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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
The McCammon Piano at the
Dallas, Tex., Fair.
R
& ARMSTRONG, of Fort worth,
<% Texas, are about to make one of the most
extensive displays of pianos ever attempted by
any firm, at a fair. They have ordered two car-
loads of McCammon pianos for the Dallas fair,
which lasts from October 25th to November 12th.
This fair has a national reputation, and the
attractive display will no doubt prove of great
benefit to the McCammon piano and the firm of
Collins & Armstrong.
An Erd Catalogue.
jp
H. ERD, manufacturer of the Erd
^
piano, Saginaw, Mich., has issued his
new catalogue, which contains a very complete
description of these instruments and their course
of construction. Many of the most important
improvements used in his instruments are illus-
trated.
Mr. Erd has unusual facilities for procuring
the finest wood for his piano cases, his factory
being situated in the heart of the greatest hard-
wood lumber market in the world. Many illus-
trations are shown of the system of conveying
logs direct to the sawmill, both by train and
water.
Regarding his instruments, Mr. Erd says:
" It has been my aim to produce an instrument
with a most beautiful tone, elegant in design
and durability without question," and the illus-
trations of complete pianos shown in his cat-
alogue are indeed very attractive and worthy the
inspection of dealers.
In addition to the piano business, Mr. Erd
manufactures harps, and a musical instrument
which is peculiar to Central America called
'' Ab Miramba,'' being constructed entirely of
certain hard woods and tuned with wax. Mr.
Erd is the only manufacturer of this instrument
in the United States. Mr. Erd is a go-ahead
member of the music trade and his enterprise is
a credit to the great Northwest,
BRIEF NEW5LET5.
NEW YORK, N. Y.—The Misses Susie & Mollie
McKenna, 355 Grove street, Jersey City, N. J.,
have been arrested and htld for examination
charged with stealing a piano. The complain-
ant was Bila M. Fanshaw, of Metuchen, N. J.,
agent for B. Shoninger Co., piano dealers, 96
Fifth avenue, New York. The piano was pur-
chased by Mrs. Lizzie Scott last summer on the
instalment plan, who lived in the same house
with the McKenna girls. She moved recently
and asked the girls to take care of the piano for
a few days. When Mrs. Scott went for the
piano it was gone. The girls denied all knowl-
edge of the piano but it was finally discovered
that they had stored it away.
CANTON, O.—The Automatic Music Co. of
Cleveland, O., owner of the automatic music
boxes with slot attachments, has brought suit
against a number of saloons in Canton for money
due. They sell these boxes for $250 each, and
the saloon keepers who were to pay on weekly
instalments of $2 each owe in all $1,571, there
being six different firms involved.
Sioux CITY, IA.—Stratton Music Co. incor-
porated, capital $25,000. Incorporators Chas.
K. Williams, D. S. Lewis, and L. D. fierce
The company will succeed the busings of the
defunct W. S, Stratton Music Co.
New Department Added to
the Grand Rapids Veneer
Works.
Grand Rapids Veneer Works, Grand
Rapids, Mich., which are under the man-
agement of Mr. Z. Clark Thwing, have been
adding from year to year to their volume of
business. They employ over one hundred men
in their very complete factory, and they have
commanded a wide reputation for producing
good stock.
Among the specialties of this
house, in addition to its regular line of native
wood veneers, are its panels for the piano and
organ trade.
They recently decided to add a veneer and
fancy wood department to their already exten-
sive business, which will be of great advantage
to the users of fancy wood veneers, not only in
Grand Rapids, but elsewhere. In this connection
they have secured as manager Mr. Chas. W.
Johnson, of Boston, Mass., an able and ex-
perienced man, who becomes a member of the
company, and who will take charge especially
of the fancy woods department. He was for-
merly connected with the house of H. Parker &
Co., of Boston, Mass., and later he started for him-
self in the veneer business, the firm style being
C. W. Johnson & Co., from which he withdrew
one year ago. Mr. Johnson is an enthusiastic
admirer of fancy woods, of which he has made a
life study.
