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THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
February 20th, 1882.
burned down. Young Dielmann was turning out style, displaying all the pipes, symmetrically
135 piano-cases a week, and the destruction of the grouped, highly decorated in the Gothic style, and
factory is considered a severe blow to a number of richly gilded. The total height is forty-five feet,
width twenty-six feet, and depth fourteen feet.
THE PIANO-CASE FACTORY OP WILLIAM DIEL- piano manufacturers.
He furnished cases to Grovestien, Fuller & Co., There are four enormous pairs of bellows, blown
MANN ENTIRELY DESTROYED.
C. D. Pease, J. P.Hale, Christie &Co., Bent &Co., by French treadles, which require four men to
THE LOSS ESTIMATED AT $100,000, WITH ONLY Nugent & Co., Decker & Sons, Cable & Sons, and a handle them. Patent vacuum pallets overcome
the tremendous wind pressure, rendering the
house in California.
NOMINAL INSURANCE—PIANO MANUFAOTUBEHS
George Peek is disappointed in the receipt of touch pliable and easy, giving the organist every
THROWN BACK A MONTH IN FULFILLING
twenty piano-cases, which were to be delivered facility for combining and controlling the im-
CONTRACTS — A HUNDRED AND
this week. Dielmann had eighty piano-cases ready mense masses of tone. The clavier de bombarde
FIFTY WORKMEN THROWN
for delivery, all of which, of course, were de- is the feature of this instrument, whose combined
OUT OF WORK.
effects make it very powerful, at the same time
stroyed by the fire.
having variety and shade of strength and sweet-
rT^HE large piano-case factory of Nos. 547, 549,
EFFECT ON THE TRADE.
ness of tone.
.1 , 551 and 553 West Twenty-first street, owned
A well-known piano manufacturer said to a The organ has a compass of five octaves, CO to
and occupied by William Dielmann, was entirely de- representative
of THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE C4; the choir organ, the swell organ, and the clav-
stroyed by fire on the night of February 11. The REVIEW:
flames broke out about 10 o'clock in a two-story "This fire has been a great misfortune for piano ier de bombarde the same; the pedal organ, two
frame extension in the rear of the main building, manufacturers, for we will be greatly delayed in and a half octaves, 01 to F0, the bells two and
five-eighths octaves Cl to G3. The chime of
but were not discovered until they had made con- filling
our orders. Everybody is forced now to thirty-four bells is a great feature of the instru-
siderable headway. The main structure was four go to Behr
& Co. for their piano-cases. In ment. They are struck by piano action, and are
stories high, a mere shell without much lath and consequence Bros.
of the lively demand made upon that capable of ringing all the changes. For the con-
plaster, and filled from top to bottom with highly firm, they have
advanced prices ten per cent., and struction of this organ a careful study of all the
combustible material. It had been used for sev- they talk of building
another factory. I advised great instruments in Europe and America AVUS
eral years as a manufactory for pianoforte frames, them
the factory, but not to advance the made.
Mr. Dielmann having large contracts to supply prices. to build
The former suggestion, they said, was a There are thirteen stops in the great organ. Of
cases for the trade.
good one, but the latter they did not approve. these,
all except the plein jeu have sixty-one pipes,
Three alarms were sent out soon after the fire Casemakers—some of them Dielmann's—have ap-
was discovered, but when the firemen got to work plied for work already, and a number have been and that has three hundred and fifty. The sound
the flames were bursting from the roof, and all taken on. You see, there are a number of piano board is very large and is constructed to afford
hopes of saving the building soon vanished. The manufacturers who had contracts for which they ample room for the most extensive scales. Nine
whole interior of the structure was soon in flames, needed cases this week, and none of them had any sto])s arc found in the choir organ. There are sixty-
and the intense heat drove the firemen quickly stock on hand. When they get their new patents one pipes to each of these stops, and they are
away from the walls. As a spectacle the fire has ready, and send them to Behr, he can't supply the voiced to produce the most delicate intonation
rarely been equalled. There was very little wind, demand at once, and consequently he raises the with great individuality of tone.
