 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-08-28 01:27
Sax, Antoine Joseph, <i>dit</i> Adolphe (<i>b</i> Dinant 6 November 1814; <i>d></i> Paris, 7 February 1894)
WWI, BI <i>fl</i> Bruxelles 1835-1842, <i>fl</i> Paris 1843-1894. Eldest of eleven children trained first as clarinettist; 1835 exhibited improved clarinet, 1835-42 'contremaître' of his father's factory; 1838
patented new bass clarinet, by now calling himself 'Adolphe'; 1841 medallist at Bruxelles exhibition; 1842 after encouragement by Berlioz moved to Paris, where
July 1843 he established workshop; 1844 during visit to England demonstrated his instruments to Prince Albert at Windsor; 1845 after practical trial, his WIs adopted by War Ministry; opposition organized by committee representing 34 Parisian WI makers (F.G. ADLER, BAILLET, BARTSCH ,G.A. Besson, J.L. Buffet, L.A. Buffet, Auguste Buffet, COURTOIS NEVEU AÎNÉ, COURTOIS FRÈRES, A. COURTOIS FILS, DARCHE, DAVID, Gambaro aîné, GENTELLET, Godfroy, GOUDOT JEUNE, Guichard aîné, A. Halary, JAHN, KLEMMER, J.C. LABBAYE, Lefèvre père, Legoupil, LOTA, MARTIN FRÈRES, MICHAUD, PARIDAËNS, PÉRINET, M.A. Raoux, REMY, F. Triébert, TULOU, Widmann, J. WINNEN, who initiated litigation; 1847 lawsuit by M.A. Raoux, A. Halary. GAUTROT AÎNE, L.A. Buffet and
Gambaro was unsuccessful; 1847 workforce of about 70
(200, according to a claim in 1855 by Sax), utilizing
steam-power; 1848 his Wls now banned by the new
republican government; 1851 his new bassoon admired
by BOEHM; 1852 first bankruptcy: 1854 appointed
'facteur de la Maison militaire de l'Empereur' 1855
granted civil rights, domicile in France; appointed
professor of saxophone at Paris Conservatoire; 1858 opened own publishing house; 1860 rehabilitation of affairs; law passed prolonging saxophone, saxotromba patents; 1864 took Goudot as partner; 1865 'Société Sax, Goudot et Chantepie' dissolved; 1867 received 'Grand Prix' at the Paris exhibition, the highest award given; 1873 second
bankruptcy; 1877 third bankruptcy, auction sale of his MI collection; 1878 founded 'Sax et Cie.' with his nephew Henri; by 1886 his catalogue once again offering entire production range; 1894 death, his son Adolphe fils Successor. Haine estimates that between 1843 and 1887 he built over 40000 WIs, averaging an annual production from 1853 to c1870 of about 1500; illustrations of his factories
dating from 1848, c1860 are reproduced by Haine; after
suing his rivals for patent infringement, he later
granted licences to build his models to A. Courtois,
Darche, Gautrot aîné, Halary, J.C. Labbaye,
LECOMTE, Michaud & Cie., among others. Master of
many skills, his genius as inventor-maker manifested
itself in many diverse directions, including WWIs, BIs,
PIs, railway steam-whistle, concert-hall design,
'goudronnière-Sax' (fumigator) . It is considered that, the saxophone apart, his major achievement was to
recognize the importance of bore proportion, thereby
enabling homogeneous BI families to be created.
MARK: AS (monogram ) / AD. SAX & Cie / PARIS
SERIAL NUMBERS: [see also Haine and De Keyser]
1843=2599
1844=5789
1854=10583
1856=15511
1859=18046
1860=20200
1863=26047
1868=33355
1870=37289
1878=40415
1887=41741
ADDRESS:
1843-a1849: rue Neuve St Georges 10
a1849-1878: rue St Georges 50
1878-85: rue de Dunkerque 39, rue de Rocroy 26
1885-90: rue Lafitte 56
1890-93: rue Lallier 6
INVENTION:
1835: clarinet (24k)
1838: new bass clarinet
1838-46: saxophone
1840: improved clarinet
1845: saxotrombas, saxhorns
1851: metal bassoon
1852: six-valved BIs
1859: 'pavillion mobile' (rotateable BI bell)
PATENTS:
1838 (B) #1031: 'clarinette-bass'
1840 (B) #1560 (5034): improved clarinet descending to Eb 1842 (B) #2244: improved clarinet descending to D
1842 (B) 42246: improved bassoon
1842 (B) #2274: WWI manufacture
1843 (F) #15213: WWI manufacture
1843 (F) #15364: 'coulisse a ressort' (spring slide for BIs)
1845 (F) #2306: 'saxtromba'
1846 (F) #3220: saxophone
1849 (F) #8351 valved 'clairon', trombone
1850 (B) #5469: saxophone
1851 (F) #11981: bassoon, contrabass clarinet in metal
1852 (F) #14608: improvements to BIs ('Principe de, 6 pistons, pistons ascendants'
1859 (F) #39371: valved BIs with keys, 'pavilion mobile', valved trombone
1859 (GB) #1284: ditto
1859 (B) #7588: improvements to BIs
1862 (F) #54212: improvements to BIs
1866 (F) #70225: 'soudure par voie galvanique' (galvanic soldering)
1866 (F) #70894: improvements to saxophone
1866 (F) #70895: improvements to sarrusophone;
1867 (F) #75861: improvements to BIs
1867 (F) #76089: 'flute de Pan'
1881 (F) #139894: improvements to saxophone,
clarinet, bassoon
1881 (F) #141575 improvements to WWIs, BIs
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 1999-08-28 15:34
Wow!, its not just a resume, its a testimonial to the genius of a pioneer inventor etc of our favorite instrumentS. Many tks, Mark, we may have to go to France/ Belgium to try to get copies of some of his patents, and then study the FR language to figure them out. I copied all of it, so as to see if there are any US equivalents. I'm still planning for the future! Don
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