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THE
fflJJIC TIRADE
0^
VOL. X L V . No. 1 7 . Published Every Sitordiy by Edward Lyman BUI at I Madison Are., New York, October Ih, 1907
THE PIANO MECHANICS OF THE FUTURE
Where Will Manufacturers Secure Them?—Not from the Specialists of To-day—Remedy Rests
With Piano Manufacturers by Adopting Apprenticeship System.
The heads of great manufacturing industries
all over the country are uniting in the query,
u
Where can we get competent mechanics in the
future—mechanics who possess the wide knowl-
edge of those of the old school?" The matter
appears to be a serious one. In the old days a
young man went into a factory and learned every
detail of the many processes used therein. If a
complex machine was used he learned the reason
of every screw—every piece of metal. When he
had completed his period of apprenticeship he
was competent to fill a position in every depart-
ment. The old-time mechanic usually rose rapid-
ly and in a short time became foreman and then
superintendent. If one department was rushed
and he was employed in another, he could take
hold and acquit himself with credit, no matter
in what part of the plant the strain might be.
The newer school of mechanics, however, are
prone to be specialists. The beginner of to-day
comes into one department of the factory and
learns the various processes of that department
thoroughly. When his apprenticeship is ended
he remains in that department and in the future
devotes himself to that particular work. In piano
making, for instance, a young man starts in the
tuning, finishing, stringing or bellying depart-
ments, and after learning all the details of the
work in the department, confines himself to tun-
ing, bellying, finishing or stringing, as the case
may be, and if set down in another department
would be comparatively at sea as to the proper
HISTORIC ORGAN PIPE.
Pipe Organ Sent from Scituate, Mass., to Cali-
fornia Was Found to Contain Ancient In-
scriptions Saying It Was Sounded by Handel.
When the new memorial organ was installed in
the First Parish Church, Scituate, Mass., the
former instrument was given to the Unitarian
Society in Palo Alto, Cal., through the kindly
interest of Rev. Louis C. Cornish, of Hingham, a
graduate of Leland Stanford University.
The gift was accepted gratefully by Rev. Syd-
ney B. Snow, minister of the Palo Alto Parish, a
former resident of Boston. In order to have it
properly set up and repaired, Felix Schenstein,
an expert from San Francisco, was engaged, and
in unpacking the instrument he found that two
of the smaller wooden pipes were of different
material and workmanship from the others, and
that one of them was covered on two sides with
handwriting, so faint as to be almost unde-
cipherable. He at once concluded that when the
organ was built (some two or three decades
ago) these pipes had been taken from a still
older organ—a practice not at all uncommon,
since the wooden pipes, like violins, gain in
sweetness and resonance with age. Careful ex-
amination of the inscriptions proved that he was
right, and that at least one of the pipes (the C
pipe) has seen nearly two centuries of melodious
service,
way to proceed. This is a common occurrence.
It was an oft-repeated statement in the old
days that a "jack of all trades" was master of
none, but in these days, when mechanics are
specialists, the proverb does not seem to be so
true as it used to be. In many cases there has
been an over-supply of workmen for all depart-
ments of the factory except one, and a shortage
of men in that one department has held up the
whole production of the factory.
The worker confined to one machine is a slave
pure and simple, and that condition is largely
due to the mistaken policy of the labor unions
in limiting their members to one branch of the
trade and placing innumerable restrictions in the
way of the young man who desires to obtain a
complete general knowledge of an industry.
The remedy lies with the manufacturers. They
will have to adopt a system whereby an appren-
tice shall go through every department of the
factory and gain a thorough knowledge of the
entire process of manufacture to enable him to
win an executive position when the need arises.
Of course, such a method would interfere with
the policy of organized labor to curtail the supply
of skilled mechanics, and consequently maintain
a high scale of wages, but as the need of such
a course is made apparent, and only a certain
proportion of the apprentices put through a thor-
ough course, some agreement could most likely
be effected between capital and labor that would
not conflict with the principles of either.
