Josef Hofmann

JOSEF HOFMANN d1957. Polish American virtuoso pianist, composer and inventor. A child prodigy, he gave a debut recital in Warsaw at the age of 5 and a long series of concerts throughout Europe & Scandinavia, culminating in a series of concerts in America in 1887-88 that elicited comparisons with the young Mozart. As a composer, he published over one hundred works, many of those under the pseudonym Michel Dvorsky including two piano concertos and ballet music. As an inventor, he had over 70 patents and his invention of pneumatic shock absorbers for cars and airplanes was commercially successful from 1905 to 1928. Other inventions included a  windscreen wiper / a furnace that burned crude oil / a house that revolved with the sun / a device to record dynamics (US patent number 1614984) in reproducing piano rolls that he perfected just as the roll companies went out of business and piano action improvements adopted by the Steinway Company. He died of pneumonia aged 81 on February 16th 1957 in Los Angeles.