2004-10-30/2019-02-11 - Note from the Organ Database Builders editor Stephen Hall, August 12, 2017. - Originally listed as a organbuilder and a manufacturer of reed organs, the Seybold firm appears to be a reed organ maker who later moved into pianos. The firm may have dabbled in pipe organ repair, but was not an organbuilder. The confusion probably occurred because of the name. –Ed. William Seybold invented a four-chamber reed box which gave the reed organ a more refined quality of tone more closely resembling that of a pipe organ. He established a business in Chicago to manufacture his invention, but moved his operation to Elgin, Illinois late in 1903. Seybold died not long after making the move, but the Seybold Reed Pipe Organ Company continued under local ownership. The company had originally built only the mechanism, depending on others for the casework; but by 1905, all the necessary woodworking equipment had been secured and the firm was manufacturing its own cases. Pianos were added to the line in 1908 and soon became the primary business. The firm changed names becoming the Seybold Piano and Organ Company. By 1913 the firm was producing about 2,000 pianos annually, both conventional and player models. The popularity of the player piano led to an ill-timed merger with the Engelhardt Company of St. Johnsville, New York, which made the player attachments. The combined company lost money as the novelty of the player piano faded and the phonograph became the means of choice for recorded music. The outbreak of World War I in Europe wiped out much of the foreign market. The Engelhardt-Seybold Company declared bankruptcy in 1915. The Elgin factory closed, some 60 local employees lost their jobs while a similar fate occurred in the New York plant. Source: E. C. Alft, Elgin: Days Gone By, Chapter 14 "Music Makers and Artistsâ€? http://www.elginhistory.com/dgb/ch14.htm
2018-05-07/2019-04-29 - / / / / Archived Note / / / / The following note is from a previous version of this entry; it has been superseded by the note above, which contains new information or corrects errors or inaccuracies. Note from the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va., Organ Historical Society, 1991). - Established by William Seybold in Peoria, Illinois; last listed 1915. Staff: F. H. Ackeman; A. B. Church; William Grote; Charles Pierce; H. F. Seybold; John A. Waterman. Sources: The Diapason December 1909. Piano and Organ Purchaser-s Guide, Purchaser-s Guide to the Music Industries, (New York: Music Trades)
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