Giovanni Galleazzi and San Francisco accordions

[Deleted member 48]

Is there any detailed information on the Galleazzi accordion makers family in the USA?

Giovanni Galleazzi , born Biandrate, Italy? By 1894-1899.. living in San Francisco, US ?
(see blog about Attilios Polychromatic Piano Accordion)

During his long career he patented no less than thirteen inventions for accordions, and today still derives a large part of his income from the royalties on these inventions.

Lots of accordion patents by the Galleazzi family dating from 1894 to ... can be found.
His 1894 patent showing a C-system layout in figure 9:
https://www.google.com/patents/US51...l&sa=X&ei=yTeVVZPWC4fcUfX5q1A&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA

1913 patent for a transposing piano accordion:
https://www.google.com/patents/US10...l&sa=X&ei=yTeVVZPWC4fcUfX5q1A&ved=0CHEQ6AEwCQ

Trying to find the family tree line for this Galleazzi accordion makers family. The book Squeeze This! by Marion Jacobson (page 42) situating the company Galleazzi and sons between 1896-1944 in the USA.
Did Giovanni Galleazzi change his name to Joseph Galleazzi when living in the USA?
Did Giovanni Galleazzi ever work in the accordion industry in Italy? Or just in the USA?

Galleazzi spent the first twenty-four years of his life in his homeland, serving for a time in the Italian army. In 1888 he migrated to Mexico by way of France, and by 1899 he was settled in San Francisco.

Little information on the Louis Miller 1883-1917 accordion maker company in the USA.

 

[Deleted member 48]

its complicated... the first name seems to be Giuseppe

Giuseppe Galleazzi (1852-1945)


The Galleazzi family started the first accordian factory in San Francisco, CA. Giuseppe Galleazzi was my great grandfather who cam to the bay area in the 1880s , by way of Nice, France and then Mexico.
The first factory was in the Oakland area and then moved to Jackson Square in San Francisco. The business closed in the early 1950s.

link:
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=005Xbo


some Galleazzis in the music business, an accordion maker is named in the list:
http://www.geni.com/people/Giuseppe-Galleazzi/6000000024365611155
1910
Age 57
Census
Joseph: 53, married 27 years, born in Italy, parents born in Italy Immigrated in 1887, speaks English, accordion maker

 

[JIM D.]

The firm Galleazzi & Sons (Guiseppe, Frank & Theodore) 478 Jackson, San Francisco was first listed as a business in 1904. They were out of business by 1944.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thank you Jim for this information, I'm also going for Giuseppe as a first name.
I think 1852-1945 might be the correct data for this fascinating accordion maker. I have printed all the Galleazzi accordion patents and am in the process of reading these. What a fine collection of detailed pictures.
And what a creative inventive mind he must have been. His accordion patents cover many aspects of accordion making, from bass to treble side.

His firs patent is situated in the period 1893-1894, so he must have been active in the accordion making process earlier than 1904. I think he might have been learning/working with another maker of factory back in Italy. The mechanisms in his patents are so advanced, he must have been a very experienced maker back in 1893.
But so far I didn't find any track of him in 19th century Italy.
This Giuseppe Galleazzi might have been one of the key inventors or makers in accordion history. Fascinating.

 

[Glenn]

Just as an aside, patents have a protection lifetime of 20 years.
No royalties can be claimed thereafter.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Could this patent royalties have played a role in the 19th century for accordion businesses to start up outside Europe? Was a patent only applicable to one nation, or was there international patent law in the 19th century?

Some questions arouse about the history of the C-system patent.
Many attribute this to the Paolo Soprani (1844-1918) factory, patented by Soprani, Piatanesi, Beraldi, 5th of march in 1897

Joseph Galleazzi (Guiseppe Galleazzi, 1852-1945) patented the exact same C-system layout, 3rd of april in 1894, three years earlier... (see figure 9 in the patent, its the exact same picture of the Paolo Soprani patent):
https://www.google.com/patents/US517648 ... CCAQ6AEwAA

Was there some sort of relation in an accordion workshop/factory in Italy between Soprani and Galleazzi... ?

Karl Budowitz (1842-1910) from Vienna, Austria, has made surviving B-system 3 row accordions, dating from 1888-1889. But the patent is missing...

