Name Francis Ramacciotti | Died 1894 | |
Francis Ramacciotti (1828–1894) was an inventor and a piano string manufacturer.
The F. Ramacciotti company, founded 1867, invented and patented the first modern bass string for the piano. (US Patent Office 1902, patent awarded year after his death, filed by his son Albert) Previous piano strings used iron winding over iron. This modern invention using a special new machine used copper wound over iron. The F. Ramacciotti Piano String Company was located at 309 East 22nd St NY NY. The company was one of the top makers of piano strings in the world for several decades. Albert F. Ramacciotti took over the piano company in 1895.
Congress held hearings in 1913 about high piano string prices and the lack of competition in the industry.
Francis Ramacciotti was from the Tuscany region of Italy (probably Lucca) and immigrated to the US in the 1848. He was married in Buffalo to Rachel Rendt of Detroit in 1852. Rachel was the daughter of HMS Captain Lewis Rendt of Canada and later Michigan. Francis first resided for a few years in Buffalo, NY. The company started in Buffalo in 1852. The business moved to New York City in the 1867. They had five children: Albert, Hugo, Italo, Eugenia, and Emma. It is said Francis was associated with Garibaldi while in Italy and had a military rank. He apprenticed in a piano company in Buffalo, New York and then founded his own piano string company in 1852 . The company was left to his son Albert De Moncrief Ramacciotti who expanded it to be one of the 3 top string makers in the United States. From 1870 to 1920 the piano was the largest big ticket household purchase until automobiles too over. US piano sales averages from 100,000 to 362,000 per year.