The Tiltall Preface: Pushcart
to Inventor -
Uncle
Marchioni Makes Good
From http://www.zingersicecream.com/history.htm
Italo Marchioni emigrated
to the United States in the late 1800s, and although he lived in Hoboken,
NJ for a time his fame resides solely in New York City. He began his
business selling his homemade lemon ice from a single pushcart on Wall
Street, but his business quickly grew into many carts.
Although
he was successful he still had a small problem that was causing him
to lose money. At the time, most ice cream from vendors was sold in
serving glasses called "penny
licks" (because you'd lick the ice cream from the glass, and it
cost a penny to do so). There was a major problem with sanitation
(or the lack thereof), but Marciony's problem was that many people
would accidentally break the glasses, or not so accidentally walk off
with them. His first solution was to make cone-like containers
out of paper which worked fine until he was hit with a stroke of genius.
He came up with the idea of making an edible container for his cool
treat.
So, in 1896 he began baking edible
waffle cups with sloping sides and a flat bottom - shaped like his
serving glass - and it was an instant hit.
On September 22, 1903, he filed a patent application
out of the city and state of New York, and U.S. Patent No. 746971 was
issued to him on December 15, 1903. So although he lived in Hoboken for
a time, while selling his wares in the big city, and although my home
town web sites claims him as our own, his patent clearly states that
he is "Italo Marciony of New York."
More details at the New Jersey Institute of Technology:
Brothers
Marchioni Make Good
From Leitz Tiltall Tripod Story ca. 1975
As time passed and the Marchioni
business grew, the two brothers, Caesar and Mark began pursuing their
own personal interests in their free time away from the store. Caesar
had been given a camera in 1918 and he spent much of his time taking
and developing pictures, while Mark’s interest led him to a
specialty in industrial design.
Until the start of the depression, the Marchioni
Ice Cream business flourished but, as many businesses felt the pinch
of the depression year the Marchioni brothers began to search for
ways to augment their dwindling business and incomes. As Caesar turned
more and more toward photography, he became frustrated with his tripod
which while relatively steady, was heavy and since it didn’t
feature a tilting head, limited him to straight-on photographs.
Initially,
Caesar and Mark turned their energies to developing a practical tripod
head, one that would fit the cameras of the day and, most important,
would allow the photographer to tilt the camera on the tripod and
photograph his subjects from the best or more creative angles. They
settled on a design, put what savings they had into a mini-machine
shop and began manufacturing their unique product.
Door-to-door sales of this new product didn’t
break any records during the depression, but it kept the brothers
busy, and began to develop into a modest business when the outbreak
of World War II brought the business to a halt due to lack of materials.
The brothers turned their skills to the war effort, and subcontracted
to build precision tool parts for divisions of Bendix for the duration
of the war.
The Tiltall Arrives
After the war, the brothers decided the
best thing they could do for their business was to produce the complete
tripod, and not just the tiltable head. Tripods of the day could
be divided into two main categories—the wooden ones, which
were usually quite sturdy, but sometimes warped or dried and became
brittle, or the metal tripods, which had a deserved flimsy reputation.
The two brothers began working on a design
for a metal tripod: one that was solid, light, and could effectively
maximize the versatile tilting head. In 1946, after considerable work,
the first Tiltall was produced.
The Tiltall Tradition
From 1946 to 1973,
the Tiltall production remained in the hands of the Marchioni brothers.
Production was purposely limited to allow the brothers an opportunity
to personally supervise and control all steps in the production cycle
and assure a product of consistent quality. The files of the brothers
are filled with letters of testimonial to the quality and superb performance
of the Tiltall tripod demonstrating the success of this approach. Also,
in spite of virtually no budget for advertising, Tiltall’s fame
spread and the orders for new tripods far exceeded the brothers’ ability
to produce them—even
in the leanest years of our economy.
Tiltall and Leitz
Early in 1973, Gene Anderegg, from E. Leitz, Inc.,
in Rockleigh, New Jersey, who had known of the Tiltall for many years,
contacted the Marchionis to discuss a possible affiliation. Leitz had
an enviable reputation in the scientific world as the builder of the
highest quality microscopes, and in the photographic world as the creator
of the famous Leica 35mm system of photography.
The Marchionis felt that the time was right to
retire and had been searching for someone to carry on the tradition
they had established with such great care. The result, the Leitz reputation
was enough proof for the Marchionis and a deal was consummated. And
so, the tripod works were moved from Rutherford, New Jersey, to Rockleigh,
New Jersey, where the Marchionis personally trained the staff now carrying
on the work that began because a loving father gave his son a camera. -here
ends the Leitz' history.
Tiltall and Uniphot- ca.1985-2000 Star-D, Tiltall
and King Home- 2000 to Present
If you can add to or correct this history, please contact
Gary Regester.
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