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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
A NEW MANUFACTURING CONCERN.
T
HE BRAND MANUFACTURING COMPANY,
whose articles of association appear in another
column, was organized Friday afternoon, Aug-
ust 21, by the choice of^the following board of direct-
ors and officers:
Directors: F. J. Brand, Wm. H. Hart, Samuel D.
Sargent, Justus A. Traut, J. S. Brand, Chas. Peck
and A. J. Sloper. Officers: Wm. H. Hart, President;
F. J. Brand, Treasurer; J. H. Baldwin, Secretary;
J. S. Brand, Superintendent. The above named com-
pany have purchased the business of F. J. & J. S.
Brand, manufacturers of piano and organ hardware,
of Milldale, Conn., and will remove the same to New
Britain. They have also purchased the real estate,
tools and machinery, and business of the Companion
Sewing Machine Company of this city. They will
begin business at once, and will doubtless furnish
employment to a larger number of hands than the
Sewing Machine company would have done.—New
Britain Evening Herald.
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OP THE BRAND MANUFAC-
TURING COMPANY.
We, the subscribers, hereby associate ourselves
together as a body politic and corporate under and
pursuant to the provisions of the Statutes of the
State of Connecticut relative to joint stock corpora-
tions, and the following are our articles of associa-
tion :
ARTICLE I.—The corporate name of this corpora-
tion shall be The Brand Manufacturing Company,
and the location thereof shall be in the city of New
Britain, Hartford County, Stato of Connecticut.
ARTICLE II.—The capital stock of said corporation
shall be Fifty Thousand Dollars, divided into two
thousand shares of Twenty-five Dollars each.
ARTICLE III.—The purposes for which said corpo-
ration is established are to manufacture Piano and
Organ Hardware, Machines and other articles com-
posed in whole or in part of metal, wood, paper or
any other material, and to do such other things as
are incidental or necessary in the prosecution of such
business, and for mercantile purposes, and to pur-
chase, take, hold, occupy, possess and enjoy to said
corporation and its successors and assigns any letters
patent or patent rights, any goods, chattels and
effects, and any land, buildings and hereditaments
which shall be necessary and convenient for the
business and purposes of said corporation, and the
same or any part thereof to sell, lease and convey at
pleasure.
ARTICLE IV.—Each subscriber to these articles
hereby agrees to take the number of shares in said
corporation subscribed to his name and to pay for
the same in installments as the directors may call in
the same until the sum of twenty-five dollars shall
have been paid on each share.
ARTICLE V.—The statute laws aforesaid with the
alterations and amendments thereto are hereby par-
ticularly referred to and made a part of these articles
of association.
J Dated at New Britain, Conn., |
j this 18th day of August, 1885. \
LIST OF STOCKHOLDERS.
F. J. & J. S. Brand, 800 shares; Samuel D. Sargent,
180; Charles Peck, 110; D. C. Judd, 110; Bernard
Mofflt, 110 ; Justus A. Traut, 110 ; Bernard Rogowski,
40; George Swain, 20; A. J. Sloper, 20; L. H. Pease,
20; H. M. Clark, 20 ; Henry M. Burckhardt, 20; ft. H.
Parker, 80 ; Wm. H. Hart, 80 ; Wm. Parker, 80 ; A. P.
Collins, 80; B. A. Johnson, 20; Cornelius Sullivan,
20; R. W. Hadley, 80. Total, 2,000.
The foregoing is a true copy of the original articles
of association of the Brand Manufacturing Company.
Attest:
J. D. Baldwin, Secretary.
THE BEGINNING OF THE PATENT OFFICE.
I
N the second volume of McMaster's "History of
the People of the United States," recently review-
ed in the Scientific American, we find the follow-
ing interesting historical particulars concerning the
American Patent Office:
"While one part of the community was expending
its ingenuity in adding new words and phrases to our
tongue, the ingenuity of another part was rapidly add-
ing to that splendid series of inventions and discov-
eries which no American should contemplate without
feelings of peculiar pride. The United States patent
system had begun.
"Tho glory of it belongs to Jefferson. He inspired
it, and long took so deep an interest in its workings
that he may well be called the founder of the Amer-
ican Patent Office. The growth of it is marvelous.
