Dave “Dave’s Picks” Polaschek reminded me via email that today, January 13th, is the anniversary of Anthony Faas’ filing of a first U.S. patent — number 11062 — for accordions, or more accurately, “certain new and useful Improvements in Accordions”.

(The oldest patent for the accordion belongs to Cyrill Demian from Vienna; that one is dated May 1829. I’ll celebrate that day later this year.)

Pictured below are Anthony Faas and the result of his work, approximately 150 years later…


From Faas to Kick Aass! Left: Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, US patent holder for “certain new and useful Improvements in Accordions”. Right: Yours truly rockin’ out at Kick Ass Karaoke. That’s Jeff Kahl holding the mic.

The US Patent site seems to mangle the images of Faas’ patent, so I’ve posted them in an Accordion Patent photo album, which you can view in either album or slideshow format.

I recommend that you celebrate this day with some accordion music. If you don’t have any, give The Decemberists’ The Mariner’s Revenge Song [6.0MB, MP3], one of the big indie rock songs of 2005, a listen.

Joey deVilla

View Comments

  • Have you ever stopped to LOOK at the date on the photo above-- it clearly says JUNE 13, not January!! Apparently someone jotted down "Jun" and they or another misread it as "Jan". Result - you are all observing the WRONG DAY!!

    Oh, and here's another blogger who noticed the mistake, apparently from looking at your graphic above (since he, in fact, links to it to make his point).

  • My brother and I were both accordian players and still have our faithful Excelsior accordians!

Recent Posts

The time Tampa amost ceased to exist (and how we became the Capital of the Impossible)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dARFO8nBCc If you live in the Tampa Bay area, which has been my home for…

3 days ago

Random accordion photo: “The Egg Roll Machine” (September 11, 2024, Louisville, Kentucky)

This photo was taken on September 11, 2024 at a bar called Kaiju, located in…

4 days ago

Serenading the King of Kensington

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHCU-PAIIQc American viewers may know Al Waxman from his role as Lieutenant Albert Samuel from…

6 days ago

Sunday picdump for Sunday, August 2

It’s Sunday, and it’s time for another “picdump!” Here are the memes, pictures, and cartoons…

7 days ago

Top 10 reasons why I didn’t get a drink from the Buzzfeed-branded airport convenience store

10. Coke zero was warm 9. Coke zero was warm 8. Coke zero was warm…

2 weeks ago