Francis Ramacciotti
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Francis Ramacciotti (1828–1894) was an inventor and a piano string manufacturer.
The F. Ramacciotti company, founded 1867, invented and patented the first modern bass string for the piano. (US Patent Office 1902, patent awarded year after his death, filed by his son Albert) Previous piano strings used iron winding over iron. This modern invention using a special new machine used copper wound over iron. The F. Ramacciotti Piano String Company was located at 309 East 22nd St NY NY. The company was one of the top makers of piano strings in the world for several decades. Albert F. Ramacciotti took over the piano company in 1895.
Congress held hearings in 1913 about high piano string prices and the lack of competition in the industry.
Francis Ramacciotti was from the Tuscany region of Italy (probably Lucca) and immigrated to the US in the 1848. He was married in Buffalo to Rachel Rendt of Detroit in 1852. Rachel was the daughter of HMS Captain Lewis Rendt of Canada and later Michigan. Francis first resided for a few years in Buffalo, NY. The company started in Buffalo in 1852. The business moved to New York City in the 1867. They had five children: Albert, Hugo, Italo, Eugenia, and Emma. It is said Francis was associated with Garibaldi while in Italy and had a military rank. He apprenticed in a piano company in Buffalo, New York and then founded his own piano string company in 1852 . The company was left to his son Albert De Moncrief Ramacciotti who expanded it to be one of the 3 top string makers in the United States. From 1870 to 1920 the piano was the largest big ticket household purchase until automobiles too over. US piano sales averages from 100,000 to 362,000 per year.
- SPINNING LATHES FOR WINDING PIANO-STRINGS
- Patent number: 280512
- Filing date: Nov 23, 1882
- Issue date: Jul 3, 1883
- Inventor: FRANCIS RAMACCIOTTI
- MACHINE FOR SWAGING WIRE FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
- Patent number: 508974
- Filing date: Oct 5, 1892
- Issue date: Nov 21, 1893
- Inventor: F. Ramacciotti filed by ALBERT DE M. RAMACCIOTTI executor
- BASS STRING FOR PIANOS OR OTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
- Patent number: 740918
- Filing date: Dec 13, 1902
- Issue date: Oct 1903
- Inventor: ALBERT D. RAMACCIOTTI
References
- Piano Tone Building 1918
- Rand's New York City Business Directory 1877
- Tariff Schedules: Hearings Before the Committee on Ways and Means 1913 page 1239
http://www.mugwumps.com/aluminum.htm
Books: Tariff schedules: Hearings before the Committee on ways and means, House of ... - Page 1239 by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means, Oscar Wilder Underwood - Tariff - 1918 One day a foreman in the Ramacciotti plant, John, who had been a boy apprentice when ... that was the end of the New York Cooperative Piano String Co. ...
Pianos and Their Makers: A comprehensive history of the development of the ... - Page 465 by Alfred Dolge - Piano - 1911 ... String Co Strings ... • . . .New Brunswick Celluloid Piano Key Co Keys 1876 New York ... Brown & Co Felts 1901 Ramacciotti. F Strings 1867 Schirmer. . (list firm founded 1867)
Fifty years of St. Cecile Lodge, no. 568, F. & A.M.: Including "One thousand ... - Page 146 by Freemasons. New York (City) St. Cecile lodge, no. 568, Freemasons. St. Cecile Lodge, no. 568 (New York, N.Y.), Charles Miller Williams - 1916 - 472 pages Francesco Ramacciotti, who died June 13, 1894 The lodge met in a hall corner of Third Avenue ... Ramacciotti joined the lodge in 1871 and from the first took an
Musique-Addresses Universel - Page 1540 1929 Ramacciotti F. Inc, 421 W. 28th St. — Manuf. of Piano Wire and Bass Strings. ... Manuf. of Piano Benches. Rapuano Joseph, 222 E. 105th St. — Manufacturer of ..
Treasury Decisions Under the Customs, Internal Revenue, Industrial Alcohol ... - Page 650 by United States. Dept. of the Treasury, United States. Customs Court, United States. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals - 1916 The sworn statement of Francis Ramacciotti, dated January 21, 1915, covering bass strings ... of Detroit, Mich., with the use of Imported plate glass. ... ( this Francis is the son Albert Francis)
ref : Music Trade Review June 1914 http://mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1914-58-23/MTR-1914-58-23-59.pdf