Francis Ramacciotti (''c.'' 1826

Leghorn, Italy Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

– 13 June 1891

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

) was an Italian-born inventor who founded a major

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

string manufacturer in the United States.

Career

Ramacciotti was reportedly associated with

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

and held a military rank. Ramaciotti immigrated to the US in 1848, moving to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. He apprenticed in a piano company in Buffalo before founding his own piano string company, the F. Ramacciotti company, in 1852. While in Buffalo, Ramociotti played bassoon as a member of the Metropolitan Theater Orchestra under the direction of Albert Benjamin Poppendorf (1819–1900). Ramacciotti – on June 12, 1952, in Buffalo – married Rachel Caroline Rendt (''maiden''; 1833–1914) of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

. The couple had five children: (i) Italo Francis Ramacciotti (1853–1911), (ii) Hugo Louis Ramacciotti (1855–1907), (iii) Alberto "Albert" De M. Ramacciott (1857–1926), (iv) Eugenia W. Ramacciotti (1860–1938; married to Edward G. Johnson), and (v) Emma Serena Ramacciotti (1869–1963; married to Milton Lockwood Bouden; 1866–1938). In 1867, Ramaciotti moved his company to New York City. He invented and patented the first modern bass string for the piano. Previous piano strings used

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

winding over iron. This modern invention using a special new machine used

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

wound over iron. The company was one of the top makers of piano strings in the world for several decades. In 1891, Francis Ramacciotti died. His son Albert took over the company the next year. Albert expanded it to one of the three top string makers in the nation.

Selected patents

: 1883: US 280512 A – "Spinning

Lathes A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to cr ...

for Winding Piano-Strings." : 1893: US 508974 A – "Machine for

Swaging Swaging () is a forging process in which the dimensions of an item are altered using dies into which the item is forced. Swaging is usually a cold working process, but also may be hot worked. The term swage may apply to the process (verb) or ...

Wire for Musical Instruments." : 1902: US 740918 A – "Bass String for Pianos or Other

Musical Instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

Bibliography

Notes

References

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"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."

* ; .

" Francesco Ramacciotti, who died June 13,

894 __NOTOC__ Year 894 ( DCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Stylianos Zaoutzes, leading minister and ...

" "The lodge met in a hall corner of

Third Avenue Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...

and Eighty-Sixth Street." "Ramacciotti joined the lodge in 1871 "

* .

"Ramacciotti F. Inc, 421 W. 28th St. — Manuf. of Piano Wire and Bass Strings — Panels."

"The sworn statement of Francis Ramacciotti, dated January 21, 1915, covering bass strings " Note: The petitioner, Albert Francis (Alberto "Albert" De M. Ramacciotti; 1857–1926), was Francis Ramacciotti's son.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramacciotti, Francis Piano makers 1826 births 1891 deaths