Julius Wellner,
1868-1917
Selective Coin-Op
Phonograph Pioneer
Julius Wellner was
born on the 25th April 1868* in the village Pápa in the Veszprém province of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and his father was tailor Peter Wellner,
and his mother was a womanˈs physician Katherine
Wellner, born Swartz. There were thirteen children in
the marriage, but only four survived a cholera epidemic, the oldest Rosa and
Joseph, and the youngest Julius and Alexander. Julius Wellner
started at the age of twelve in 1881 as an apprentice to learn watchmaking, and around 1885 he left the Austro-Hungarian
Monarchy to find work as a clock repairman first in Germany, and the following
years in London, England, and he claimed that he took part in the service of
the Great Clock of Westminster (Big Ben)
while he was there. Then he went by boat to India to service and repair the clocks at official and military buildings, and
returned via Germany to London around 1889. He was ill with typhoid fever and
hospitalized, and at the Middlesex Hospital he met the nurse Ellen (Nellie) Collyer
(1866-1899), his future wife. Julius Wellner and his
wife to be went to America and arrived in New York on the 15th June, 1894.
Still not officially married they settled at 196 Bower Street in Jersey City
Heights. The daughter Katherine Martha (Kitty)
was born on the 15th February, 1895, and Julius Wellner
and Nellie Collyer were formally married on the 6th
January, 1895, and they soon moved to 507 Hilton Avenue, Jersey City Heights.
Julius Wellner was naturalized as American citizen on
the 4th January, 1898.
After a short period as foreman at a machine
workshop Julius Wellner established a small local
facility manufacturing metal tune sheets, and he had ten to fifteen girls
working the presses. This became the basis of the Perfection Music-Box Co.,
first located in 1897 at Columbia Avenue in Hoboken, but soon the factory moved
to 17-19 Mulberry Street in Newark. In 1901 Julius Wellner
had 32 employees at the factory, and the manufactured musical boxes were
usually marked with number 6-29-1897 plus serial number. The first digits are
the date his first patent 585,246 for ˈfelt dampersˈ was granted in
the US, and the patented felt dampers were an important feature of the ˈPerfectionˈ
musical boxes. Nellie Collyer Wellner
was the company bookkeeper, but unfortunately she died in August, 1899, due to
complications after an operation, blood poisoning, and Julius soon after moved
from the latest address, 800 Broad Street in Newark, to Philadelphia, and
opened a music store at 922 Walnut Street. Julius Wellner
was still the principal of Perfection Music-Box Co., and in 1900-1901 he had
three patents assigned to him and the Perfection Music-Box Co. by the German
born Josef Natterer (1862-), and the brothers Charles
C. Clifford (1872-) and Alfred C. Clifford (1881-). In 1902 Julius Wellner had an additional patent assigned to him by Edward
D. Gleason (1860-), and early in 1904 he rented factory facilities on 7th and
Cherry Streets in Philadelphia, and started to work with two friends, German
born cabinet maker Asmus August Philippsen
(1873-1955) and Irish born mechanical engineer James A. Brennan (1864-1914),
to develop an automatic device to change records on phonographs. This was based
on patent 766,561 filed on the 14th August, 1903, which included an automatic
needle changer.
On the 22nd December, 1901, Julius Wellner married Maude Marie May
(1869-), a former stenographer at the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and they lived at a few addresses in Philadelphia. In August, 1908,
Julius Wellner boarded the SS Blücher
of the Hamburg-American Line for Europe to visit his mother and relatives in
Hungary. He was as mentioned above naturalized
as American citizen in 1898, but he could not have visited them earlier as he
could still have been drafted in the Hungarian Army until 39 years of age. On
the 21st October, 1909, the son Charles Julius Wellner
was born.
On the 25th June, 1910, the Auto Piano Company at 428 Market Street,
Camden, was incorporated in Philadelphia by Julius Wellner,
Frank James Curran (1872-1948), John W. Hightown
(1880-), and Thomas James Curley (1860-1918), but
Julius Wellner had by then for several years due to
possible patent infringements a good contact to the well reputed John Gabel (1872-1955) of
the Automatic Machine and Tool
Co. in Chicago. It seems, since both Gabel and Wellner
came from the same region in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and spoke the same
German dialect, that they became friends personally and in business. When Gabel and Wellner
met at a trade show to discuss patent infringements, Gabel immediately liked Wellner, - they were of like minds and souls, and
Julius Wellner had some problems with the needle
changer in his selective phonograph in the workshop. Therefore, no need to
spend money on patent infringement cases, and as a result Julius Wellner became the most successful East Coast agent
operating and selling John Gabelˈs
"Automatic Entertainer" introduced in 1906. After Wellnerˈs
early death most
of John Gabelˈs impressive Automatic Entertainer selective phonographs were distributed
nationwide by a section of The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. headed by Howard Eugene Wurlitzer (1871-1928).
Also Wellner was a successful agent for the J. P. Seeburg Co. in Chicago, and became a personal friend of the
founder Justus P. Seeburg
(born Justinus
Percival Sjöberg) (1871-1958). The most
successful orchestrion for moving picture parlors was
the Seeburg Motion Picture Player trademarked as the
Pipe Organ Orchestra, and the J. P. Seeburg Co. sold
via agents like Wellner about 1,000 of the ˈphotoplayersˈ in the years from late 1913 until 1919.
