Ernest M. Skinner
Ernest Martin Skinner ( born January 15, 1866 in Clarion, Pennsylvania, † November 25, 1960 in Dorchester, Massachusetts) was an American organ builder.
Life
Skinner was born 1866 in Clarion ( Pennsylvania). In the 1880s, he worked with George H. Ryder and Jesse Woodbury. For George S. Hutchings (1889-1901) and his new organ at New York's St. Bartholomew's Church in 1893, he developed a first electro- pneumatic action. Many other inventions such as today in the U.S. often built electro-pneumatic " pitman " - (wind) load (1899 ) or orchestral solo tongues go back to Skinner.
In 1904 he founded the Ernest M. Skinner & Company in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The company soon had to contend with financial difficulties, because although Skinner was a brilliant organ builder, but could not deal profitably with the finances. Then the millionaire Arthur Hudson Marks rose to be a partner in the management and certain pioneered the development of the company, which henceforth acted under the name Skinner Organ Company. 1932, the Skinner Organ Company and the Company Æolian to Æolian - Skinner Company were merged under his leadership. Under the new, dedicated by Marks from England organ builder Donald Harrison, the company devoted more and more the idea of organ motion. Ernest Skinner then retired from the company and, together with his son in Methuen, MA, a new workshop. The Aeolian - Skinner Company existed until 1972.