North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory
The North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory was a street organ manufacturing company and building, located in North Tonawanda, New York. Started by expatriate German Eugene de Kleist with backing from Allan Herschell, the company was later purchased by the Wurlitzer company.
In 1892, the United States Government imposed high import tariffs on both street and fairground organ importation. At this time only the French company of Gavioli had an office established in North America, but the move deterred other European organ manufacturers from doing the same. The result was that embryonic American fairground ride manufacturers were now starved of the highly quality instruments to attract fair goers, resulting in lower sales.
In 1883, William Herschell, son of carousel builder Allan Herschell, traveled to London, England to meet former Limonaire Frères employee Eugene de Kleist. Backed by Herschell, in 1893[2] de Kleist set up band organ production in what was then part of Martinsville, New York (soon to be incorporated as North Tonawanda, New York), founding the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory. As parts were not subject to the import tariffs, many of the companies early organs had Limonaire components.[3] The company produced a range of barrel organ based products, suited for all ranges of fairground attraction.
As production grew, de Kleist approached other musical instrument manufacturers to create new instruments under their brands. One of these companies was the Wurlitzer company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Wurlitzer said no to buying any of De Kleist's existing barrel-organ based products, but said that they would buy a coin-operated piano.[4] As development progressed, in 1903[5] the business was incorporated as the DeKleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company.
The Tonophone, played by a pinned cylinder instead of being operated by direct mechanical linkages, was pneumatically operated. The cylinder pins lifted levers which opened valves to a pneumatic mechanism which operated the piano. First shown at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, the Tonophone won a gold medal at the exhibition, and went on to be a commercial success. Today, there are thought to be fewer than four complete and working Tonophones left in the world.[4]
The Tonophone brought about a commercial agreement between de Kleist and Wurlitzer, cemented in 1901 after Allan Herschell left the Armitage Herschell Company due to financial complications. This allowed de Kleist to buy Armitage Herschell out, and seek new investment from his association with Wurlitzer. After de Kleist was voted in as mayor of North Tonawanda in 1906, Wurlitzer bought him out of the business in 1908. After his term as mayor ended, suffering from ill health, de Kleist retired to Berlin in 1911, dying in Biarritz, in 1913 from a heart attack.[6]
The company was renamed the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda. This allowed the company to invest in new technology, resulting in the adoption of electric motors, and the music source was changed from pinned barrels to perforated paper rolls similar to a player piano roll. Some larger organs such as the style 157 and style 165 have duplex roll frames, on which one roll plays while the other rewinds, allowing for continuous music. Each paper roll contained about 10 songs, but during the Great Depression, this was changed to 6 longer songs, in order to save money on arranging.
During the Great Depression leading up to the end of production of organs, various cost-cutting measures were made, such as the substitution of brass horn and trumpet pipes for ones made of wood (though arguably, the brass pipes produced a shrill and unpleasant sound, thus causing the change to the mellower wooden sound).
The production of Wurlitzer organs ceased in 1942, the last organ to leave the factory being a style 165 organ in a 157 case (done because Wurlitzer had an extra 157 case still in the factory and the owner didn't mind the change).
After the end of World War II, during which the company helped develop and then produce the variable timing proximity fuze for the US Navy,[7] production changed to producing a variety of items, including radios, jukeboxes and electronic organs. The plant closed in 1973 and was purchased, in the early 1980s, by a group of investors with the goal of turning the old plant into an industrial park.
S1.E66-Robert Went to College WHERE?!! Antique Carousels, Davis College & Binghamton, New York.
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Episode 66 was filmed on April 3, 2018 in Binghamton and Johnson City, New York.
Robert took Debra on a trip down memory lane while we were passing through the southern tier of New York. We visited his old stomping grounds, his college and there’s a surprise reveal that involves an antique carousel. Debra enjoyed the architecture and said she thought she was in a movie set. Appropriate …. since this video includes a bank possibly being robbed. Plus Binghamton ignited Debra’s imagination so much so that it will serve as the setting for the final story in Debra’s next book.
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