The stops of the swell organ are thirteen in
and the flames shot up to a great height. The prices."
number and are constructed on a large scale, the
torch-like glare was plainly visible from Harlem
will be the result of all this?"
reeds beings of orchestral strength. There are
to the Battery, although there were no clouds to "What
"Simply that the price of pianos will, of course, sixty-one pipes to each Rtop, and Mr. Jardine ob-
reflect the light.
be raised. We are thrown back a month at least.
the vox humana from Caville, of Paris, the
The locality of the fire was not easily reached Dielmann was making the piano-cases so low, with tained
builder of the organ in the Madeleine. The swell
by the crowds that usually flock to witness such a the facilities he had, that we can't do his work at shades
are on the verticle system. The stops are:
scene, yet several thousand persons were present the same figures. He was the backbone of our Bourdon,
open diapason, dolce, viola d'amour,
to watch it. Many came from a great distance. trade. It is impossible for the manufacturers to stopped diapason,
principal pyramid flute, pic-
Surrounding the factory on two sides were high make piano-cases as cheap as he did. Certain colo, cornopeon, hautboy
bassoon, cornet, vox
piles of lumber, which soon caught fire. Near at parts would have to be made in different places, humana and tremulant. and
The solo organ has an
hand was the large lumber-yard of John H. Bus- and we couldn't come within ten dollars of his eight feet pyramid diapason,
with sixty-one metal
sell, extending from Twenty-first street to Twenty- figures."
pipes.
second street, along Eleventh avenue.
Mr. Dielmann has not yet decided what course
Eight stops represent the clavier de bombarde,
When the firemen saw that they would be un- to pursue in regard to starting out afresh.
which has a wind pressure amounting to ten inches.
able to save the factory they turned their attention
The stops are: Bombarde, sixteen feet, the most
to the lumber-yard and to the adjoining four-story
powerful stop in America; flute, a pavilion of a
A FAMOUS ORGAN BUILDER'S DEATH.
building, No. 545, occupied by Feigel & Brother,
manufacturers of whiting. At 11 p. M. the roof /~1 EORGE JARDINE, the famous organ builder, very solid and pervading tone; horn, a singing
and several floors of the burning factory fell, and vJI died on Monday, February 13, at his resi- full tone; tuba mirabilis, possune, flute harmonic,
in a very short time afterward all the walls fell in. dence. No. 221 East Thirty-ninth street. He was fife, and 32 ft. open diapason, C. C. C. C.
There are thirty pipes to each of the seven stops
The building was in ruins at 11:30. When one of eighty-two years old, and although he had been
the walls fell, Fireman David Kattringer, of En- complaining many years of asthma, he really died of the pedal organ, the open diapason, gamba,
gine No. 2, was half buried beneath «hot bricks. of old age. Mr. Jardine had been building organs bourdon, quint, violoncello, flute, trombone. The
He was so badly bruised and burned when he was in New York nearly fifty years. He learned the accessory stops and combination pedals consist of
rescued that it was believed he would die. He art of organ building at an early age in the estab- the following: 1, swell to great manual; 2, swell
was taken to the New York Hospital in an ambu- lishment of Messrs. Flight &. Robson, then the to choir manual; 3, solo to great manual; 4, swell
lance, where he died the following day. Another most celebrated organ builders in Europe. He to pedal; 5, solo to pedal; 6, great pedal; 7, bom-
fireman was badly hurt.
was the first to introduce in America the combina- barde to pedal. The first three are operated by
tion movements, reversible pedals and couplers, thum knobs, which are within easy reach of the
LOSSES AND INSURANCE.
and his own invented pneumatic and vacuum pal- player.
