USA > New York > Queens County > Long Island City > History of Long Island City, New York. A record of its early settlement and corporate progress. Sketches of the villages that were absorbed in the growth of the present municipality. Its business, finance, manufactures, and form of government, with some notice of the men who built the city > Part 5
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Their success was assured from the first by their thorough mastery of the trade and art of piano- making and the infinite pains they devoted to their initial production. They gained standing in the regard of the critical professional element, and there was soon a demand for their work. Soon out- growing their very limited original quarters, where, with about ten workmen, they produced one square piano per week, they secured more commodious ones at 88 Walker street, a few doors east of Broadway. In March, 1854, when they had been but one year in operation, they received their earliest official testimonial of appreciation in the form of the first premium from the judges at the Metropolitan Fair, held at Washington, D. C., for the best three and two-stringed instruments. In the fall, of the same year, they experienced a further gratification in the securing of the first prize, a gold medal, at the American Institute Fair, in the Crystal Palace, in New York.
In the following year they exhibited at the latter place a square piano constructed on a new system, which received the unanimous verdict of the jury, and was awarded a gold medal in compe- tition with all the principal piano manufacturers of the country. This new invention may be briefly described as an overstrung, square piano, in which the newly constructed iron frame was so applied as to secure its benefits to the durability and capacity of standing in tune, while the nasal, thin tone, which had heretofore characterized pianos with the iron frame, was done away with, and a lasting tone, of full harmonious quality, produced. This new system of construction achieved so great a success that Steinway & Sons invariably received the first prize at every art exhibition in which they partici- pated, and the new method soon became, and has since remained, the standard for square pianos, and is now used by all manufacturers. The business of the firm increased to such an extent that in 1858 they purchased almost all the entire block of ground bounded by Fourth and Lexington avenues, Fifty-second and Fifty-third streets, on which a model factory was erected during 1859, and occupied in April, 1860. In 1863 it was found necessary to add the southern wing, by which the building was brought to its present colossal proportions. The architecture of the building is of the modern Italian style; it is built in the most solidly substantial manner, of the best brick, with lintel arches of the same, and brick dental cornices. The side wings are separated from the main front building by solid walls, extending from basement to roof; passageways running through them, each of which is provided with double iron doors on either side, so that in the event of a fire occurring only that portion of the building in which it originated can be destroyed. The factory buildings proper cover twenty city lots, the whole property consisting of twenty-six lots, with a street frontage of 892 feet. The floors of the New York factory buildings have a surface of 175, 140 square feet. Beneath the yard there are fire-proof vaults for the storage of coal, and here are also placed four steam boilers, aggregating 340 horse-power, by which the necessary amount of stcam is generated for the 76,000 feet of pipe used in heating the workshops and driving a large steam engine, this in turn putting in motion the different labor-saving machines. It would require the extent of a goodly sized volume to describe the 165 different planing, sawing, jointing, drilling, mortising, turning, and other machines used in this and the Astoria factory, and to elucidate their various objects; it must, therefore, suffice to state, that from careful and moderate estimate, they replace the hand labor of at least nine hundred work- men, added to which they do all the hard and difficult work, which formerly to so great an extent endangered the health, and even the lives, of the workmen employed in this description of labor. In the meantime the warerooms had remained in Nos. 82 and 84 Walker street, these having been brought into connection with the factory, three and a half miles distant, by a magnetic telegraph built expressly for the purpose. The improvements which had been made in such continuous succession since 1855 by Messrs. Steinway & Sons, and for which they had obtained patents, extended also to the manufacture of grand pianos. In these latter instruments an entirely new system of construction was introduced, with such unqualified success that they were very
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extensively used in the concert room and by musical people generally. Theodore Steinway, in Brunswick, at the same time made pianos of the newly invented construction, on the model of those manufactured by his father and brothers in New York, and as early as the season of 1860-61 many renowned pianists performed on these new grand pianos at their concerts in Germany. Messrs. Steinway & Sons have received for their pianos, from the year 1855 to 1862, at the leading industrial exhibitions in the United States, no less than thirty-five first prize medals; and at the World's Fair, in London, in 1862 the pianos there exhibited by them received the highest recognition and were honored by the award of a first prize medal. The New York warerooms of the firm had beeome the rendezvous of leading artists and connoisseurs, and were soon found totally insufficient in aceommodation for the large dimensions the business had reached.
There was consequently erected in 1863 a depository and sales house, an extensive and handsome marble palace on East 14th Street, between Union Square and the Academy of Music. In connection with this there also arose, through the enterprise and public spirit of this successful honse, the famous Steinway Hall, one of the most celebrated eoneert rooms in America. This building, the public use of which was inaugurated October 31, 1866, with a concert of great distinction, in which Parepa Rosa was the leading singer, in reality contained two halls, one capable of seating two thousand, and the other four hundred persons, and until 1890, when it was rebuilt to give way to the demands of business, it is not an exaggeration to say that it was more prominently identified with the musical history of America than was any other assembly place in the country. It was practically a gift from Steinway & Sons to the musical and art-loving people of the metropolis.
