His name is not well known in Waltham, but it should be. It certainly is well known elsewhere around the world. Like many of Waltham’s Breezers, his journey also began a long distance from Waltham. Mr. Finkenbeiner was born in Germany during the dark times of 1930. As a 14-year-old young teenager in Third Reich Germany, he was forced to work in the V1 and V2 rocket program. When the war ended, he worked for the French Navy and began to pursue studies in electronics and as a glassblowing apprentice. In 1956 he graduated from the Wertheim Glasfachschule as a master glassblower. He also attended Arts et Metier in Paris where he studied electronics. Gerhard was also a talented musician and soon found himself experimenting with musical inventions. In the early 1960s he emigrated to America and Breezed into Waltham where he soon founded G. Finkenbeiner, Inc. the small but very highly respected glassblowing company specialized in the design and creation of extremely high-quality scientific glass products used in medical and other industries.
Gerhard located his company where it still is, at 33 Rumford Avenue, a short walk from where he chose to live and exactly where lots of Waltham history calls home. He was not the first to like this location: it is not far from the scenic Robbins Park-Crescent Street-Waltham Watch Company area. His company is literally in the shadow of where Charles Metz’ Waltham Manufacturing Company and Daniel O’Hara’s O’Hara Dial Company stood. The site had grand Karma and still does.
Within a short-time Gerhard and his company were developing a stellar reputation in the scientific community and his client list was growing and impressive. His ability to design and create event the most complex products and to do so with exceptional quality spread rapidly: instruments for laboratories and hospitals, anatomical models for medical schools, conductor and semiconductor equipment for computers and space exploration. G. Finkenbeiner, Inc. was at the top of a very short list that could be depended on to meet these needs. The client list included M.I.T, Harvard University, I.B.M., NASA and many others.
G. Finkenbeiner, Inc. also produced musical instruments such as electronic church bells that could match the sound of the best cast bells. In the 1980s Gerhard began to experiment with a musical instrument that had long intrigued him. It was an unusual instrument called the Glass Armonica and it had been invented in 1761 by an aspiring rock star by the name of Benjamin Franklin, who fortunately for our country did not quit his day job. The instrument consisted of a series of connected glass bowls mounted horizontally on a rod. The musician spun the bowls using a foot pedal and pressed his fingers against the spinning bowls to produce notes which could be varied by the pressure applied and the speed of the bowls turned. The instrument produced a haunting tone. During the Revolution when Ben Franklin served as a diplomat in Paris, he would often entertain guests at his residence by playing it. The instrument had been very popular in its day; Mozart and Beethoven composed for the Glass Armonica, Marie Antoinette played it, Physician Franz Mesmer used it to help place patients in a trance. Eventually however, the instrument faded into obscurity.
Gerhard and his company began to produce these Glass Armonicas, returning the instrument from near extinction. He also found another great market and developed a client list for it that ranges from Neil Young to the Sultan of Oman. He is credited with single-handedly reviving this fine instrument. Although production of this instrument remains but a small part of the company business, it is now what generates the most interest with the general public. Waltham Museum stalwart volunteer Ruth Arena remembers attending a Glass Armonica Program at Waltham’s Gore Place several years ago.
For Gerhard however, the story would not have a happy ending. He, a private pilot, in his Piper Arrow on May 6, 1999, took off from Norwood Airport at 2:45 in the afternoon and soon disappeared. A long search proved fruitless and what happened to him and his plane remains a mystery to this day.
Fortunately, his legacy endures. Native Walthamite, Thomas Hession, a Waltham Vocational School Graduate, apprenticed under Mr. Finkenbeiner for over twenty years before Gerhard’s disappearance. Hession has not only mastered the art of glassblowing, but also every aspect of running the company. Along the way he married his wife Diane (a Breezer from Wisconsin). In 2007 they purchased the company which they run together and in which all of their children are also involved. Together they have maintained a standard of which Gerhard would be very proud.
You can experience the sound of the Glass Armonica as well as watch several interesting interviews and glass blowing demonstrations online. Youtube has several good examples including a fine PBS interview of Gerhard Finkenbeiner by Alan Alda.
Taken from The Waltham Museum Newsletter April 2014 co-edited by Jack and Pat Vallely
