Builder: Gavioli & Cie - 1897
Notes from Wikipedia:
Gavioli was founded in 1806 in Cavezzo, Italy, by Giacomo Gavioli
(1786–1875). Giacamo's hobby was the development of automatic
playing musical instruments like bird organs and flute clocks. In
1818, he moved to Modena, where he repaired Carillons and Tower
Clocks. His son Lodovico Gavioli (1807–1875) was a very clever
inventor; he built a large orchestrion organ the "Panharmonico" for
the Duke of Modena, who refused to buy the instrument. Ludovico then
took it to London and Paris. Additionally, he designed and build the
Modena's Palazzo comunale, the city hall. In 1845 Ludovico moved the
business to the trade capital of the organ trade, Paris, France.
From 1858 on he started his own organ building company in the Rue
d'Aligre. Ludovico had three sons: Anselme, Henry and Claude.[2]
Each contributed to the business, but it is Anselme Gavioli
(1828-1902) whose name is remembered. In 1878 he invented the frein,
a piece of metal that allowed pipes to produce a sound similar to a
cello or violin. In 1892 he patented the use of book music to play
organs. Up until this point, pipe organs were played by a large
wooden cylinder, using a system akin to the modern musical box. This
limited the length of music which could be played to the size of the
cylinder. Another inconvenience of cylinders was their size, which
limited the number of tunes that could be played. Book music us a
series of zig-zag folded sheets of cardboard in a folded book, which
allowed mechanical arms to "feel" the holes and hence open the
valves to allow compressed air to play the pipes of the organ.[3]
The development marked a turning point in the history of the
mechanical organ, by allowing music to be almost infinitely long,
and allowed Gavioli to become the most famous and prolific fair
organ builders.[4] The Gavioli family had branches in cities such as
London, Manchester, New York City and Waldkirch.[5]
After Anselmo's death in 1902 the business passed to Anselme's son
Ludivico II. Then the business took a series of tragic
circumstances. Gavioli ceased making organs in 1912 and the
remainder of the business was transferred to Limonaire Frères of
Paris. Afterwards, a number of their engineers went on to build
their own organ companies, including Carl Frei.
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