Im also looking for the 1890 Rosario Spadaro brevetto or patent of a 3-row chromatic accordion. Also missing...
http://www.accordions.com/index/his/his_it.shtml
In 1890, the artisan Rosario Spadaro from Catania in Sicily registered a copyright for an accordion free-bass accordion, and Pasquale Ficosecco in Loreto, and subsequently in his workshop in Castelfidardo, was the first to create the box-accordion.

 

[Glenn]

In 1883 (March 20th to be precise), the Paris Convention was crated.
This convention lays out the rules for cross-country intellectual property laws.
Thus there was no international patent but there were clear, non-discriminatory rules for nationals and non-nationals of a country to apply for patents around the world.
Italy was one of the original 11 contracting states.
The UK joined in 1884 and the USA joined in 1887.
One important aspect was the idea of priority.
The convention gave an applicant 12 months to file elsewhere in the world with the ability to claim the earlier priority.
One has to remember that it was not possible to e-mail your patent application in those days.

It may be noted that Galleazzi was not claiming a keyboard layout in his earlier patent.
He wanted protection for a valve construction.
Couldn't find the Soprani patent so far.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thanks Glenn for the information on 19th century patent laws !

Strange Giuseppe Galleazzi didnt make any claims on the chromatic C-system layout (figure 9) in his april 3rd 1894 patent.
Paolo Soprani and co did claim this in 1897, there is some pictures in a 1985 French book by Pierre Monichon. As far as I know the 1897 P. Soprani / Beraldi / Piatanesi patent is not online... Raises some questions...

It gets even more complicated:
Famous musicologist Curt Sachs named G. Mirwald (Georg Mirwald) from Söllitz in Bayern, Germany (also named by Alfred Mirek in his books), back in 1891, as the inventor of a 4 octaves chromatic Ziehharmonika (accordion), aunisonoric accordion, progressing by half tones (?? der halben Tastenzahl). It is named chromatine, perfected ziehharmonika. Sachs is not very clear in his description. (source: Curt Sachs: Das Lexikon der Musikinstrumente)
https://books.google.be/books?id=8r...AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=mirwald chromatine&f=false

Maybe Joseph (Giuseppe) Galleazzi knew of some forerunner of the chromatic button layout on accordion, maybe he knew about Mirwald...

Some uniform chromatic layouts on bellows instruments were known earlier:
the ca 1835 James Amiraux Bazin seraphine with a whole tone 6+6 layout

And this patent by William D. Edgar, Ottawa, Kansas USA , dated september 26th 1871, already shows a melodeon or accordion with a unisonoric 6+6 whole tone layout, + a slide for transposing ...
https://www.google.com/patents/US119335

I think a careful study of the history of accordion patents of the 19th century might lead to the (re)discovery of some missing links...

This 1864 patent by Ernst Pries of New York for example, shows the role of 19th century USA in the development of different accordion keyboard layouts needs further investigation.
https://www.google.com/patents/US43...l&sa=X&ei=rZiaVZb5OovYU4WLgDA&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA

 

[Glenn]

Hi Stephen.
Actually these are not 19th century patent laws.
The Paris Convention is still the heart of 21st century intellectual property.
It is the basis upon which fair treatment for all patent applicants is based.

As for the "missing" Soprani application I certainly wouldn't read anything special into it.
Firstly, your sources may be inaccurate in the sense that it was not a patent but some form of utility model (different thing) which existed at certain times.
These are often confused.
The USPTO has back scanned most US patents but has not done so for everything.

 

[Deleted member 48]

All these different national databases and websites of European patent offices are very difficult to search, they are not very user friendly.

It is possible Paolo Soprani prepared his 1897 patent for application, but never really did, because maybe he discovered about Joseph Galleazzi patenting it 3 years earlier. The J. Galleazzi patent is signed by witness and attorney.
Pierre Monichon put a photocopy of the 1897 (march 5th) in his 1985 book Laccordéon. The text in this photocopy is in French, and it is called a brevet for a Harmonica by Paolo Soprani. It seems to have been prepared to depose in Paris, France. But what is strange, is that I can not find any trace of the 1897 Paolo Soprani brevet in the French dbase of 19th century brevets or patents. The Italian patent office is even more complicated...
And it is sad Google had to stop its scanning project... because of legal issues. Otherwise we would have found it in seconds with a search engine...

