William Kratt Sr. was a German-born American inventor responsible for the Kratt Pitch Pipe and other musical devices. It is estimated that the Kratt Company has made over 3 million of pitch pipes in the last 80 years.

Kratt was born in Trossingen (Baden-Württemberg), Germany where he began work for the harmonica-maker Hohner. In 1910, at age eighteen, he immigrated to America where he quickly found work with Thomas Edison, in Orange, New Jersey, and rose to the position of foreman. In 1915 he began work for the National Musical String Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey that made strings guitar, banjo and violin strings, and also (possibly under Kratt’s direction) produced the first harmonicas in the United States.

In 1918, following the First World War, Kratt returned to Germany to start his first company, The National Harmonica Company located in his old home town of Trossingen. In 1925, after many successful years in Germany, he returned to New Jersey, married Emily Bennett, and opened a manufacturing company in Union, New Jersey where he produced music boxes and sound plates for musical toys made by various companies including J. Chein & Company, a major toy manufacturer. Around this time Kratt invented the pitch pipe that became his company’s best known product.

Source:

Kerr, Grady. “The History of the Pitch Pipe: 80 Years and Still On Pitch” online at http://www.gradywilliamkerr.com/PitchPipes/PitchPipe.html#Brochures (accessioned 6/21/12)