Note: Thanks go to Snuffy Wall, who emailed an article to me by Grady Kerr, one of our society historians, about pitch pipes, a critical but routinely overlooked accoutrement of our hobby. This months Q's & A's are from that article. If anyone wishes to read the article in its entirety, go to: http://www.gradywilliamkerr.com/PitchPipes/PitchPipe.html
QUESTIONS:
1- Who invented the pitch pipe? Where and when was he born? For extra credit, name a musical instrument that was invented in the same town where the pitch pipe's inventor was born.
2- When and where was the pitch pipe invented? For extra credit, where is the premier company in the pitch pipe business now located?
3 - How did the first pitch pipes differ from those made currently?
4- When did an ad for pitch pipes first appear in The Harmonizer? For extra credit, what did a pipe cost in that first ad, and what does it cost today?
5- What it the technically-correct name for pitch pipes? For extra credit, how many companies produce pitch pipes in 2006?
ANSWERS:
1- The inventor of the pitch pipe, William Jacob Kratt, Sr., was born in Trossingen, Germany, on September 22, 1892. Matthias Hohner, who invented the harmonica in 1857, was another native son of Trossingen. Kratt, in fact, worked at the Hohner factory in Trossingen before he emigrated to America in 1910, specifically to Orange, NJ. After a short stint as a dishwasher in his aunt's restaurant, he went to work as a lathe operator for Thomas Edison, and later as a product designer, also for Edison. Kratt returned to Germany in 1918 and started his own harmonica company which competed with Hohner. I guess we all know who won that competition. It is noteworthy that many thousands of Kratt harmonicas were distributed by the Red Cross as gifts to American GI s during WWII. Kratt Harmonicas have not been made in many years (the article did not indicate how many); the management of the company, however, is currently considering a return to harmonica production, but no firm decision has been made. In 1925 Kratt returned to NJ for good and remained there until he died in 1983 when his son, William, Jr., took over the business.
2- Kratt invented the pitch pipe in 1925. The Kratt Company was then operating from a factory in Union, NJ, and remained in that location as a family owned and operated business until 2001 when it was sold to the McNamara Company, a supplier of internal pitch pipe parts (say that fast five times). After the sale, McNamara retained the Kratt name but not the old plant in Union. The company relocated to a manufacturing site in Kenilworth, NJ.
3- They were C to C only, were diatonic (not chromatic as are the ones we are familiar with, i.e., they could only play the equivalent of the white keys on the piano, not the black), and were considerably smaller than modern pipes. The smaller size was evidently not an issue because the diatonic pipes only had to play eight notes, not twelve. The C to C model is still made, along with the F to F model preferred by male singers, and an E flat to E flat model.
4- In 1949. $2.50 in 1949, $20.00 in 2006.
5- The official and correct name for a pitch pipe is a chromatic pitch instrument. The trade name that is seen on the distinctive red boxes that the pipes come in as well as stamped on the pipes themselves is The Master Key. Although lesser quality knock offs made in China and, ironically, Germany, are now available, the William Kratt Company remains the one and only manufacturer in the United States, anywhere in the world for that matter, of the high quality pitch pipes with which barbershoppers are familiar. With cheap overseas pipes on the market as well as electronic tone generators (boo, hiss, groan Ed), there is some concern about the long term prospects of the Kratt company. Maybe it's time for us barbershoppers to buy a new pipe, need one or not. From the first one in 1925 through the most recent one made, every last one of the estimated three million pitch pipes manufactured by Kratt has been hand crafted in New Jersey! Their official state motto is the Garden State, but to barbershoppers (and other musicians who use pitch pipes) they are also known or should be as the Accurate Pitch State.
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