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Carhart & Needham
| Name | Carhart & Needham |
| Ortssitz | New York City |
| Straße | Twenty-third Street |
| Art des Unternehmens | Melodeon-Fabrik |
| Quellenangaben | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 156] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 1846 |
Jeremiah Carhart erhält nach jahrelangen Versuchen ein Patent für eine neue Art von Melodeon (Ziehharmonika) und schließt sich mit E. P. Needham zusammen, der auch aus Buffalo stammt. |
| 1848 |
Umzug von Buffalo nach New York |
| 1854 |
Errichtung der Fabrik |
| 1859 |
Eine Erfindung von E. P. Needham wird patentiert. |
| Produkt |
ab |
Bem. |
bis |
Bem. |
Kommentar |
| Akkordeons |
1868 |
[Bishop: Hist. of Amer. manuf. I (1868)] |
1868 |
[Bishop: Hist. of Amer. manuf. I (1868)] |
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| ZEIT | 1868 |
| THEMA | Firmenbeschreibung |
| TEXT | Is one of the most noteworthy manufactories in the city of New York, for its great variety of novel, ingenious, and beautiful machinery. It was erected in 1854, especially for the purpose to which it is applied, and is in the form of a T, the main building fronting on Twenty-third street, being seventy-eight by thirty-five, six stories in height, and the extension sixty-five by thirty-five, five stories high, including the basement. The engine and drying rooms, and lumber rooms, are detached from the factory, and occupy a large space in the rear. The history of the firm of Carhart & Needham dates from 1846, when Jeremiah Carhart, who, after many years of experiments, had received in that year a patent for a new form of Melodeon, became associated with E. P. Needham, also of Buffalo, for its manufacture. The novelty of the invention consisted principally in the construction of a suction bellows, by which the wind was drawn through the reed, instead of being forcibly expelled through it, as in the accordeon. This being accomplished, the next labor to which Mr. Carhart devoted himself, was to invent a machine to make, rivet, and plane the reeds to the proper size and thickness, together with a tube board to hold the reeds when finished. He not only succeeded in this, but invented a new reed, the peculiarity of which is that it is held by the thickness and hot the edge. All the obstacles in the way of doing this were overcome, and now those wonderful machines are doing their work so effectively, that the firm supply nearly all the reeds used in the trade, with the exception of two firms, which pay them a royalty for the privilege of manufacturing. A reed, in the technology of musical mechanism, is not, as the name might imply, a species of cane, but a small tongue of metal, usually brass, inserted in an opening or slot in a block with one end free, which, by vibration, makes the sound, and the order of the sound, constitutes the melody. The raw material of the reed is simply a strip of brass, about a tenth of an inch thick, and two or three inches wide. The blank is cut out by a die, and then passed under a machine invented by Mr. Carhart, which, in one operation, planes the two sides and one face. One of the most effective of the small machines in this establishment, is that which rivets the reed to the block, and performs work that would require twenty men to do in the old method by hand. There is no pin or solid rivet in the reed or its block, but two raised heads, crossed with lines, are pushed up out of the reed block by this machine, or, as it is technically called, upset. After the reed is in its place in the block, it is planed on top, and as the thickness of the reed is less at the base than at the free end, the tone of the reed is determined by this planing. So accurately does this planing machine work, that the reed, when finished in it, is within a sixteenth of a true note, and requires only a little adjustment, or filing, to make it perfect. But probably the most remarkable machine in this establishment, is the one invented by Mr. Carhart for cutting the cells or tubes in the reed board, and the groove in which the reed block is placed. This machine is automatic, and the strip of plank, out of which the board is made, having been placed in a certain position, the cutter goes on and produces all the cells with a regularity and exactitude that is astonishing. This machine deserves to rank with the automatic lathe of Blanchard, for it is not only capable of executing work in straight lines, but also carves scrolls with such nicety and rapidity, that no hand work can approach it. The cutters revolve with great velocity - -seven thousand seven hundred times a minute - and the speed of the driving belt is just one mile in a minute. The groove in which the reed block is set, and which is about one tenth of an inch wide and deep, is made by the same machine; and as each groove is an exact fac-simile of the other, those made years ago will fit any reed block made to-day. A very important improvement affecting the shape, convenience, and simplicity of Harmoniums, or other large reed instruments, was made by the invention of E. P. Needham, patented in 1859, by which two or more actions are placed in rows, one above the other, in the manner of shelves or successive segments, each horizontal row divided in the middle to form two registers, and any one may be removed at any time, or exposed for repairs, with extreme facility. The invention also included an arrangement for combining the actions with the bellows. The firm of Carhart & Needham, since their removal from Buffalo to New York in 1848, have made about fifteen thousand Melodeons and Harmoniums, and are now using from fifty to sixty sets of five-octave reeds a week. Their manufactures include every grade of the reed instrument, from the small single-banked Melodeon, to the large Library or Hall Organ, with its fourteen sets of reeds, of remarkable variety and power, its splendid pedal tones, and its rich and imposing case. Probably the finest instrument ever constructed was one exhibited at a recent Fair of the American Institute in New York, consisting of two banks of keys, two octaves of pedals, and fourteen ranks of reeds, arranged one over the other, filling the case to its whole height, and affording a variety of stops not to be found in any other reed instrument. In this, they achieved what had never before been accomplished, namely, in making a thirty-two feet reed produce a full, deep, rich, and powerful tone, that can only be equalled in a Pipe Organ; and as a thirty-two feet pipe could not, by any possibility, be placed in a pipe organ of the size of the Reed Organ, the latter has, in this respect, a decided advantage. An eminent musical critic remarks : "On the ordinary Parlor Organ, when a full chord is taken by both hands, only sixteen reeds are set in vibration; but in the Library Organ, the same chord sets in vibration one hundred and sixteen reeds. The power of the latter, in comparison with the former, is thus clearly indicated. The workmanship of the whole instrument was so singularly beautiful, the voicing of the stops was so perfect, the variety so admirable, and the capacity for effects so large and so superior to any other instrument of its class, that it excited universal admiration, and was unanimously awarded the Gold Medal by the public, long before the judges confirmed that opinion by their action." |
| QUELLE | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 156] |
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