Henry Bishop Horton (September 1, 1819, in

Winchester, Connecticut Winchester is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,224 at the 2020 census. The city of Winsted is located in Winchester. History Winchester was incorporated on May 21, 1771, and named after Winchester in ...

– December 3, 1885, in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...

) was an American inventor, remembered chiefly for his inventions in automatic music players and clock-making. Around 1823, his family moved to

Covert, New York Covert is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Seneca County, New York, Seneca County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 2,135 at the 2020 census. The Town of Covert is located in the southeast corner ...

, where he grew up. When Horton was 19 years old, he served for three years as a cabinet maker's apprentice under George Whiton (1801–1878). After this, he became involved in the manufacture of melopeans, instruments similar to melodeons. His taste for music showed itself at an early age and during his lifetime he invented various musical instruments, most celebrated being the

organette The Organette was a mechanical free-reed programmable (automatic) musical instrument first manufactured in the late 1870s by several companies such as John McTammany of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Autophone Company of Ithaca, New York, the Auto ...

. His first patents for the instrument were granted in 1877 and 1878, and these were followed by a device for cutting the slots in the paper rolls used in the organette. A company to manufacture this instrument was founded in 1879, where he served as its president until his retirement in 1883. In 1864, his improvements to the calendar clock led to an 1865 patent and the formation of the Ithaca Calendar Clock Company in 1868. Their working capital was $8,000, and manufacturing accordingly started on a small scale. The clock proved a success and the business grew rapidly. A year later, the factory moved to larger quarters, continuing to grow until 1874 when a change of management saw the capital increasing to $150,000. This necessitated the construction of a large three-story brick building which burnt down in 1876, but was promptly rebuilt. Horton died in 1885, survived by his widow, and three daughters, Mrs. J. W. Jaggar, of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Cora and Ida Horton. His grave, shared with his wife Ann E. Downing (1824–1887), is located in the Ithaca City Cemetery, and in surrounding graves are Thomas H. Horton (1848–1849), Grace D. Horton (1851–1861) and Cora A. Horton (1853–1904).

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*http://www.rollerorgans.com/patents/US210424_2~.jpg *http://www.rollerorgans.com/Roller_Organ_Patents2.htm 19th-century American inventors 1819 births 1885 deaths People from Winchester, Connecticut People from Covert, New York 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1810s-stub