianoforte made in the U.S. up to that time.
• Patented a down-striking square piano action on May 15, 1827
• Patented a cast metal plate with compensating tubes in 1835, modeled on Thoms & Allen's London-patented plate
• Patented a further extension of the plate idea and two new square actions on December 7, 1837, and a final action patent in 1847
• Believed to be the son of Thomas Loud, Sr. of London and the father of Thomas C. Loud
• Established in Philadelphia by at least 1811, founding the Loud family's Philadelphia piano-making line

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 27, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 179.

Public domain.