George McFadden and his "Conic Acoustic Cornet" in Bb

George McFadden was born on May 23rd, 1834, either in England as stated for most of his life, or Naas, Ireland as stated on the 1851 census, when he was 17 and living in Liverpool with his widowed father and five siblings. His 63 year old father, George Sr. was born in Clonaslee, Queens County, Ireland and living on his military pension, having retired as sergeant of the Kildare Regiment of Militia in 1835. In later census, he is listed as “musician”.

In that 1851 census, George was listed as “apprentice musical instrument maker” and his 20 year old brother, Barnard, “musical instrument maker”. The two boys were likely working for James and Alice Jordan, who made musical instruments about a mile from the McFadden household. In the same census, the Jordans were listed as employing four journeymen and three apprentices. Today, the Jordan’s work is quite obscure with only a few examples extant including a serpent with five keys and an F trumpet with two Stoelzel valves. They exhibited five brass instruments at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. Each of these incorporate new ideas or presumed improvements over earlier designs as seen in the listing below. Perhaps the young apprentice took this inspiration to heart, blossoming decades later in his own designs.

James Jordan died of tuberculosis on January 2nd, 1852, but the business was continued by Alice, her son George and their employees. On the fifteenth of August, 1853, George McFadden married Emma Muir in Liverpool and moved to London, where their son, William B. was born in September, 1855. The 1861 census shows them living near brother Barnard (Barney) in the Mays Buildings, just off St. Martin’s Lane, where the London Colosseum now stands. Neighbors there included George Pierce, 58, trumpet maker and John Goabe, 56, Polisher. There were at least a dozen other musical instrument makers within walking distance including Distin & Co, just a few blocks away and the largest, Besson, was a little over a mile. He later claimed to have experience with both.

In 1865, the young family moved to the US (according to William’s listing in the 1900 census) and by 1869 George and Emma were living in Worcester, Massachusetts and in the hosiery and fancy goods business. In the 1870 census, George was listed as a “musical instrument maker,” with Emma in the “fancy dry goods” business and 15 year old son, William a “clerk in dry goods store”. We have no details of the musical instrument making activities from this time, but likely he had gotten work with Isaac Fiske, the only important maker in town. In January of 1872, George was granted a patent for improvement in tuck-markers for sewing machines.

The city and business directories continued listing George in the fancy goods and sewing business through 1873, but the city business directory published in January 1873 also lists “McFadden & Beaumont…Brass Band Instruments". His partner, Frederick Theodore Beaumont, was born in Oxfordshire, England March 2, 1847 and came to the US in 1854. He was living in Worcester by 1869 and worked for Isaac Fiske for several years around that time according to Dr. Robert Eliason’s “Early American Brass Makers”. Perhaps George was able to sell his patent for enough to invest in the new shop. Their products were blatant copies of instruments by Fiske, including at least some elements of his patents. The partnership was short lived and possibly ended due to threats of legal action from Fiske.

Just months later, George, Emma and William traveled back to England, perhaps to visit family and likely pursuing business contacts as well. They returned to New York on June 25th, 1873. At the time of the 1871 census, George’s father was 84 and living in London with a couple of other musicians. George, Sr. lived in London until 1877, when he died at 90 years of age.

In 1874, George was listed as “military musical instrument manufacturer” in Syracuse, New York and newspaper advertisements indicate that production was well under way by May. In the Syracuse Journal, May 7, 1874, he claimed “years of experience in various manufactories, including those of Besson, Fiske, Distin, &c.” Even with a skeptical view, we can probably allow some truth in this statement. The original address was the same as the family home at 66 South Salina Street, but the next year moved their residence nearby. Then in 1877, the shop was moved to 71 South Clinton, presumably larger quarters and Emma was listed separately in the city directories as partner in the business. In 1878 the factory expanded into 73 South Clinton Street.

The article below, published by the Syracuse Journal on May 27, 1876 describes the instruments and display case for McFadden’s exhibit at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, including a five valve cornet with echo and device for bird calls.  Besides the ten instruments mentioned here, two other cornets are reported in other newspaper accounts. The total number of instruments made before the exhibition must have been small and none of these are known to exist today other than two Bb cornets by McFadden & Beaumont in Worcester, copying the Fiske designs.

The Syracuse Journal reported on July 3rd, 1975 that “Mr. McFadden has recently secured the services of Mons. Dupont, for many years superintendent of the renowned Besson's manufactory, in London, England”. Research has not found any hard evidence, but it is believed that this is the same Eugene Victor Jean Baptiste Dupont that became partner with C.G. Conn in 1876, enabling the first brass instruments to be made in Elkhart, Indiana. Eugene Dupont and Louis Duchanssoy, both musicians, were listed as passengers on the S.S. Helvetia, sailing from London and arriving in New York on October 27, 1874. This is very likely the same man and the time of arrival allows for the theory above.