On one side of this pipe is written in a bold,
old-fashioned hand, with many flourishes to the
capitals, this legend: "Put up by Gilbert &
Woodbridge, Organders to His Honor." On the
other, in finer writing, with many of the words
very difficult to read, these words: "Put up in
So. Reading, April, 1832," and "This pipe was
made by Enetzer (?) in London about 100 years
ago and has been made to sound by Handel and
was heard by George Washington when comman-
der of the American army at Cambridge."
Since these two last-quoted inscriptions are in
obviously different handwritings, the date given
in the one is of no value in fixing the "about 100
years ago" of the other. If Handel ever made it
sound the pipe must have been constructed at
least as early as the middle of the eighteenth
century, for Handel died in London in 1759. This
would make the pipe at least 150 years old. If,
as seems reasonable, the two writings were put
on at the same time but by different hands, the
pipe would be nearer 200 years old. From the
quaint wording of the inscription first quoted it
is likely thaf it was written by the earliest work-
men on it, somewhere in old London. The use
of the title "His Honor" would indicate that it
was not, by Gilbert & Woodbridge, at least, set
up in a church.
It is likely that the pipe was made for an
organ used first in London, where Handel, who
in spite of his blindness continued to play almost
up to tbe time of bis death, may have accom*
SINGL E
» ».OO°PEI S VEAR CENTS
panied one of his own oratorios upon it. Before
the American revolution the organ (and this
pipe with it) must have been shipped to Cam-
bridge, perhaps in the same way that the organ
which now contains the pipe was shipped across
the continent—as a gift from an old church to a
pioneer.
In Cambridge it must have been placed in
Christ Church, in front of which, under the old
elm, Washington took command of the Conti-
nental Army on July 2, 1775, and where he wor-
shipped until in thl^succeeding spring he forced
the evacuation of Boston. It is doubtful, more-
over, if an organ would have been desired or
tolerated in the Puritan Cambridge of that day,
in any other meeting house save the Episcopalian
Christ Church.
This old London organ must have been torn
out to make room for a new one some time in
the early decades of the nineteenth century, and
one, or possibly two, of its pipes have strayed
into an instrument for a church in South Read-
ing. How these ever got into the organ in the
Scituate church there is nothing to indicate.
The instrument, as has been found in prepar-
ing for the installation, was extremely well built
in the first place, and shows its honest quality
now.
AMERICAN INSTRUMENTS SHOWN
At the Music Trade Exhibition Held in Man-
chester, England—A Goodly Display Made.
At the Music Trades' Exhibition held in Man-
chester, England, last month, a number of Amer-
ican instruments were shown with great success.
Owing to insufficient room in St. James Hall
about half of the exhib^s had to be shown fn
hotels. The Autopiano mechanism was shown by
Arthur Allison & Co., placed in one of their own
pianos and attracted much favorable attention.
This instrument had a position in the hall. Four
handsome Packard organs were shown by E.
Hirsch Co.; a Kohler & Campbell upright by
J. C. Warne & Co., and Simplex-Eberhardt pianos
and the Sympletta cabinet players were shown
by the Simplex Piano Player Co., British repre-
sentatives of the American manufacturers of the
same name. The R. S. Howard Co. had an
exhibit in one of the hotels, as did the Farrand
Co., who displayed several pianos and organs and
a Chappell-Cecilian piano and a Cecilian cabinet
player. Wherever shown, the American instru-
ments received close attention from the visiting
traders and were very favorably commented upon.
MILLIKEN PIANO CO. INCORPORATED.
The Milliken Piano Co., Decatur, 111., have in-
corporated with a capital of $2,500 to do busi-
ness as a piano house, both in manufacturing
and retailing, according to the charter. The di-
rectors are Fred H. Morlan, E. L. Crum and E. A.
Schultz.
An automobile delivery wagon belonging to
W. C. De Foreest & Sons, the piano dealers of
Sharon, Pa. caught fire recently while delivering
a piano in the country and the attendants had a
narrow escape. Both the piano a»d the automO'
•bile were badly burned.