But while pecuniary suecess and artistie achievement were at their very height-while the huge accretion of business had rendered necessary the ereetion of immense buildings, and connoisseurs crowded the salesrooms of the firm and vied with each other in praise of the great excellence that had been given to the Steinway instruments-the talented family that had labored together as a unit for the aceomplishment of these results met with its first great bercavement. Death twice invaded that devoted family circle in the year 1865. Henry, the third son, suceumbed on the 11th of March to disease which had depressed him for several years, and Charles, the second son, while on a European tour, died in Brunswiek, Germany, of typhoid fever, on the 31st of the same month and year.
It was in consequence of these misfortunes that C. F. Theodore Steinway, the eldest son, who had remained in Germany and carried on there a very suceessful business in the manufacture of pianos, gave up his individual enterprise at Brunswick, and, coming to New York in October, 1865, merged his fortune with that of the family, the business being thus continued by Henry E. Steinway, the father, and his three remaining sons, William, Theodore, and Albert. William Steinway retained special charge of the financial and business affairs of the firm. The new member of the firm became the scientific director, and many of the succeeding triumphs of the house were attributable to his skill and inventiveness. He brought with him from the fatherland several experienced workmen, who became the nucleus for the great department soon organized for the manufacture of the upright piano which William Steinway had patented June 9, 1866, and were introduced and brought to such great popularity that it took precedence over all others. The square piano has now become extinct, and ninety-seven per eent. of all the pianos manufactured in the United States are now uprights, and, in a greater or less degree, imitations of those first construeted and. patented by William and Theodore Steinway.
The valuable improvements made in this form of piano by the Steinways were various, but the most important-which amounted, in fact, to an entire new construction and included the introdue- tion of a double iron frame and numerous devices which secured a sustained singing tone of pure and sympathetic quality, together with the eapability of standing long in tunc-were embodied in said patent of June 5, 1866. Another very pronounced improvement, made applicable to the grand as well as upright piano, was "the Steinway metallic tubular frame action," patented in 1868. It was by this invention that the touch of these instruments was brought to its present perfection and un- changeableness by atmospheric influences.
As one of the first results of the earlier of these improvements came an unprecedented triumph in the Universal Exposition in Paris in the year 1867. The Steinways competed there with consider- able confidenee, and yet they were searcely prepared for the honor which they received. They were awarded by the unanimous verdict of the jury the first prize grand gold medals on all three styles, grand, square, and upright pianos. This gave the Steinway piano a prestige and primacy abroad, as
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
well as in America, and a world-wide fame, which constantly grew more pronounced as one great artist after another added his encomium of praise to the verdict of the Universal Exposition Jury of Awards. Of these expressions the keynote was sounded when Dr. Joseph Joachim said: "Steinway is to the pianist what Stradivari is to the violinist." Felicien David gave speedy evidence of his recognition of the superlative achievement of the firm, and Franz Liszt, the great Richard Wagner, Anton Rubinstein, and the celebrated French composer, Charles Gounod, soon followed with spon- taneous and enthusiastic congratulations. These were only the first few among the famous music masters of the world who, sooner or later, paid tribute to the winners of the triumph.
As these results were reached, Henry Englehard Steinway was approaching the allotted span of life-the three score and ten years of the psalmist's promise. He lived a few years beyond it, in semi-retirement, and beheld the culmination of his long lifetime of well-directed endeavor experienc. ing with praiseworthy and profound gratification the crowning of his labors. His last active duties, of any considerable moment, were in the superintendence of the erection of Steinway Hall, in 1866, and he died, after a short illness, Feb. 7, 1871, aged seventy-four years.
By virtue of his abilities and his inborn strength of character, he, an orphan boy, became one of the greatest manufacturers in his special industry, not only of his own country, but of the world; and died universally regretted and lovingly remembered by all who had known him, as was evidenced by the many kindly obituaries which appeared at the time of his death. His remains were interred by the side of his sons Charles and Henry, Jr., and his youngest daughter Anna, in the family vault on Chapel Hill, Greenwood Cemetery, which the deceased had caused to be erected during 1869-70 at a cost of $80,000. This mausoleum, built of granite, is one of the most imposing structures of Green- wood Cemetery.
The year 1877 again brought misfortune to the family, Mr. Albert Steinway dying of typhoid fever, May 14, 1877, after an illness of two weeks, aged nearly thirty-seven years; and Julia Stein- way, his mother, the widow of Henry Steinway, Sr., dying August 9 following, aged nearly seventy- four years.