If I do a quick search on accordéon, I can find dozens French accordion patents, you can click on voir dossier, to have a detailed look of all the pages of each patent, eg the 1852 patent of the accordéon-piano by Bouton:
http://bases-brevets19e.inpi.fr/index.asp?page=rechercheAvancee

Here are the names of the 19th century in the 19e.inpi.fr database, many handwritten manuscripts :

1BA10526 DOUCE Louis système daccordéon nommé harmonieux 1840 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre

1BA10526(1) DOUCE Louis système daccordéon nommé harmonieux 1841 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BA10526(2) DOUCE Louis système daccordéon nommé harmonieux 1841 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BA10526(3) DOUCE Louis système daccordéon nommé harmonieux 1841 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BA10526(4) DOUCE Louis système daccordéon nommé harmonieux 1841 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BA10526(5) DOUCE Louis système daccordéon nommé harmonieux 1842 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB4747 ALEXANDRE système daccordéons à pistons ou registres, lequel permet de faire parler, à laide dune seule touche, un ou plusieurs jeux, ensemble ou séparément 1846 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB9228 ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés à la construction des accordéons et autres instruments analogues, dits polkas, flutinas, etc 1849 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB9228(1) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés à la construction des accordéons et autres instruments analogues dits polkas, flûtinas, etc 1850 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB9228(2) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés à la construction des accordéons et autres instruments analogues dits polkas, flûtinas, etc. 1850 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB9228(3) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés à la construction des accordéons et autres instruments analogues dits polkas, flûtinas, etc. 1850 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB9228(4) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés à la construction des accordéons et autres instruments analogues dits polkas, flûtinas, etc 1850 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB9370 ALEXANDRE perfectionnements dans la fabrication des accordéons 1850 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB10110 FILLEUL genre danches pour accordéons 1850 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB10663 BUSSON genre de garniture et de confection de boîtes pour accordéons, flûtinos, etc 1850 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB9228(5) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés à la construction des accordéons et autres instruments analogues dits polkas, flûtinas, etc 1851 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB12771 WENDER perfectionnements dans la fabrication des anches libres pour accordéons, flutinas et autres instruments de musique, et perfectionnements apportés à ces instruments 1851 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB9370(1) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements dans la fabrication des accordéons 1852 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB9370(2) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements dans la fabrication des accordéons 1852 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB9370(3) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements dans la fabrication des accordéons 1852 Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB12771(1) WENDER perfectionnements dans la fabrication des anches libres pour accordéons, flutinas et autres instruments de musique, et perfectionnements apportés à ces instruments 1852 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB14335 LETERME perfectionnements apportés aux accordéons, flûtinas et concertinas 1852 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB14486 BOUTON instrument de musique dit accordéon-piano 1852 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB16871 TITEUX/ROUSSEAU accordéon-orgue 1853 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB16871(1) TITEUX/ROUSSEAU accordéon-orgue 1853 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB17404 ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés dans la construction des accordéons 1853 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB17447 DRUGEON application du laque et du papier mâché, genre anglais, aux accordéons et flûtinas 1853 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB20429 LETERME perfectionnements apportés dans la fabrication des accordéons et des flûtinas 1854 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB20824 JAULIN système doutils universels mobiles à découper et à estamper les porte-lames à anches libres employés dans les instruments dits accordéons, flûtinas, concertinas, orgues expressifs, etc. 1854 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB21137 ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés dans la construction des accordéons et autres instruments du même genre 1854 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB20429(1) LETERME perfectionnements apportés dans la fabrication des accordéons et des flûtinas 1855 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB20429(2) LETERME perfectionnements apportés dans la fabrication des accordéons et des flûtinas 1855 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB21137(1) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés dans la construction des accordéons et autres instruments du même genre 1855 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB22312 LEROY accordéon-flûtina à registre pour un, deux, trois, quatre jeux 1855 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB23572 KILLINGER perfectionnements aux accordéons, flûtinas, etc. 1855 Nouvelle fenêtre Nouvelle fenêtre
1BB21137(2) ALEXANDRE perfectionnements apportés dans la construction des accordéons et autres instruments du même genre 1856 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB16871(2) BUSSON accordéon-orgue 1857 Nouvelle fenêtre

1BB20429(3) LETERME perfectionnements apportés dans la fabrication des accordéons et des flûtinas 1858 Nouvelle fenêtre


As for the 1890 patent of the Georg Mirwald chromatine, same problem with legal issues. Cant show it on the pc screen, Google had no access to scan the patent No. 60480, dated 28/12/1980 Georg Mirwald
https://books.google.be/books?id=0d...&sa=X&ei=WqWbVauXHsT0UJPvgpgL&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA

Its sad all these legal issues are blocking us to have a quick online look and comparison of 19th century accordion patents...
We can only verify the sources if we have online full access to the original documents...

