White

Biography

This individual, surnamed White, was elected president of a New York piano corporation whose earlier history is recounted on a preceding page not included in this excerpt (the corporation is linked to the Waters family, whose member Merrill K. Waters served as its secretary). The text characterizes White as an indefatigable worker, quiet and conservative in temperament, who never allowed personal ambition to override sound business judgment. Rather than expand output for its own sake, he was content to manufacture a limited number of pianos, each of which he could conscientiously guarantee as good value for the money received. Under the arrangement described, the firm conducted mainly a retail business through two stores, located on lower Fifth Avenue and West Forty-second Street in New York, and by the time of writing had established, over a career of sixty-eight years, an enviable reputation in the trade. White is named by Dolge, together with Parker, as co-holder of a player-piano patent referred to as the "White-Parker" patent. Dolge compares the White-Parker approach with Edwin Votey's, noting that the three inventors worked, at the same time, along entirely different mechanical lines to achieve the same goal of automating piano performance. No further identifying or biographical detail (including a given name) is provided in the text.

Highlights

• Co-holder, with Parker, of a player-piano patent that Dolge contrasts with Votey's differing mechanical approach
• Elected president of a long-established New York piano corporation associated with the Waters family
• Described as an indefatigable, quiet and conservative businessman who deliberately limited output to guarantee quality

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911); Vol. II (1913), p. 195.

Public domain.