- By this year, in less than 4 years the net worth of Steinway & Sons has increased fifteen times from $24,000 to over $360,000, and the annual output of pianos has risen almost 700%. Steinways have accomplished this with neither outside investors, nor having borrowed a single dollar from a bank.
- William Steinway not only forgives his 70-year-old former employer William Nunns’ $300 debt, but for the next ten years will send to William Nunns monthly remittance.
- Having previously worked as a keymaker, twenty-year-old Albert Steinway switches his focus to casemaking.
- Henry Steinway, Jr. writes in a letter to his brother C.F. Theodor: “We should ship one of our grands to Liszt in Weimar in order to show him that we are not as musically backwards over here as is commonly assumed in Europe […] I am convinced that such an instrument would not fail to make an impression, and that whatever is written about it would have to be incredibly useful for us and for you. In any case, it could help to make our name world-famous.” (The piano donation to Liszt, suggested by Henry Steinway, Jr., will happen only 16 years later – see the corresponding 1876 entry.)
- The cheapest Steinway & Sons square piano sells at Walker Street showroom for $275; the richest style square piano, marketed as “Square Grand”, with a full 7-octave keyboard, three strings in each treble note, extra finish, ornate carving and a full complement of the latest technology patented by Henry Steinway, Jr., costs $650 retail, with 30% discount for agents.
- By this year, a citywide pianomakers union consists of approximately a thousand members. The main goal of the union is to persuade the employers to match the wages to the rapidly increasing cost of living.