To one who wanders through the corridors of that
magnificent building, and beholds the army of clerks
and draughtsmen, and the hundreds of thousands of
models there displaj'ed, it seems scarcely to be be-
lieved that when 1800 came, one man did all the
clerical labor, and a dozen pigeon-holes held all the
records of the office. For each of the patents which
then existed a thousand have since been issued ; nor
does it seem too much to say that before 1900 shall
have been reached this ratio will have been increas-
ed two-fold.
"The law of April 10, 1790, established the office,
made the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War,
and the Attorney-General a board of commissioners,
and bade them examine the claims of inventors and
grant patents to the deserving.
"So rigorously did the board construe the law that,
in 1790, but three were issued. In 1791 the number
rose to thirty-three. The next year it fell to eleven.
"In 1793, when Jefferson went out of office, twenty
were sealed. The moment a claim came into the De-
partment of State, Jefferson would summon Knox and
Randolph. The three would meet, go over the ap-
plication most critically, and scrutinize each point of
the specification with the utmost care.
"If they threw out the claim the decision was final.
"The inventor had no appeal.
"If they determined that a patent should issue, the
paper was signed by the President and the Attorney-
General, and the inventor paid down a small fee.
"For receiving and filing the petition, fifty cents;
for filing specifications, ten cents the hundred words;
for making out the patent, two dollars; for affixing
the great seal, one dollar; for indorsing the day of
delivery, twenty cents.
"It was a long document, for which the patentee
was charged four dollars and a half.
"But the men whose clumsy machines and crude
devices had been thrown out raised a great clamor.
"The power of the board was too great.
"It was outrageous that their decision should be
final. There ought to be an appeal. Jefferson com-
bated this, but the cry was heard. The law of 1790
was revised in 1793, and revised for the worse. The
duty of granting patents was lodged with the Secre-
tary of State alone. He was forbidden to reject
any application not likely to be hurtful to the inter-
ests of the people, and the cost of patents was greatly
increased. For forty-three years this law continued
in force. Then the evils which grew up under it be-
came so rank that Congress was again forced to in-
terfere. Five months later, December 15, 1836, the
Post Office building was burned to the ground.
"With it went the seven thousand models of the
Patent Office, by far the noblest collection the world
could then show. When the next fire occurred, forty-
one years after, the Patent Office had obtained a
building of its own, and the seven thousand modles
of 1836 had become two hundred thousand in 1877.
It is deeply to be lamented that, of the many thou-
sands destroyed in 1836, so few have ever been re-
placed. Not even a complete list of them can now
be had. Yet, most happily, it is not impossible to
form from the fragments of information gathered
elsewhere some conception of the ingenuity of our
countrymen.
"One had invented a grain cutter, a dock cleaner,
and a threshing machine. No precise account of his
work has come down to us. But we are told that with
his reaper one man could cut five acres of wheat a
day, and that his thresher could easily beat out as
much grain in twelve hours as forty men. Another
had devised and put up a water mill for roping and
spinning combed wool and flax. A third had invented
a candle machine, had made candles from the lees of
the right whale, and had seen his work displayed and
warmly praised in a long memoir by the President of
the Agricultural Society of New York. A fourth had
discovered a way of turning iron into steel. A fifth
had incased himself in a strange apparatus, had sur-
prised the fishermen of New London by going down
in four fathoms of water, had walked upon the bot-
tom, and had come up after being three minutes in
the sea. A sixth took out a patent for a machine
which has made his name famous ever since.
"The inventor was Whitney, and the machine he
called a cotton gin."
THE NEW EXPOSITION AT NEW ORLEANS.
HE managers of the new Exposition at New Or-
leans, known as the North, Central, and South
American Exposition, report that there is every
prospect that the Exposition will surpass that of last
season both in the volume and variety of exhibits.
Assurances of hearty cooperation have been received
from representatives of the nations south of us, and
the new Exposition will afford opportunities for the
cultivation of more intimate trade relations between
the three Americas and give an impetus to commerce
of lasting advantage to the manufacturers and mer-
chants of the United States.
The errors of the late Exposition will be carefully
avoided by the managers of the new. The Exposition
will open, as nearly as possible, in a state of comple-
tion, and particular attention will be paid to rates of
transportation. The president of the enterprise, S. B.
McConnico, is one of the most experienced and in-
fluential railway managers in the South, and it is ex-
pected that fares to New Orleans from any part of
the United States will be reduced to one cent per mile,
so that a New Yorker may go and return for $25, in-
stead of $45, which was charged last season.
The managing director for the Middle States, with
office at 234 Broadway, is Gen. C. H. Barney, former-
ly Adjutant General of Rhode Island.