Julius Wellner was also the sole representative in
Philadelphia of The Regina Co. of Rahway, New Jersey, a subsidiary of the Polyphon-Musikwerke AG in Leipzig, Germany, and
manufacturer of the popular six-selection coin-operated Hexaphone (Models 101-104) phonograph introduced in December 1908. From
1904/05 until around 1911 Julius Wellner also marketed
the talking machines and records imported from the Homophon
Co. G.m.b.H. in Berlin, a company founded by Herrmann
Eisner (1860-1927)
born in Brieg in Silesia (Brzeg in Poland today).
The Homophon record label changed in 1911 after
patent infringements to Homokord, but the company
name remained the same. The German company name Homophon
in Berlin not to be confused with the Australian phonograph brand ˈHomophoneˈ
used by Home Recreations Ltd. in Sydney.
The only real personal problem Julius Wellner had in his business life came in 1913. On the 13th
June he was indicted for possible violations of The Mann Act of 1910, but
acquitted by the U.S. District Court in March, 1914. At the time he was a well
known millionaire due to years of successful music box business and property
investments, and also known as a kind, fair, and righteous man, but he could
not avoid having his name and the indictment mentioned in the newspapers.
However, in 1914/15 it was all forgotten, and after renting the ground floor
since 1912 Julius Wellner purchased the Racquet Club
Building at 923 Walnut Street in Philadelphia, and remodeled the whole building
to be his modern business showroom, known as The Wellner
Building. The address at Walnut Street is a car park facility today.
In June, 1917, after years of experiments and
hard work by Julius Wellner, Asmus
August Philippsen, and the late James A. Brennan, it
could finally be announced that the "Wellner
Marvel", a new 24 selection push-button phonograph was ready for the
market, and attracted considerable attention in the showroom. This could be
read on page 46 in the Talking Machine World magazine No. 7 published on the
15th July, 1917. The Wellner Marvel, or World Marvel as Julius would have preferred, was a machine in which
twenty-four different records could be placed in position at one time and was
placed upon the machine automatically by pushing of a button, without winding
or inserting a new needle. Victor, Columbia, or any other record could be used.
The ten-inch records were placed on one side and the twelve-inch records on the
other. The editor has never seen a photo of the machine exhibited in the
showroom on Walnut Street, but it seems it may have been a serious competitor
to the self-operating "Gabel-Ola" introduced in December 1916 by the Gabelˈs Entertainer Co. in Chicago. Julius Wellner
had at least 15 American and British patents to his name, and the last patent
1,491,252 for a ˈSound-Reproducing Machineˈ filed on the 10th April,
1917, and granted on the 22nd April, 1924, was sold to the patent trust RCA (Radio Corporation of America) founded in 1919. It is interesting, that the Julius Wellner patent for a ˈRecord-Changing Mechanism for
Sound-Reproducing Machinesˈ filed in 1912 was mentioned in the patent
listing on the first modern-style Gabel phonographs in the early 1930s.
Finally, after Julius Wellner passed away the
remaining agency activities were sold to the Lawson Piano Co. founded 1906 (Lawson & Co.)
in New York by Charles Benjamin
Lawson (1855-1924), a former music box business associate, and his sons William Wheelock
Lawson (1880-1963) and Arthur Morris Lawson
(1889-1953). The company manufactured player-pianos and the "Lawson
Universal" phonograph series. When the founder retired in 1920 the company
was incorporated as Lawson Piano & Phonograph Corp..
Unfortunately, Julius Wellner
died much too young of pneumonia on the 15th November, 1917, in his home at
1929 North 22nd Street, Philadelphia, and he was buried on the 17th from St.
Elizabeth’s Catholic Church on 23rd and Berks Streets. His grave marker can be
found at Holy Cross Cemetery (Section 9, Range 11), Baily
Road, Yeadon in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. In 1920
the widow Maude Marie May Wellner married Swedish
born Otto Thorn (1874-), introduced to her by her
younger brother Harry R. May (1879-). The editor has not yet found grave
locations or further data of Maude or first wife Ellen (Nellie). The son Charles Julius Wellner
married Jessica Schulein in Hawaii on the 20th
November, 1936 (licensed 2nd January, 1940), and he died on the 27th March,
1994. The grave marker of
Charles Julius and his wife Jessica (1908-1988) can be found at the Fort
Rosecrans National Cemetery (GN1, 0, 221), Point Loma near San Diego in
California. The daughter Katherine Martha (Kitty)
Wellner married Albert F. Volk, and she died on the
13th October, 1976. The grave marker of Katherine and her husband Albert
(1892-1976) is the same as that of Julius Wellner at
the Holy Cross Cemetery. Further information of course always appreciated.
Gert J. Almind
Thanks to
Maria Volk McGuire, Clifton
Heights, Pennsylvania
* Year 1869 on grave marker is probably not
correct, since the year 1868 can be found in an unpublished story entitled
"Juliusˈ Life & Families" told by the daughter Kitty Wellner. Also note that Julius Wellner
could have been drafted for the army when he visited the family in Hungary in
August, 1908, if he was not by then 40 years of age.