Following the example of their revered father, the surviving sons industriously toiled on in their several spheres as is shown by the following biographical sketches. .
C. F. THEODORE STEINWAY.
C. F. Theodore Steinway, at the time of his decease, head (together with his brother William), of the great piano manufacturing house of Steinway & Sons, New York, was born November 6, 1825, in Seesen, near the city of Brunswick, Germany. Being the oldest son, his early history was closely interwoven with the development of the business career of his father, the late Henry E. Steinway, whose portrait and biography are given in preceding pages. The subject of this sketch received his first tuition in music in 1833, and until the year 1839 attended the celebrated high school of the Jacobsohn Institute at his native town. At this time young Theodore's highly developed skill in playing the pianoforte, and his aente musical ear, had become too valuable to his father not to be utilized, and, being already able to perfectly tune and regulate a piano, he entered his father's business, and step by step, under his father's careful training, perfected himself in the art of build- ing pianos. As early as August, 1839, he attended and publicly showed off and played the three pianos, viz., one grand, one three-stringed, and one two-stringed square, exhibited by his father at the State Fair in Brunswick, with the celebrated composer Albert Methfessel as chairman of the jury, who, besides granting the First Premium, bestowed the highest encomiums upon the tone and work- manship of the pianos. Dr. Ginsberg, Director of the Jacobsohn Institute, himself a thorough scientist, manifested deep interest toward young Theodore, carefully guiding his scientific education, placing at his disposal the Jacobsohn library and lecture-room, the latter containing all the acoustic and scientific apparatus known at that period. In return Theodore assisted the teachers and profess- ors of acoustics and mathematics in their lectures and experiments. Here it soon became clear to him that a pianoforte in reality is a physical instrument for the production of sound. But the reali- zation of this early-conceived conviction was destined to be delayed for several decades, when Theodore Steinway, as matured inventor and creator of the new system of building pianos, finally and totally abandoned the old school of piano-making, which depended entirely upon autodactic usages, and tenaciously adhered to contradictory systems, unable to stand before the application and tests of
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scientifie principles. But leaving this theme as too voluminous for the object of this biography, we return to the early history of Mr. Theodore Steinway. In May, 1850, when the father, Henry E. Steinway, with his family, emigrated to the United States, young Theodore was free from military service, and this was the principal reason why he was selected to carry on and finish up the father's business. In the year 1852 Mr. Theodore married a highly cultured young lady in his native town, and the cherished idea of winding up business and joining the rest of the family in New York was abandoned, the more so as the social and political conditions of Germany had vastly improved, and with it Mr. Theodore's business, which became so extended and prosperous that in 1859 it was removed to the city of Brunswick, where within a few years he built up a large, lucrative business, the reputation of which extended all over central Europe. In 1862 he met his brother Henry. Jr.,
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at the World's Fair in London, where Steinway & Sons were awarded a First Prize Medal for their pianos exhibited on that occasion. In May, 1864, Mr. Theodore and his wife made a trip of pleasure and recreation to New York, when the whole family-father, mother, five sons and two daughters- were for the first and last time reunited. In March, 1865, great private misfortunes fell upon the family, the second son, Charles, succumbing to an attack of typhoid fever while on a visit of reerca- tion to Brunswiek, Germany, and the third son, Henry, who had been ill for several years, dying in New York. These misfortunes were the direet cause of Mr. Theodore's removal to New York, for though himself in affluent cireuinstances, the sole possessor of a lucrative celebrated piano manufac- tory, his loyalty and devotion to the family and his aged parents outweighed all other considerations.
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
In October, 1865, Mr. Theodore accompanied by his wife, arrived in New York, entered as full partner in the business of Steinway & Sons, and became scientific director of the factory, to which he devoted his inventive genius and energy, while his brother William, continued in the mercantile and financial affairs of the firm. In 1866 they erected Steinway Hall, the splendid acoustic properties of which are well known and appreciated by artists and musicians. With every circumstance and advan- tage favorable, Mr. Theodore Steinway's inventive genius rapidly developed. HIe first constructed upright pianos, which were able to stand the effects of the severe North American climate as well as the grand and square had done. £ Inferior French upright pianos had created widespread prejudice against upright models, particularly against poor American imitations.