T
SECOND-HAND MACHINERY.
T
HERE is no particular risk, says the Scientific
American, in buying second-hand machinery
and shop appliances, if such ordinary caution
is used as would be deemed necessary in buying
second-hand furniture. If the seller is a man of
known integrity, and is practical mechanic enough
to understand not merely the market price, but the
actual value of the machines, it is enough to trust to
his representations. But it is not often that the
practical or judging mechanic and the honest dealer
are combined. Auction sales of machinery may be
traps, unless the would-be purchaser has had pre-
vious opportunity to examine the goods. Second-
hand machinery is frequently offered for sale, not
only cleaned of gurry and rust, but painted, varnish-
ed, and polished. "Paint and putty cover a multi-
tude of mechanical sins."
The times have put upon the market a large
amount of machinery that has been used, much of it
used up and fit only for the scrap hoap. But the
business necessities of some proprietors of small
establishments have impelled the selling of shop
tools and appliances at very low prices. There are
plenty of good second-hand tools in the market, as
well as plenty of junk material.
If the purchaser is not himself a practical judge of
the value of a machine, or a shop or factory appli-
ance, it is not difficult to obtain, for a moderate con-
sideration, the examination and opinion of a good
mechanic. This will pay, even if the examiner
makes a fair charge for time and trouble.
A small manufacturer wanted an additional boiler,
and he bought a second-hand one that had been coal
tarred inside and out; it looked clean and shone
beautifully. He bought it "dirt cheap," and had it
put in place. It leaked liked a sieve as soon as sixty
pounds pressure was on; he had it calked on the
seams, poured in a lot of rye flour; had the coal tar
foaming over into his engine cylinder, and after three
weeks of torment blew It off and had a reasonable
boiler-maker examine it.
The result was patches and repairs to almost the
first price paid; the combined expense would have
bought a good boiler, and a small outlay for experi-
ence would have saved him a vexatious outlay of
money and patience.
A NEW WOOD FILLER.
N order to avoid the necessity of using wood fillers
of different composition for light and dark woods
respectively, Mr. Henry Hales, of Ridgewood,
N. J., has recently patented a composition of a trans-
parent nature for use on all woods indifferently. It
comprises finely powdered soapstone or talc, finely
powdered glass, and a suitable liquid vehicle of oil
or varnish, the soapstone enabling the operator to
obtain a better polish than could be obtained with
the glass alone. The patent points out the propor-
tions and manner of mixing and applying the com-
position, which is intended to impart only sufficient
color on light woods to fully develop the grain, while
sufficiently transparent to leave no preceptible mark
of its presence on dark woods.
I
YOSE & SONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
S an instance of the revival of trade on the Pacific
coast, Vose & Sons had the pleasure of ship-
ping "another carload" of their superb pianos
to San Francisco, to their new agent. Although
it is now over two years since anyone representing
them has been there, Messrs. Kohler & Chase have or-
dered of them very liberally. Since Mr. Kohler's death
the firm is going along as prosperous as ever under
the management of Mr. Chase, who is one of tho
many Eastern men who have been successful in
'Frisco. Vose & Sons are to be congratulated in
securing such a firm to represent them on the Pacific
coast.—Boston Home Journal.
A
TO TEST THE QUALITY OF LEATHER
BELTS.
F
OR testing the quality of the leather used for
belting, says the Revue Indiistrielle, Mr. Eitner
proposes the following simple method:—A
small piece is cut out of tho belt and placed in vine-
gar. If the leather has been perfectly tanned, and is
therefore of good quality, it will remain immersed in
the vinegar, even for several months, without any
other change than becoming of a little darker color.
If, on the contrary, it is not well impregnated with
tannin, the fibres will promptly swell, and, after a
short time, become converted into a gelatinous mass.
HENRY FORSYTH, of Forsyth Bros., musical instru-
ment dealers, of Manchester and London, Eng., is
dead. Messrs. Forsyth Brothers are the sole agents
for the Dominion Organ Co., Bowmanville, Ont.
THE finest place to get a good square meal in the
neighborhood of Central Park, on the East side, is
Grimm's restaurant, No. 1519 Third avenue. It is
here that we very often meet Mr. Hugo Sohmer and
Mr. Paul Gmehlin. We recommend Grimm's to all
the trade living in vicinity of Eighty-sixth street and
Third avenue. The prices are moderate and fare ex-
cellent.