Mr. Jardine leaves four sons, the eldest of whom,
The cause of the fire has not been ascertained. lets, which are now generally used by the London
William Dielmann, who has been carrying on the organ builders, and which are accredited to Mr. Edward, will carry on the business as he has done
business since the death of his father, C. F Diel- Jardine as being one of the chief improvements for a year past, his father having retired from ac-
mann, said to a representative of THE MUSICAL in organ building. He was the first to make pro- tive service in 1880. The immense interests of this
CRITIC AND TRADE REVIKW that his loss was in the jecting or overhanging keys, now universally prominent organ house will, therefore, experience
adopted, with diagonal draw stops, also arranged no effect from the death of its former owner.
neighborhood of $100,000.
The building cost $40,000, and Mr. Dielmann's in steps; radiating and curved pedals; also the The funeral took place on Thursday afternoon,
insurance was only nominal. There were few insur- important improvements of reversed bellows ribs, February 16, from St. George's Church, the Rev.
ance agents who were willing to take risks on the which is a remedy for variableness of wind caused Dr. Duflie and the Rev. Mr. Perkins, the rector,
building, owing to its being such excellent food by unsteady blowing. He introduced from Paris officiating. The men of the factory were pre-
for flames in case a fire broke out. There were no the following well-known improvements: The Vox sent in a body, and the pall-bearrers were se-
Celeste or Angelica, the Clariana, Flute, Harmon- lected from among their number. The interment
fire appliances in the building.
Mr. Dielmann had $10,000 worth of lumber ique, Flute a Pavillion, Viol de Gamba, and the took place in Trinity Cemetery.
outside the building, of which he may save $3,000 Vox Humana in its perfect form, free from the
usual unpleasant nasal quality; also the Dolean,
worth.
MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN CO. '
r
Many of the 150 men employed in the factory the French tremolo, etc.
I ^HE pianos which the Mason & Hamlin Organ
lost their tools, a number, however, having taken
The equal temperament system of tuning was X Co. intend to manufacture will contain some
the precaution to be insured.
first used by Mr. Jardine in this country, as were valuable improvements, the invention of Mr. Albert
One German workman who had insured his also the mathematical and scientific scales of pipes K. Hebard, a gentleman who has been at the head
tools for $100, neglected to pay his premium the of Professor Topfer, and the simplification princi- of one of the most important departments in the
day before the fire, and consequently lost every- ple of the Abbe Nogler. In the last the action factory of Messrs. M. & H. for more than a quarter
thing.
goes direct from the keys to the valves of the wind of a century. Mr. Hebard has been engaged in ex-
Mr. Dielmann is a young man, and when he chest, whereby their organs articulate quicker and periments with pianos for several years, and by his
learned that his factory was on fire he ran home will remain longer in perfect order and in tune system of manufacture it is expected to largely
like a dutiful boy and told his mother.
than those made on the usual complicated prin- overcome some of the most serious defects of the
His bookkeeper, however, Mr. O. D. Person, ciple.
present system. One of his improvements con-
who is also his general manager, broke in the Some of the largest and finest organs in this sists in a new method of stringing the piano.
building and risked his life to save important country were built by Messrs. Jardine & Son. A piano strung in this way is expected to remain
papers, and had just left the building when the The factory is on East Thirty-ninth street, between in good tune several times as long as one strung
walls fell in with a crash.
First and Second avenues, New York, and is a in the old way. Other improvement it is thought
will enable the makers to produce an instrument
The building was entirely gutted by the fire, large building six stories high.
The organs built by Jardine & Son in the Ca- of finer musical quality of tone, and also one that
and only the front and rear walls are now stand-
thedrals of New York, Pittsburg and Mobile are will preserve its good quality much longer than
ing-
among the best specimens of their work. One is usual. The M. & H O. Co. have a contract with
PIANO MANUFACTURERS PLIGHT.
Mr. C. H. Dielmann bought the building on of the finest instruments is the great organ Mr. Hebard, by which they secure the control of
ground leased for forty years, and the mortgage of the new St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth his improvements,which are patented in the United
had been nearly paid off when the building was Avenue. The organ is built in the new open States and in foreign countries.—Boston Journal.
A DISASTROUS FIRE.