In Germany his upright pianos had achieved much reputation. He had also brought along work- men highly skilled in making such instruments. These men formed the nucleus of a department for the manufacture of upright pianos in New York. Though great success attended the venture, and upright pianos of superior tone, touch, and durability were constructed, yet a great obstacle was met in the disinclination of workmen, who had been trained to make grand and square instruments, to learn the making of uprights. But Theodore was nothing daunted. His energy, perseverance, and
PROTESTANT UNION CHURCH, STEINWAY.
skill introduced the new instruments, and now they are preferred by the American public to the square pianos. Of the 80,000 pianofortes annually made in this country, fully 95 per cent. are upright pianos, more or less imitations of the systems inaugurated and patented by Theodore Steinway. Of the 34 patents granted by the United States to Theodore Steinway from 1866 to 1869, no less than 62 claims in patents relate to upright pianos. Shortly after introducing the upright pianos, his attention was directed to the grand piano, the most natural and perfect stringed instrument in existence. By national patent to Henry Steinway, Jr., December 20, 1859, for his overstrung system, vast improvements in tone and durability of grand pianos had already been achieved in comparison with the old parallel-string system in grand pianos of other makers. While
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the total tension (pull) of the strings in a European grand never exceeded 20,000 pounds, Steinway & Son's grands already averaged 25,000 pounds of strain. Meanwhile piano strings of steel had been greatly perfected and Theodore's scientific tests on, his own constructed testing machine, had convinced him that the tension of the strings in a grand piano might be doubled, and beauty and power of tone vastly increased, provided the power of resistance to this increased pull of the strings could be secured in the construction of the instrument. The difficulty was well nigh insurmountable. The cast-iron frames produced for all piano manufacturers in ordinary foundries were not firm and reliable enough to withstand such increase of strain. Theodore, in the spring of 1869, went to Europe and carefully studied the latest achievements of the steel and iron industry (in the fall going also to Egypt to witness the ceremonies of the opening of the Suez Canal), until the fall of 1870, wlien he returned to New York, and finally succeeded in producing a steel casting invariably withstanding a crushing strain of upward of 5000 pounds per square centimetre, while ordinary cast-iron will break
PUBLIC
STEINWAY SCHOOL.
under one-half of such pull. Steinway & Sons, in 1872, erected their own foundry at Astoria, opposite One Hundred and Twentieth street, New York, producing their own steel cupola-shaped frames for every piano manufactured by them since. After inventing and patenting in 1872 his duplex scale, and, in 1875, the present grand piano repetition action, and new steel frame construction in grand pianos- all of which secured to his firm the highest award for pianos and piano metal-frame castings, viz., " Highest degree of excellence in all their styles of pianos," at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadel- phia, 1876-Mr. Theodore in 1877-78 invented and patented an entirely new system in the wooden architecture of grand pianos. The old way of building up the interior and exterior grand-piano cases of short pieces, joined together like brick, was abandoned, and in its stead an entirely new system created, by which a series of layers of wood in one length were glued together and bent into the required form by means of immense steel presses. Thus the problem was solved to apply the law of science, according to which the tone vibrations invariably follow the longitudinal. fibre of the wood, while cross-fibres interrupt the vibrations. A parlor grand only six feet long was constructed embody- ing the new construction of the steel cupola frame and construction of exterior and interior case, of
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comparative lightness and elegance, yet having fully 50,000 pounds tension of strings and being far superior in power and beauty of tone to even the large concert grand, which, at the Paris Exposition of 1867, had been crowned with the first of the grand gold medals of merit. This new system was at once applied to all parlor and concert grands produced by the firm, necessitating the establishment of Steinway & Sons' own steam saw-mill at Astoria, in order to saw logs of twenty-three feet length into the veneers and layers required. In his thirty-four United States patents, sixty-three claims relate to grand pianos. Mr. Theodore Steinway attended personally to the exhibition of Steinway & Sons' grand, upright, and square pianos at the Paris World's Fair of 1867. His inventions shown in the pianos at that time, especially the compression of the sound-board and regulating its tension to the pull of the strings, created considerable sensation in musical and scientific circles. His Majesty, the King of Sweden, Carl V., awarded the grand honorary gold medal to Mr. Theodore Steinway, and the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts bestowed academical honors upon him. In the fall of 1867, on invitation, Mr. Theodore Steinway delivered an oration before the assembled Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin, Prussia, and was (together with his brother William), elceted Academical Member. In the same year Mr. Theodore was voted a grand testimonial medal of merit, and elected an Honorary Member by the Société des Beaux Arts, Paris. In 1880 His Highness, the Duke of Brunswick, bestowed upon Mr. Theodore Steinway the grand gold medal of the State for his achievements in the art of piano-building. Mr. Theodore Steinway traveled extensively; in his younger days, all over central Europe to study in his business, and later on in America, Europe, and Africa, always with a view of studying the achievements and requirements of the different races as to musical instruments. He possessed one of the rarest collections of musical instruments of all ages in existence, and was himself a most profound student and thorough expert in that direction, and acquainted with every form of piano ever attempted in any country. Under Mr. Theodore Steinway's personal practical tuition his grown up nephews, Charles H. Steinway, Fred. T. Steinway, George A. Steinway, and Henry Ziegler, were trained as expert, scientific piano-makers, to enable them to successfully conduct Steinway & Sons' establishments in New York, Astoria, London, and Hamburg, under Theodore Steinway's motto:
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