 

[Glenn]

Well I guess we cannot expect the USPTO, Google or EPO to transcribe hand-written documents into searchable text.
I'm pretty sure there are no legal issues blocking the viewing of patents, it is just that they are simply not available on-line.
I can imagine searching through patents of that age is more akin to the work of a historian as they were not standardised as today.
Even the patent identifiers (numbers) were non-standard and changed at different times.
Did the copy of the patent in the book have a number?
If so, maybe you can simply ask for a copy?

 

[Deleted member 48]

Ill have to look it up at home in that Pierre Monichon 1985 book, but I think he only photocopied 2 pages, and I cant remember having seen the patent number. But I have to check again.

I once saw a documentary on TV about Google sending teams to European libraries to photocopy and turn pages by hand, archiving and scanning masses of documents. But then a library introduced a legal action against Google, and they had to stop the work.

Here is a summary of some legal problems and actions against the book scanning projects
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Books

I can understand there are some legal procedures to follow.
In my experience I can find patents scanned by Google in a matter of seconds or minutes.

I have tried once to ask a library to scan an old document about accordion, dating from the 19th century. It was 3 years ago, Im still waiting...
The Google Books teams did all the work the librarians should have been doing..., and all the scanning project costs were on Google; still they had to stop because of legal action. The libraries argued they were in posession of the original documents, and they were the only who could claim rights on the documents.
Public libraries often are a bit slow in response to the public, even when the staff is funded by the tax payers money...

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi Glenn,

I have returned from a 2 weeks holiday in France, and I received some more information on the Paolo Soprani and Joseph Galleazzi patents subject.
I received a pdf file from France with a manuscript of the 1897 deposit text by Paolo Soprani. There are some figures missing, but there is a lot of handwritten text that might interest accordionists.

The pdf file is 11 megabytes, I don't know if I can upload it here ? I'll give it a try.
If the pdf doesn't show up, please let me know.

What I heard is, Giuseppe Galleazzi (Joseph Galleazzi) patented it in 1894 in the USA, and in 1896/1897 he patented the same brevetto in Italy, but sold his brevetto to Paolo Soprani.
Then Paolo Soprani patented the brevetto in France in 1897.

I don’t know if this is exact information, some more research has to be done on this subject to clear out all matters on these brevetti.
To examine all info on the patents, it is best that all historic accordion patents are available in the “cloud” on the internet.
( I only opened the pdf file this morning, and I still have to examine the document).

I have a small problem, only 1 MB files can be uploaded, mine is 11 MB, I made another copy 9 MB, but have no zip programs available.
If an administrator or member can give me an email adress I can send a 11 megabytes pdf file to that mail adress in the cloud, maybe he or she can zip it and upload it here?
If not possible, I can try to make seperate pdf files per page, there are 23 pages in this pdf file.

 

[Glenn]

Hi Stephen,

Hope you had a nice holiday in France. Bet the weather was better than I experienced in Ireland :? .

I do not think the forum server will except 11MB. This file appears rather large for a mere 23 pages.
You could perhaps host it in Dropbox and share the link, otherwise you will need to compress it.
If you have windows you can right click and send to a compressed file. This may help but may not make a huge difference.

As to the patent itself, Giuseppe Galleazzi cannot simply pick and chose to file his patent here and there.
Once a patent is published (the first one resulting from the 1894 US patent) it is in the public domain.
After that event, it is known as prior art and clearly anyone, even the owner/inventor of the first patent cannot claim to have an invention by filing again elsewhere as it is already known.
What may be happening here is that these are not patents in the commonly understood sense but some forms of design/utility patent/model (I think I've said this before).
These utility model style publication have different legal effects in various countries which have changed over the years and may vary in content.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Compressed the 11 MB file down to 1,61 MB. I'm afraid I'll have to start splitting it up in separate documents...
It is a manuscript in beautiful and clear French handwriting, the preparatory tekst "mémoir" for the patent application. But the hand signatures by the ministery representative and bureau are in the document. It's an original document, that maybe came into private posession of Pierre Monichon, French researcher of accordion history and collector of accordions.
Someone in the Castelfidardo museum says there is an existing copy of a 1899 Paolo Soprani patent.
They have contacted me and will have a look into the Joseph Galleazzi history, trying to trace back Giuseppe Galleazzi's past in Italy. To see if there was a working relation between Galleazzi and Soprani in the accordion business.