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33-649: George Trayser and Milo J. Chase started the Trayser Piano Forte Company in a building near the Ohio River in Ripley, Ohio , with Chase as the president and manager. In 1872, the company moved to Richmond, Indiana , after receiving financial help from James Starr and Richard Jackson, both residents of Richmond. When Trayser retired six years later, the company was renamed Chase Piano Company, Starr became president and Jackson secretary-treasurer. In

66-606: A blind vote contest at Lyceum Hall in Richmond on 8 September 1876, the vote was 120 for Trayser and 70 for Steinway. In October 1876 the Trayser Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana had rooms in Lyceum Hall for offices and warerooms, sharing those rooms with Hoosier Organ Co. and Professor Rhu, music teacher. In October 1876 construction began on a new piano factory. It was 80' x 125' and 3.5 stories built in

99-402: A constant separation and varying depth, as opposed to grooves of laterally cut records, which have a varying distance of separation and constant depth. Examining a vertically cut groove along its length reveals a continuous wavy line as the needle cuts at different depths according to the tone and the loudness of the audio being recorded. These grooves show a transition from high to low peak as

132-494: A dozen brands, including Trayser, Duchess, Richmond, Remington, and Royal, and bought other piano companies like Krell in 1927. In 1915, 250 companies were making pianos, 75 percent from 25 companies that including Starr, Baldwin , and Wurlitzer . For its craftsmanship, Starr won awards at the Chicago's World Fair , St. Louis World's Fair (1904), Tennessee Centennial Exposition (1907), Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition (1909), and

165-676: A guarantee for $ 1,000 in October 1853. Trayser struggled financially and was insolvent 1854-1856. There were lawsuits about his debts until 1862. John A. Skiff was a sales agent for Skiff & Trayser pianos in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854. In 1857, the Covington, Kentucky factory was destroyed in a fire, and Trayser moved to Louisville, Kentucky. In 1858, Trayser was a witness in an extensive church dispute in Louisville, Kentucky. It

198-537: A handful of independent piano makers that wasn't absorbed into the massive Aeolian- American Corporation . The company was able to survive the beginning of the Depression in part by transition into a general manufacturer, making radio cabinets and refrigerator parts alongside their pianos. By 1935 Starr declared bankruptcy. Though they reincorporated as a smaller company soon after, they weren't able build themselves back up. The company went into serious decline after

231-686: A merger with Starr in 1892 which took place during the following year. Lumsden and Gennett owned half the company after that. After Lumsden died and James Starr retired, Gennett became president. By 1900, control of the company had passed from the Starr family to the Gennett: Henry (president) and his sons Harry (vice president), Clarence (treasurer), and Fred (secretary). In the 1890s, pianos were so popular in America that one hundred companies were making them. Between 1893 and 1949 Starr produced nearly

264-573: A naturalized US citizen in 1866. Trayser was granted another patent for upright piano in Indianapolis in 1867 and established the "Ohio Valley Piano-Forte Company" and manufactured "Valley Gem" pianos for Cincinnati, Ohio manufacturer D. H. Baldwin . Eventually, Trayser moved his family to Richmond, Indiana except for his son Frederick, who lived most of his life in Maysville, Kentucky . By 1872, Trayser had moved to Richmond, Indiana and began

297-578: A reputation as instruments suitable for school and concert work. Trayser moved the family to Maysville, Kentucky in 1865 and founded the Trayser Piano Forte Co. Milo J. Chase was the President and General Manager, and G. Bambach, Jr. was Secretary. George Trayser made and supervised construction of the pianos. Trayser also sold his pianos in Ripley, Ohio until 1871, having moved his family there by 1870. George L. Trayser became

330-622: A showroom inside the Nashville Jesse French Piano Building at 240-242 Fifth Street North. An Indianapolis store was located at 138 and 140 Pennsylvania Street in the heart of Indy's piano district. The store carried Starr, Richmond and Remington pianos and retailed Knabe pianos and Cecillian self-player's manufactured by the Farrand Organ Company of Detroit. On December 27, 1920, the Indianapolis retail store moved to 49-53 Monument Circle next to

363-640: A slight success at first for a minor brand, due in part to winning an award at the 1915 Panama–California Exposition . The Gennett brothers toyed with the idea of getting into the record industry, purchasing the masters to the defunct Phono-Cut Record Company . In late 1914 or early 1915, Starr began issuing records pressed from Phono-Cut masters, under a label named Remington. Although the records failed to sell well commercially, it justified Starr to beef up its record production and build their own recording studio. In 1916 Starr began selling vertical cut records alongside their phonographs called Starr Records . (Due to

