Robert Hope-Jones
Robert Hope-Jones (1859-1914)
1915 Obituary [1]
ROBERT HOPE-JONES was born in 1859 at Hooton Grange, Cheshire.
After serving his apprenticeship at Messrs. Laird Brothers, Birkenhead, he became chief electrician to the Lancashire and Cheshire Telephone Company, leaving them in 1889 to develop his invention of the megaphone.
He had established a small workshop close to St. John's Church, Birkenhead, of which he was the organist and choirmaster. Here he began his inventions in connection with organ building, and with the help of the young carpenters and electricians in his choir he undertook to rebuild the old organ in the west end gallery and place it in the chancel. An organ building works was later established in Birkenhead and many examples of his art were erected.
In 1903 he visited the United States and was associated in turn with the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Conn., the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston, and the Rudolph-Wurlitzer Company of North Fonnawanda.
He died at Rochester, N.Y., on the 13th September, 1914.
He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1892.