He brings to the business rare ability, sound
and mature judgment, and the benefits of his
long experience in the buying, manufacturing
and selling of fancy woods, so much used in the
manufacture of pianos, organs and fine fur-
niture.
Mr. Johnson and family will locate in Grand
Rapids in the course of a few weeks. In the
meantime he is superintending the cutting into
veneers of several car loads of figured woods he
has just purchased, which will be ready for the
market in a few dajs.
a
Information about Pianos.
WRITER in The Etude has the following'
to say about the tone of pianos : " The
characteristics of a fine singing tone are volume,
depth, duration, flexibility, richness of timbre,
and reserve power. By ' reserve ' is meant the
capacity of the soundboard to give out a pure
tone not only under ordinary touch and force,
but to bear forcing till the utmost limit of the
pianist's strength is reached (without loss of
noble and musical quality.)
The amount of pure tone the piano can be
made to yield when forced is its final test of
excellence, and I may add, of durability. Com-
paratively few amateurs are aware of the exist-
ence of the singing tone of the piano ; fewer still
have ever produced it.
The singing tone, if it be perfect, will carry.
That is, it will travel a long distance undimin-
ished in strength and unchanged in timbre—a
property which depends upon purity as much as
upon force of vibration. The singing tone of a
fine instrument may be counted on for many
years, and should increase during the first five
years of use, as the texture of the wood grows
more flexible under vibration, provided the
piano receives proper care.
Fine pianos have a great latent vitality. They
can be repaired and restored to beauty of tone
when inferior instruments are hopelessly disin-
tegrated.
MR. A. G. CONE, of the W. W.
is spending a short
Springs,
vacation
Kimball
at
Co.,
Colorado
I
JOHN A. NEWMAN.
I
T is with sincere regrtt that we announce
the death of John A. Newman, v.ce-presi-
dent of the Newman Bros. Company, Chicago,
who died at his late residence, 529 Orchard
Street, last Sunday evening, September 30th.
Mr. Newman was born in Sweden, June i6lh,
1852, and came to this conntry with his brotheis,
GustR. and Chas. W. early in life
They en
gaged in the organ business in a modest way,
and succeeded by patience and perseverence,
aided by mechanical ability of a high order, in
building instruments that have gained an almost
world-wide reputation. The deceased, John A.
Newman, contributed in a marked degree to this
success. His specialty was the case designing
part of the business, and the many notable organ
Styles which have become so popular with the
trade were designed by him. The case work of
the Newman Bros.' organs bear evidence of his
superior taste and ingenuity in this special
field.
John A. Newman was widely popular with
the trade at large, and his brothers and family
lose an estimable relative who possessed all
those finer traits which go to make the man.
Mr. Newman was a sufferer from consumption
for a number of years, but he never relaxed in-
terest in thebusiness of his house—in the de-
velopment of which he was an active participant.
The funeral took place last Thursday after-
noon from Trinity Church, and was largely
attended by the prominent members of the trade
in Chicago and elsewhere. Three children and
a widow mourn his Ios3.
Decoration of Aluminum.
R. W. GREUNE, according to Annales
Industrlelles, has invented a process of
decorating aluminum, based upon the metal's
property of uniting when hot with very finely
divided carbon in order to form very durable and
adhesive coatings. In order to apply the carbon
to the surface of the metal, the most convenient
method consists in spreading, with a brush,
over the surface to be decorated, alcoholic or
benzinic solutions of organic compounds, such
as fats, oils, resins, etc., which ate not very
volatile and which are destroyed by heat and
leave a deposit of very finely divided carbon.
The objects thus prepared are heated to a daik
red. They thus become covered with a layer of
carbon intimately connected with the metal, and
the shade of which vanes with the mixture em-
ployed and the temperature to which the piece
has been submitted. To the carbon composition
may be added metallic salts that favor the de-
composition and permit of varying the shade of
the coating to infinity,