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396-545: A small factory in Covington, Kentucky (Traeyser & Co.), and had Morse & Guernsey as consignment agents in Louisville, Kentucky in 1851. Trayser was granted his first patent for an upright piano in Cincinnati in 1853. Trayser traded in and repaired pianos. At some point the spelling of the original family surname of "Traeyser" was changed to "Trayser", likely at the time of naturalization if not earlier. His younger brother Phillip Trayser, who lived in Baltimore, signed

429-415: A smooth curve, giving the characteristic rounded 'hill and dale' effect to the groove, similar to the appearance of many geographic areas. Recording is by mechanical means and the vibrations from acoustic energy, transferred to a cutting needle, make the needle cut a deeper or shallower groove. It is necessary to set the parameters of the cutting depth accurately: too shallow a groove on silent sections and

462-552: The Hilbert Circle Theatre and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument . When the major phonograph patents started expiring on the disc phonographs in the mid 1910s, American businesses saw this as an opportunity to invest in a rapidly growing market. Joining with other piano makers making phonographs like Kimball and Aeolian , Starr introduced their own line of phonographs in late 1915. The Starr phonograph had

495-785: The Panama–Pacific International Exposition (1915). Starr sold fifty styles that included a baby grand piano (the Minum), a four-foot tall model designed for apartments (the Princess), and player pianos . By 1904, Starr had showrooms in Dayton , Piqua , Toledo , and Cleveland , Ohio. By 1915, Starr had retail stores in major cities such Detroit, Michigan ; Chicago, Illinois ; and San Diego and Los Angeles , California while Jesse French chain stores carried Starr pianos in their South and Southwest stores. The company had

528-577: The Victor and Columbia patents still in effect on the lateral recording method, other companies were forced to make vertical cut records, including Paramount , Okeh , and Vocalion .) Wanting to sell their records outside Starr piano dealers, the Gennetts felt the label was too closely tied to Starr phonographs. Beginning in late 1917, into early 1918, the label's name was changed to Gennett to allow non-Starr piano dealers to sell their records. By 1919,

561-504: The "Trayser Piano Company." In 1873 Frederick Trayser was granted a patent for piano action in Maysville. He was listed in the Maysville city directory in 1876. In 1875 George Trayser was granted another piano patent in Richmond. In 1876 the family resided at 43 N. Pearl, while the Trayser Piano Company was at 145 N. 5th. In a blind vote contest in Cincinnati on 10 June 1876, there were 73 votes for Trayser and 43 for Steinway . In

594-534: The 1880s Chase moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to establish his own piano factory, leaving the Richmond operation to be renamed James Starr and Company, with James Starr as president and his brother Benjamin the manager. One of the retailers that sold Starr pianos was the Jesse French Piano & Organ Company in St. Louis. Two employees of that company, John Lumsden and his son-in-law Henry Gennett , pursued

627-509: The 1940s. The Gennett family, still having controlling shares, kept the business operating through World War II by manufacturing goods for the war effort. By 1949, Starr's piano production dropped dramatically, with the refrigerator portion of the company breaking off and forming a separate company. Since making refrigerator parts was a serious aspect of keeping Starr afloat, the Gennett family decided to sell Starr along with its assets. In 1952,

660-414: The Starr name along with its factory was sold to the J. Solotken Company, a scrap metal and paper salvager from Indianapolis. In 1953, the J. Solotken Company auctioned the Starr factory assets, including machinery, office equipment and other company supplies. Most of the buildings except the record pressing building were left abandoned through the 1960s and early 1970s before being sold off. In 1977 most of

693-542: The United States in 1849, and made pianos in Ripley, Ohio ; Covington , Louisville , and Maysville , Kentucky; and Indianapolis and Richmond, Indiana . His pianos—due to their high quality and rich, resonant tone and responsive action—had a reputation as instruments suitable for school and concert work. Trayser's piano companies were eventually dissolved into the Starr Piano Company . Trayser

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726-579: The Victor patents on lateral recording were starting to expire, with the remaining patent held in question. Starr, alongside the General Phonograph Corporation , challenged Victor's patent in court. The judge agreed that Victor was using the patent before Eldridge Johnson filed it, and had the patent invalidated. With the patent invalidation going into full effect in 1921, nearly all record makers abandoned vertical cut records, with

