High School Student Pa Query

[Animaterra]

First, apologies to anyone who may feel that this isn't the place for this query...

 

My darling daughter was given a list of names as part of an American Studies class project (Junior Year, age 17, honors student). She has to choose one US inventer or patent owner and write a paper on this person. My darling daughter decided to choose Anthony Faas, the holder of the first US patent for the accordion!

Now she wails that she can't find anything about him, beyond the fact that he gained the patent by making a few changes to the original.

 

She has requested that I post a query here, in case anyone knows of sources of info. Can anyone here help her find some biographical info, and perhaps a little more on the history of the Other Squeezebox? She's supposedly a Google Whiz and doesn't seem to be finding what she needs that way.

 

Many thanks!

[Paul Read]

First, apologies to anyone who may feel that this isn't the place for this query...

 

My darling daughter was given a list of names as part of an American Studies class project (Junior Year, age 17, honors student). She has to choose one US inventer or patent owner and write a paper on this person. My darling daughter decided to choose Anthony Faas, the holder of the first US patent for the accordion!

Now she wails that she can't find anything about him, beyond the fact that he gained the patent by making a few changes to the original.

 

She has requested that I post a query here, in case anyone knows of sources of info. Can anyone here help her find some biographical info, and perhaps a little more on the history of the Other Squeezebox? She's supposedly a Google Whiz and doesn't seem to be finding what she needs that way.

 

Many thanks!

 

I think you may have more luck on Melodeon.net or, I believe, there is an accordion site around too.

[Animaterra]

I think you may have more luck on Melodeon.net or, I believe, there is an accordion site around too.

 

I didn't know there was one! I'll have her search for that! Thanks!

[Rhomylly]

there are also yahoo groups dedicated to the accordion. they seem to be pretty chatty...

[JimLucas]

My darling daughter [chose to write a report on] Anthony Faas, the holder of the first US patent for the accordion!

Now she wails that she can't find anything about him, beyond the fact that he gained the patent by making a few changes to the original.

With a quick Google search, I encounter the same problem. And an additional one: By far the majority of the references -- hundreds of them -- state that Mr. Faas "patented the accordion", when in fact he only patented certain "improvements" to the already common bisonoric/diatonic "accordion" (before the PA was invented), which modifications apparently never did catch on. Thus the internet once again perpetrates and perpetuates misinformation.

 

One suggestion: In addition to contacting "accordion"-oriented web sites or organizations -- which (except for melodeon.net) I fear are more likely to have their attention restricted to piano accordions, -- she should try some genealogy web sites or forums. There may be lots of Faas's unrelated to Anthony, but a query in an open forum just might lead to someone who is related, has family history, and would be delighted to discover that someone else is interested.

 

Good luck to her.

[Animaterra]

Thanks so much for the help! I think she's got some good resources now. I'll let you know if she comes up with anything of interest to CNet!

[hjcjones]

You could also try asking on rec.music.makers.squeezebox

[Animaterra]

As you will see when you read on, this is still on the topic of concertinas!

Turns out, the assignment was to write a song or poem on the subject of the inventor. Here's the DD's composition:

 

THE EPIC SAGA OF THE GREAT AND MIGHTY ACCORDION

 

In eighteen-twenty-two in Germany

A man named Friedrich Buschmann

Patented the hand-aeoline,

Which was a little box-thing

Comprised of bellows and a keyboard

Which one squeezed to make a sound—

Something quite akin to music,

As his audiences found!

 

The year was eighteen-twenty-nine,

And in fair Vienna-town,

A Mr. Cyrillus Damian

Got a patent of his own.

He called it the accordion,

And, like that German fellow’s,

There was a keyboard on one side.

The other hand worked the bellows.

 

(And we must mention Charles Wheatstone,

Who, in eighteen-forty-four,

Patented the concertina,

But of this I’ll say no more.)

 

Let us proceed to the U.S.A.,

In early eighteen-fifty-four,

On the thirteenth of January,

In fair Philadelphia.

Anthony Faas had a vision

Of a new accordion.

He’d changed the sound and keyboard

And the patent he had won!

 

Never before this winter day

Had an American

Gained a patent for this instrument.

Well, there’s a first for everything!

Faas’ improvements did not survive

And are not used today,

But the accordion is still revered

As a worthy instrument to play!

[Theodore Kloba]

My darling daughter decided to choose Anthony Faas, the holder of the first US patent for the accordion!

Have you actually retrieved the patent itself? I've recently run across it myself while doing a "prior art" search.

In case you haven't seen it, here are a few links to help:

• US Patent & Trademark Office has all the patents since 1790, except those lost in a fire. For the old ones, you can only search by classification or patent number.
  
• Accordions (and concertinas!) are in classification 84/376R. Here are all the patents in class 84/376R. They're in reverse number order, so the old ones are at the end.
  
• The earliest one (not counting the design patents (starting with D) and one reissue (starting with RE) is number 11,062.
  
• The images of the old patents require a TIFF browser plugin. I would suggest the (free) AlternaTIFF.
  

There's not much you can learn about the person from the patent, other than his residence in Philadephia.

He did file other patents as well, such as 15,511

[m3838]

Is it only in american schools, where teachers get a bit too inventive?

These projects, do they make sence? I wonder, after your daughter had done this, is she or any of her classmates know any more about accordions, or patents?

[Animaterra]

M, I will admit I was a bit surprised, considering the amount of research she did, what little product was actually required to reflect it. The poster did have a lot more detailed information, with photos, side bars, and yes, much more about patents in general and Faas in particular.

 

Speaking as an educator in the US, I believe the trend to get inventive like this is to try to spark some creativity in these young minds. Instead of churning out paper after paper (5 pages, double-spaced), there's an attempt to generate some alternative, original thinking. They still have to show the 3 X 5 cards with the research documented, and yes, they get credit for creativity, too.

[m3838]

Ah, so you're an educator.

I understand the idea, believe me. I just don't see the sought result, even vice versa, I observe strong elements of indoctrination in US schools. It's like "Well kids, THIS is creativity, and THAT is not. Be creative and do noncence, OR ELSE".

Off topic, off course. Sorry.