During the 1860s, Eugene Dupont worked for Henry Distin in London, where he designed the famous “Patent Light Valves”. When living in London, the McFaddens lived less than half a mile from the Distin shop and there is a good chance that they were acquainted with Dupont and may have been co-workers. The newspaper quote above is the only evidence that Dupont worked for Besson in London as well. It is possible that he was somewhat displeased with work at Distin after it was purchased by Boosey & Co., especially since his name was not mentioned in the British patent. Also, Besson was a larger shop and many employees, including management spoke French there in those early years.

The patented improvement in Distins valves was a construction that used a single tube for the piston wall to which the coquilles (tubes forming valve ports) were silver soldered. Previously, pistons were made by silver soldering the coquilles to a inner tube and then soft soldering that within an outer tube. McFaddens pistons were made using Dupont’s innovation. This along with a very thin piston wall made for very light pistons, enabling a faster action. The photo below shows that McFadden made additional improvements after the first 70 to 100 instruments were made. On the right is the earlier piston from #1202 and on the left is from #1285. The later piston is shorter with a floating valve guide. The spring barrel and stem are also very thin walled. In the later piston, the weight of the reciprocating portion is 43 grams compared with 50 grams in the earlier version. The heavier pistons, with fixed valve guides are still seen in McFadden cornet #1257 (in Tom Meacham’s collection), made after the expansion of the shop to 73 South Clinton Street in 1878.

Another innovation is in the method of creating the top and bottom valve caps. In #1202, they were machined from a billet of cast or drawn brass like other makers, but early in production, developed a method of stamping these from sheet brass. He then soldered rings inside and outside, threaded the interior and knurled the ring on the outside. These stamped caps are seen on #1215, in Mark Metzler’s collection.

The design of this "Conic Acoustic Cornet" is somewhat unique in the long and very gradually tapering mouthpipe.  In addition, the taper continues through the tuning slide assembly, including the inside of the tuning slide tubes. An independent design ethic was also expressed in the look of the valve caps, braces, pull knobs and ferrules and, as McFadden claimed, it seems sure that all of the parts of this cornet were made within the McFadden workshop.  Another feature is that the valve stroke is 1 1/16” compared to about 1 5/8” on almost all other piston valve cornets and modern trumpets. This seems an advantage at first, but the result of this design is that the surface between the piston ports that must keep an air tight seal is only .07” compared to about .16” in most others. It doesn’t take much wear in the fit between the pistons and casings before the playing qualities start to deteriorate from leakage and alignment of the valve ports is critical. It is of a high quality construction and seems to be a very good playing cornet as well. The previous owner of this cornet had the valves plated and refit so that he could enjoy playing it at its best.

Click on image below to view the gallery.

 The silver and gold plated finish are original and this instrument must not have seen much use.  Other than refitting the valves, it needed no restoration work at all and retains it's original case containing all the parts that came with it: Bb and A shanks, two bits, mouthpiece and lyre.  The case interior has obviously been recovered.  The elaborate engraving includes grapes, vines, leaves and a bird along with more conventionalized designs covering most of the surface.  With serial number 1202, it is believed that this is the second cornet made by McFadden after the Centennial Exhibition. This must have been an expensive instrument for the buyer in 1876.  It is 12 1/4" long, has a bell rim diameter of 5" and  the bore measures .467".

In the gallery below is McFadden Bb cornet in restored condition from Fred Feinsod’s collection, made some time later with deluxe engraving the whole length of the bell. The bell appears to have been made on the same mandrel and the valve bore is about the same, but the later cornet has a more conventional taper in the mouthpipe. All the lightweight parts, including very thin metal in the bell make it a noticeably lighter instrument. It weighs 779 grams compared to 1097 grams for the earlier example, 29 percent lighter, a surprising difference. The overall length with shank removed is 11 1/4”, the bell diameter is 4 15/16” and the valve bore measures about .468” (hard to measure accurately due to deterioration in the tubes).

George’s brother Barney followed his brother to America, arriving in 1879. In the 1880 Census, he was living in Elkhart, Indiana and listed as a “brass worker”, presumably for C.G. Conn.

In 1888, the directories show George McFadden in partnership with W. Henry Roberts including a plating shop. George died May 19th, 1889 and Roberts continued to operate his plating shop at a different address.

William McFadden was managing the factory, belonging to George’s estate, at 405 South Clinton Street until he became the proprietor by 1892. William continued at the same address until 1898, when he moved to 100 Park Ave. There, he continued to be listed as band instrument manufacturer into the 1920s, although I doubt that he made many cornets after his father’s death. William’s obituary (died March 29, 1929) describes him as manager and proprietor of a music store, having retired in about 1922. Emma McFadden had died in 1903, but had not been listed as being involved in the business for more than a decade.

Judging by serial numbers on extant instruments (about 17) and newspaper accounts, George McFadden’s production of cornets likely didn’t exceed 150 cornets in Syracuse. There is mention of a trombone in the 1876 exhibition and one in a 1947 newspaper article, but it is possible that it is the same instrument. Also in Jeff Stockham’s collection is a silver presentation bugle, dated 1876 and there are two rotary valve cornets made in Massachusetts by McFadden & Beaumont.

Much of the information included above was gleaned from previous research that was done by Jeff Stockham years before I started this project. He generously provided all his data including many newspaper articles that I hadn’t been able to find.