[pianotech] Dr Sanderson

[tom]

List,

   As many of you know, Dr Sanderson passed last week.

The great ones among us never run out of inspiration and
accomplishment-----they just run out of time.

Tom D.

            From the Boston Globe:

           Albert E. Sanderson, a Harvard instructor whose piano-tuning
device changed the art 30 years ago, spent the last decade trying to develop
a vehicle motor capable of delivering 100 miles per gallon, according to his
company and family.


 

 


 

"We're on the threshold of a dream, and the sad thing is he didn't get to
see it" fully realized, said his son, David of Concord.

Mr. Sanderson, who invented the Sanderson Engine and the Sanderson Pump with
his brother Robert, died of cancer Sunday at Concord Park in West Concord.
He was 80 and had lived in Carlisle most of his life.

He held many patents, including eight for his Accu-Tuner for pianos and
eight related to the engine and hydraulic pump, which he dubbed "the engine
of the future."

In 2001, Mr. Sanderson and his brother Robert of Denton, Texas, launched
Sanderson Engine Development LLC of Upton after Mr. Sanderson's insights at
age 70 led them to create what his family described as a highly efficient
motor.

Eight prototypes have been made, and the mechanisms were recently tested at
the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

"That's what kept the spark in my father's eye in these last years," said
his son Paul of Westford.

Born in Bethlehem, Pa., Mr. Sanderson was the eldest of three brothers. His
father was an engineer for Bethlehem Steel before moving to Boston, where he
became a professor at Northeastern University.

Mr. Sanderson met his wife, Mary (McGettigan), in the first grade in Wayland
public schools. She was in the second grade. He completed the coursework for
both first and second grades and advanced to the third grade with Mary,
according to his sons. They were married for 59 years.

He earned his bachelor's degree in 1949 and his master's degree in
engineering and physics in 1950, all from Harvard, before working as an
electronics engineer for Aircraft Radio Corp. in New Jersey and General
Radio Co. of Concord.

>From 1960 to 1973, he was director of the Harvard Electronics Design Center,
which made custom instruments for Harvard research departments. He also
taught engineering and physics at Harvard for eight years.

Mr. Sanderson enjoyed playing the piano at home. He mastered Scott Joplin's
"Maple Leaf Rag" and bought a grand piano in the 1960s, his family said.

The piano came with three tuning sessions. After the first visit, the
tuner's vehicle got stuck in the family's Carlisle driveway, and he demanded
Mr. Sanderson pay his tow bill, Paul said.

After that, Mr. Sanderson decided he could figure out how to tune his piano.
He took tuning lessons and dreamed up a device that used mathematical
formulas to measure how true a piano's tuning was.

In 1972, he launched Inventronics Inc., now in Tyngsborough, to handle the
licensing of patents and manufacturing of inventions, including the
Sanderson Accu-Tuner.

Among early fans of the device was Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler. "It
is a remarkable instrument which every tuner should have and which every
orchestra, music director, and those who tune their own instruments could
well use," Fiedler wrote in a 1974 testimonial letter.

The response from piano tuners was lukewarm. Mr. Sanderson hit the
convention circuit and trade shows to promote his invention and to try to
convince professional tuners that he wasn't trying to replace them.

"He developed an instrument that matched the ear in many ways," his son Paul
said. "He'd never say it was better, but he would say it was a great aid to
the ear."

His sons' most enduring memory of their father is of a hardworking man
clutching a pencil and legal pad.

"He always seemed to have something, an equation or some sort of problem, he
was solving," David said.

In addition to his wife, sons, and brother, Mr. Sanderson leaves another
brother, Richard of Peterborough, N.H.; two daughters, Linda Dwyer of Hadley
and Kathryn Fox of Upton; and 11 grandchildren.

Services are planned for 10 a.m. today at the Bedford Funeral Home in
Bedford. Burial will be at Green Cemetery in Carlisle.

 

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