759-427: The age of 73. Trayser is best known for making pianos. Vertical cut recording The vertical cut recording process is an early method of audio recording by which a stylus cuts a vertical groove into a phonograph record . This is in contrast to the lateral recording system which uses a stylus that cuts side-to-side across a record. The vertical recording process, also known as the hill and dale process,

792-448: The exception of Edison and Pathé . Through the early 1920s, Gennett's new lateral cut records became a popular jazz label, recording artists such as Jelly Roll Morton , Bix Beiderbecke , New Orleans Rhythm Kings , and King Oliver's band , including some of Louis Armstrong earliest commercial recordings. At the height of the Starr's manufacturing, they made 25,000 pianos, 15,000 phonographs, and over 4 million records annually. Through

825-601: The factory was demolished. A conservation effort in the 1980s was able to save part of the building as a historic landmark. Today the Starr Piano Company Warehouse and Administration Building is used as a park and event venue along with the Gennett Walk of Fame, noting some of the famous artists who recorded there. George Trayser George L. Trayser (1808 – 1881) was a Grand Duchy of Hesse -born American piano maker . He emigrated to

858-632: The family resided at 85 S. 6th, while in 1879 the family resided at 45 N. Washington. His son Paul started the Richmond Piano Company in 1879. In 1878 the Trayser Piano Company was subsumed into the Chase Piano Company in Richmond. In 1884 the Chase Piano Company became the James M Starr & Company and by 1893 all the above companies, including the Richmond Piano Company and excluding the "Ohio Valley Piano Company" which

891-745: The location of the old woolen mills. In September 1877 the Valley Gem of Ripley, Ohio merged into Trayser Piano Company (including M. J. Chase and 16 workmen). The Trayser Piano Company made the Trayser upright, the Valley Gem Scale and the Chase Square Grand. November 1877 marked the opening of the Trayser-Chase ware rooms at Main and Pearl in Richmond. George Trayser withdrew from making pianos in 1878 at age 70. In 1878

924-483: The mid 1920s, Starr introduced their own line of electrical recorded records and Isosonic phonographs to compete against Victor's line of Orthophonic Victrolas . However, their early electrically recorded records were plagued with problems, hurting sales. Though they were able to improve the processes quickly, the damage was done, and sales dropped through the late 1920s. By 1929 the Great Depression impacted

957-402: The record industry greatly. Starr canceled their phonograph line that year and the Gennett label the following but kept some of the budget labels through the early 1930s. The remaining Starr record pressing building was leased to Decca Records and later Mercury Records (along with some smaller labels) before being auctioned off in the 1970s. With the stock market crash, Starr was only one of

990-555: Was apparent that customers took advantage of Trayser, especially in written contracts, because Trayser did not yet read English. He was competent to hear and speak English in the trial. Trayser moved to Indianapolis in 1859. He paid a manufacturing license tax to the state of Indiana in May 1864 in Indianapolis. He also partnered with Col. William J. H. Robinson to form Trayser, Robinson & Co. in 1865. His pianos—due to their high quality and rich, resonant tone and responsive action—had

1023-807: Was born in 1808 in Hesse-Darmstadt , Prussia which later became Darmstadt , Germany . Trayser apprenticed in piano making in German piano factories near Darmstadt. He married in Germany, and two sons were born in Neuchâtel , Switzerland : Frederick L. was born in 1840 and Paul was born in 1842. Trayser owned a piano company in Switzerland. The family emigrated to the United States in 1849 and settled initially in Newport, Kentucky. Trayser started

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1056-483: Was sold to D.H. Baldwin , merged into the Starr Piano Company . This company continued making pianos in Richmond under the names Starr, Trayser, Duchess, Richmond, Remington, Chase, among many others, until the 1950s. Paul Trayser served in the Civil War as a bugler in a Kentucky regiment. An obituary states Paul had been present at the siege of Richmond . George Trayser died in 1881 in Richmond, Indiana, at

1089-454: Was used to record phonograph cylinder records as well as Edison Disc Records , Pathé disc records , and disc records made by numerous smaller companies. Vertical cut recording was also used as a means of copyright protection by the early Muzak 16-inch background music discs. In this process the stylus makes a vertical cut, its depth determined in accordance with the current in the recording coil. The grooves of vertically cut records have

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