The Waterbury Button Company
A Connecticut button maker’s ocarinas, and its four ocarina patents
A button manufacturer that patented molded plastic ocarinas between 1938 and 1941, with two Waterbury men named as inventors and the company itself as the applicant in Britain.
Every claim below comes from a patent the museum holds, the company’s own published history, or the instruments themselves, and every row of the chronology names which. Nothing here rests on a forum member’s recollection; where the museum has a lead it cannot yet document, the page says so instead of using it. Research and drafting were done with help from Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant.
The Waterbury Button Company, a button maker in Waterbury, Connecticut, made ocarinas. They survive, one of them in the museum’s collection, and so do the four ocarina patents the company filed.
The patents name the company
Between June 1938 and June 1939 the firm filed three times in the United States and once in Britain. The United States patents are in two men’s names, and both assign the invention to the company:
George A. Mausolf, Waterbury, Conn., assignor to The Waterbury Button Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut
— US 2,145,605, application June 30, 1938
| patent | inventor | filed | granted or accepted |
|---|---|---|---|
| US 2,145,605 | George A. Mausolf | Jun 30, 1938 | Jan 31, 1939 |
| US 2,214,553 | Paul R. Gruber | Sep 23, 1938 | Sep 10, 1940 |
| US 2,195,992 | George A. Mausolf | May 6, 1939 | Apr 2, 1940 |
| GB 532,244 | the company itself, as applicant | Jun 20, 1939 | Jan 21, 1941, accepted |
Both inventors give Waterbury, Connecticut as their residence.
The British patent is in the company’s own name: its applicant is The Waterbury Button Company, and its Convention Date under the International Convention is May 6, 1939, the day Mausolf filed US 2,195,992. So the British filing is that American invention carried abroad.
What the patents say the halves were to be made of
Mausolf’s first patent, US 2,145,605, says the halves are:
“preferably made from a plastic molding compound such as ‘Bakelite’, cellulose acetate, etc.”
The firm’s own history dates its Bakelite work to 1925, thirteen years before Mausolf’s first filing, and claims it was among the earliest American manufacturers to mold the material into buttons. Both of Mausolf’s patents describe two molded halves sealed together at their abutting edges.
Two shapes, both made
Mausolf’s two patents show two different shapes. The second calls itself “an improved form of ocarina,” with an “oval-shaped body portion” and a mouthpiece “formed entirely of plastic compound similar to that from which the body of the ocarina is molded.” Both shapes were made and sold. The museum’s collection holds one in the shape of US 2,195,992, and its mark is an eagle.
A tuning patent of its own
Twelve weeks after Mausolf’s first filing, Paul R. Gruber, also of Waterbury, filed something different. His US 2,214,553 is titled Pitch Regulator for Musical Instruments, and its specification opens: “This invention relates to improvements in musical instruments, and more particularly to a pitch controlled wind instrument such as an ocarina.” Its description is of an ocarina: the pitch control “is located on one side of the ocarina in position for convenient manipulation while the instrument is being played”, the knurled cap is turned “to adjust the pitch of the ocarina”, and “the ocarina is also provided with a permanently open outlet.” Its seven claims are written for wind instruments generally.
Gruber’s drawings show the shape of Mausolf’s first patent, with the regulator set into the bottom side. The museum has not seen a surviving example with the regulator.
Chronology
Every row is from a patent the museum holds or from the company’s own published history, and the source is named in the third column.
| 1812 | The firm’s origin, by its own account: a rolling mill built at Waterbury to make buttons from brass | the company’s history page |
| 1849 | The company’s history page gives this as the year The Waterbury Button Company was incorporated | the company’s history page |
| 1925 | The same page dates the firm’s Bakelite work to here, and claims it was among the first American manufacturers to mold it into buttons | the company’s history page |
| Jun 30, 1938 | George A. Mausolf, of Waterbury, files an ocarina patent, for two molded halves sealed at the edges, preferably of a plastic molding compound such as Bakelite or cellulose acetate | US 2,145,605 |
| Sep 23, 1938 | Paul R. Gruber, of Waterbury, files a pitch regulator for “a pitch controlled wind instrument such as an ocarina” | US 2,214,553 |
| Jan 31, 1939 | US 2,145,605 is granted, assigned to the company | the patent |
| May 6, 1939 | Mausolf files a second ocarina patent | US 2,195,992 |
| Jun 20, 1939 | The company files in Britain in its own name — “We, WATERBURY BUTTON CO.” — claiming the May 6, 1939 United States date | GB 532,244 |
| Apr 2, 1940 | US 2,195,992 is granted | the patent |
| Sep 10, 1940 | Gruber’s pitch regulator is granted | the patent |
| Jan 21, 1941 | The British complete specification is accepted | GB 532,244 |
Considered and not used
The 1935 course book. A forum post of 2011 describes a course book bought with a Waterbury ocarina. The museum has not seen a copy that names the firm.