49° 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



William Knabe, tlie founder of Knalje & Co., of Baltimore, 

 whose portrait we give, was another important figure in the de- 

 velopment of i:)iano-making in America Born in Kreutzburg, 

 Germany, in 1803, he came to this country twenty years later with 

 a knowledge of piano-making; and, in association with Henry 

 Gaehle, began manufacturing in Baltimore in 18139. A few years 

 later he started in business for himself. Knabe was instrumental 

 in bringing out many good " scales " and new ideas of similar un- 

 patentable character, and is admitted to have left behind him a 



worthy record as a 

 maker, being always 

 identified with pi- 

 anos of the first 

 grade. He died in 

 1864 in Baltimore. 



The late James A. 

 Gray, of Boardman 

 & Gray, of Albany, 

 introduced several 

 inventions of some 

 moment into the 

 square in past years, 

 but with the deca- 

 dence of that instru- 

 ment their value 

 ended. 



William Linde- 

 man, a native of 

 Dresden, Saxony, 

 and founder of Lin- 

 deman & Sons, in- 

 troduced a " cycloid piano " in 1860, which won some notice from 

 performers and experts. This instrument was a sort of compro- 

 mise between the grand and square, but it was never a selling 

 success, though a most meritorious and ingenious development. 



Among other makers who identified themselves with the 

 square during its popular period, may be named George Steck, 

 John Jacob Decker, Andres Holmstrom, Myron A. Decker, Henry 

 Hazelton, Napoleon J. Haines, and many others, living and dead, 

 whose work in minor details can not be considered here. 



The late Henry F. Miller, of Miller & Sons, Boston, and Albert 

 Weber, founder of the eminent Weber firm, also deserve mention. 

 The Miller and Weber firms played no insignificant part in im- 

 proving the quality of American grands, and uprights as well. 

 Henry F. Miller was a native of Providence, R. I., where he was 

 born in 1825, He became an organist in early life, and subse- 



FiG. 17. — William Knabe. 



