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Alpheus Babcock
Alpheus Babcock (September 11, 1785 – April 3, 1842) was a piano and musical instrument maker in Boston, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the early 19th century. Babcock is best known for patenting a complete iron frame in a single casting used to resist the strain of the strings in square pianos, he also patented a system of stringing in squares, and improvements in piano actions. Biography Babcock was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood comprising more than in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, E ..., and worked for musical instrument maker Benjamin Crehore (d.1828) before 1809. He established a workshop and music warehouse in Boston with brother Lewis at 44½ Newbury Street, but by 1812 they entered a partnership with organ maker Thomas Appleton (1785–1872) with workshop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal temperament. A musician who specializes in piano is called a pianist. There are two main types of piano: the #Grand, grand piano and the #Upupright piano. The grand piano offers better sound and more precise key control, making it the preferred choice when space and budget allow. The grand piano is also considered a necessity in venues hosting skilled pianists. The upright piano is more commonly used because of its smaller size and lower cost. When a key is depressed, the strings inside are struck by felt-coated wooden hammers. The vibrations are transmitted through a Bridge (instrument), bridge to a Soundboard (music), soundboard that amplifies the sound by Coupling (physics), coupling the Sound, acoustic energy t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mungo Mackay
Mungo Mackay (April 1, 1740 – March 29, 1811) was a Scottish people, Scottish seafarer from the Orkney Islands who made a fortune in the Boston shipping trades in Massachusetts. Mungo was a highly regarded ship master, successful privateer owner and bonder, and operated a store on Long Wharf (Boston), Long Wharf in Boston. He was also active in the politics of the town of Boston and the Masonic Order in Boston. His legacy includes the Alpheus Babcock and Jonas Chickering piano manufacturing establishments. Early achievements in Boston Mungo Mackay was born in Holm Paplay parish, near Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, in 1740 to Alexander Mackay, who was married to Elizabeth Keith. Mungo made his way to Boston in about 1755, as a cabin boy, according to family tradition. By about 1760 he was deeply involved in shipping, and became a Master by 1764. He married Ruth Coney in 1763, and their first child, Mungo, Jr. was born in 1765. Ruth was a grandniece of John Coney (silversmith), John ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Musical Instrument Makers
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label that was previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
19th-century American Inventors
The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanded beyond its British homeland for the first time during the 19th century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, France, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Catholic Church, in response to the growing influence and power of modernism, secularism and materialism, formed the First Vatican Council in the late 19th century to deal with such problems and confirm ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artisans From Philadelphia
An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food items, household items, and tools and mechanisms such as the handmade clockwork movement of a watchmaker. Artisans practice a craft and may through experience and aptitude reach the expressive levels of an artist. History The adjective "artisanal" is often used in describing hand-processing in contrast to an industrial process, such as in the phrase ''artisanal mining''. Thus, "artisanal" is sometimes used in marketing and advertising as a buzz word to describe or imply some relation with the crafting of handmade food products, such as bread, beverages, cheese or textiles. Many of these have traditionally been handmade, rural or pastoral goods but are also now commonly made on a larger scale with automated mechanization in factories and oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People From Dorchester, Boston
The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation. Concepts Legal Chapter One, Article One of the Charter of the United Nations states that "peoples" have the right to self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la .... Though the mere status as peoples and the right to self-determination, as for example in the case of Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous peoples (''peoples'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1842 Deaths
Events January–March * January 6–January 13, 13 – First Anglo-Afghan War – Massacre of Elphinstone's army (Battle of Gandamak): British East India Company troops are destroyed by Afghan forces on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Wazir Akbar Khan, Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammad Khan (Emir of Afghanistan), Dost Mohammad Khan. * January 8 – Delft University of Technology is established by William II of the Netherlands, as a 'Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers'. * January 23 – Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross, charting the eastern side of James Ross Island, reaches a Farthest South of 78°09'30"S. * January ** Michael Alexander (bishop), Michael Alexander takes office, as the first appointee to the Anglican-German Bishopric in Jerusalem. ** United States, American medical student William E. Clarke of Berkshire Medical College becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic, to facilitate a surgical procedure. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1785 Births
Events January–March * January 1 ** The Burmese Konbaung Dynasty annexes the Mrauk U Kingdom of Arakan. ** The first issue of the ''Daily Universal Register'', later known as ''The Times'', is published in London. * January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air. * January 11 – Richard Henry Lee is elected as President of the U.S. Congress of the Confederation.''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p167 * January 20 – Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút: Invading Siamese forces, attempting to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong River by the Tây Sơn. * January 27 – The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston Directory
''The Boston Directory'' of Boston, Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ..., was first published in 1789. It contained "a list of the merchants, mechanics, traders, and others, of the town of Boston; in order to enable strangers to find the residence of any person." Also included were listings for public officials, doctors, bank directors, and firemen. The directory was issued annually after 1825; previously it had appeared irregularly. The number of listings in each directory reflected fluctuations in the population size of Boston. In 1789, the directory included some 1,474 listings; by 1875, there were 126,769.Advertisement for Boston Directory. Boston Almanac, 1875. Publishers included John Norman (1789); John West (1796-1803); Edward Cotton (1805-1818) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Mackay (Boston Industrialist)
John Mackay (1774–1841) was a well known and successful ship master and early industrialist in Boston, Massachusetts. John Mackay was born in Boston and he participated in the Mackay family business of shipping started by his father and uncle. He partnered with and financed Alpheus Babcock and Jonas Chickering in early piano manufacturing by using some of his legacy from his wealthy uncle Mungo Mackay. Early life John Mackay was the son of the Scottish immigrant Alexander Mackay (1747–1801) and his Boston born wife Ruth Decoster(1742–1833). John Mackay learned the shipping trades as a young man from his father and his uncle Mungo Mackay. John Mackay became a member of the Boston Marine Society on February 3, 1796. During this early period he sailed ships to foreign ports to obtain cargo for the Boston market. He was aided by the trade contacts his uncle Mungo Mackay had built up, and by some of the sons of Mungo Mackay who were located on islands in the Caribbean as agents. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a population of 675,647 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Northeastern United States after New York City and Philadelphia. The larger Greater Boston metropolitan statistical area has a population of 4.9 million as of 2023, making it the largest metropolitan area in New England and the Metropolitan statistical area, eleventh-largest in the United States. Boston was founded on Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by English Puritans, Puritan settlers, who named the city after the market town of Boston, Lincolnshire in England. During the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, Boston was home to several seminal events, incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonas Chickering
Jonas Chickering (April 5, 1798 – December 8, 1853) was a piano manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts. Jonas Chickering was born in Mason Village, and raised in nearby New Ipswich, New Hampshire where his father Abner Chickering kept a farm and worked as a blacksmith. Chickering apprenticed three years as a cabinet maker with John Gould. In 1818 Chickering removed to Boston with Gould's permission, working for cabinet-maker James Baker, but one year later began working for pianomaker John Osborn at 12 Orange Street. In 1823, Chickering formed a partnership with pianomaker James Stewart; they produced 15 pianos the first year at workshops at 20 Common street and sold their first piano on June 23, 1823, for $275. Stewart & Chickering dissolved after four years, and in 1830 Chickering became associated with John Mackay, a merchant, as well as organ and pianomaker who had worked with Alpheus Babcock, doing business as Chickering & Co. at 416 Washington street. In 1837 Chickerin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
