- Theodore Cassebeer, Steinway & Sons factory manager and the grandson of Doretta Steinweg, develops the method of bending inner and outer piano rims simultaneously, perfecting the technique of separate inner and outer rim bending, invented by C.F. Theodor Steinweg in 1878.
- Theodore Cassebeer also develops new presses, gadgets, and tools to improve veneering techniques.
- At Theodore Cassebeer’s request, Murphy Varnish Company in Newark, N.J. develops a fast-drying lacquer for pianos – a “for-wood” version of DuPont’s nitrocellulose lacquer spray for automobiles. The new chemical, Murphy Varnish no. 11, also known as “TC Lacquer”, makes the piano coating process last only a few days, instead of two to three months, as it was with traditional varnish.
- Theodore Cassebeer enlists his cousin, Paul Bilhuber, as his assistant. Paul Bilhuber takes several courses in physics, metallurgy and engineering at Columbia College, and Theodore Cassebeer trains him in piano design and construction. A talented draftsman, Paul Bilhuber roams the factory, making sketches of piano manufacturing processes, and then, helped by old German machinist Stanley Weber, designs new machines and ways to optimize production methods, to enable fewer workers make more pianos in less time.
- Theodore Cassebeer’s inventions and Paul Bilhuber’s technical innovations and reorganizations in work processes nearly double the piano production at Steinway & Sons.
- Organized weekend boat rides become popular among Steinway & Sons workers. Steinway & Sons charters 2 boats to ferry all the workers up the Hudson River to a park in Poughkeepsie. After a picnic lunch and dinner, several rounds of beer, free rides, and swims in the river, the workers and their families board the boats and sail back to the city down the moonlit Hudson river.
- To show appreciation to his employees, Frederick T. Steinway also organizes regular company picnics, company-sponsored sick benefit and death benefit funds, provides free beds at the Lenox Hill Hospital and personal loans to Steinway & Sons workers.
- Henry W.T. Steinway sells his Steinway & Sons shares to the company’s trustees.
- Even though Steinway & Sons is not listed on the stock exchange, the company’s shares become available to public through brokers for the first time.