Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
. . .
The Davenport & Treacy Co.
. . .
ENORMOUS ADVANCE MADE IN PLATE CASTING BY THIS DISTINGUISHED CONCERN, SOME CON-
TRIBUTORY CAUSES
MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED PLATES PER DAY
A NUMBER,
TOO, THAT WILL BE LARGELY INCREASED IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
It is only a short run from Forty-second
street to Stamford, Conn., where may be
found one of the most important plants be-
longing to the " stipply trade." For more
than ten years the Davenport & Tracy
Co. 's plant has been located in that city,
and from modest beginnings it has ex-
panded year by year. Every season has
brought a demand upon this company from
piano manufacttirers which made it im-
perative that more space be given to their
plant. Year by year their foundries have
crept down on the riverside and branched
out along the border of the bay, until
to-day you can walk for hundreds of feet
in either direction and not get beyond the
Davenport & Treacy foundry limits.
It was this week when we stood with
John Davenport upon the roof of the orig-
inal foundry building and looked down
upon the subsequent additions. Every
part of the original building has been built
about until it is completely environed by
the additions made necessary by a con-
tinued business expansion.
A ground view is not at all satisfactory
of the Davenport & Treacy plant. It re-
quires an elevation to take the entire series
of buildings completely in review.
In the interior of the foundry, business
activity prevails everywhere. This huge
plant is rushed to its fullest capacity to
supply the ever increasing demand made
by piano manufacturers for the D. & T.
products.
When we consider that the
daily output of this great plant, covering
acres, is over one hundred plates per day,
we can then realize the work necessary to
carry the tremendous mass of metal re-
quired to produce the plates from pig iron to
the complete product. Think of the en-
ormous stock which must always be in
transit in order that there may be no delay
in filling manufacturer's orders.
John Davenport is an extremely busy
man, and twice a day he is over this
extensive foundry, traversing roof as well
as ground, maintaining a careful and mi-
croscopic oversight of the entire details
necessary to the producing of perfect piano
plates. While his partner Daniel F. Treacy
devotes a large portion of his time to visit-
ing the trade and the New York end of
the manufacturing business, Mr. Daven-
port is found in daily superintendence of
the vast foundry at Stamford.
*
*
*
*
In the commercial sphere, it has well
been said, that progression is life, and
retrogression is death. This being so, we
are enabled without effort to adequately
conceive of the present-day activity of this
eminent firm of piano plate manufacturers,
Davenport & Treacy.
It was in 1884 that they first became
direct caterers to the piano manufacturing
firms in this country. They were then
located in Jersey City, and in that year
their output amounted exactly to 275
plates cast, refined, drilled and finished.
At the present time they are manufactur-
ing over one hundred plates a day with
•well defined plans for a largely increased
output. This is certainly progression.
The evolution of this business, and the
popularity of Davenport & Treacy wares
must, of course, be founded on substantial
grounds. If we pass the matter hastily in
review, it is clearly evident that manu-
facturers recognize the importance of
plate structure as a prime essential in the
manufacture of good pianos. It is a fact
known to every thinking piano-maker that
without the production of the perfect plate,
overstringing, case enlargement, heavier
stringing, and all the attributes of a
larger and more musical tone would have
been impossible. To the scale draughts-
man and inventor admittedly are due the
first ideas in this direction, but they would
be futile w r ere it not for the foundrymen.
From the inception of their business
Davenport & Treacy have given the closest
attention, and devoted all their expert
knowledge, to the skillful and reliable pro-
duction of the best plates that can be
manufactured. They have earned a wide
and just recognition throughout the piano
trade for the quality of their castings, and
for the comformation of the latter with
the exacting character of the scale-pattern.
It is a well-known fact that the practical
knowledge of the members of this institu-
tion have helped manufacturers to produce
results in scajing which, without such
assistance, would have ended in utter
failure.
*
*
*
*
. ;
The immense plant occupied by this con-
cern in Stamford, Conn., .to which they re-
moved in 1887, covers over four acres, i^
marvelous institution truly. The different
departments are under the management of
experts, so that manufacturers can feel as-
sured when they place orders with this
concern that there is not possible the slight-
est deviation from the wooden pattern of
the intelligent draughtsman, and that the
closest attention is paid to the scientific
considerations regarding the compositions
best adapted to the requirements of im-
proved piano-making. In the other depart-
ments, devoted to cleaning, chipping, drill-
ing, japanning ^andornamentirig, the same
attention is observable.
There are well-founded reasons for the
evolution of the Davenport & Treacy busi-
ness from the modest foundry of years ago
to the improved plant and immense facil-
ities for the productions of castings of
every kind which they now possess.
In New York, Davenport & Treacy oc-
cupy headquarters at the corner of Avenue
D and n t h Street, where all the plates for
their New York and Western trade are fin-
ished. They keep on hand and manufac-
ture all kinds of piano hardware of the first
excellence—pedal guards, action brackets,
strings and other accessories.
The growth of the Davenport & Treacy
business, and their achievements as pro-
ducers of plates, cast with due attention to
scientific requirements, is certainly some-
thing of which the members of the firm
have good reason to feel proud.
Judgment in Favor of Steinway
& Sons.
Steinway & Sons have recovered a judg-
ment in Judge Tuthill's court against W.
K. Nixon, who years ago was a member of
the firm of Smith & Nixon. Mr. Nixon is
now a real estate dealer of this city. The
suit was begun in September, 1898, on a
number of notes executed in 1897 by Mr.
Nixon to- liquidate an indebtedness dating
back to 1891. The amount of the judg-
ment, which was by default, was $47,312.
—The Indicator, Chicago.