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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
15
OufTECHNICAL DEPAKLMENT
A POINT IN ACTION REGULATING.
I have the following letter from W. A. Burdick,
of Nortonville, Kan.:
"Editor, Technical Department—Dear Sir.—I
wish to ask a question concerning the regulation
of upright pianos. I learned, while being taught
my business, that the keyboard was the starting
point in regulation. Assuming that we have a
level keyboard and that the dip of the keys is
three-eighths of an inch, why is it that there is
not more uniformity in the height of the black
keys? I am accustomed to an old make of grand
piano, the black keys of which rise just three-
eighths of an inch above the white keys. It is
very annoying to find pianos with the black keys
rising from a half to five-eighths of an inch above
the white keys. I have sometimes removed the
black keys and used a plane on the lower edge
where they rest on the balance rail. Is this the
best method?"
It is rather difficult to understand why there
should be any difference in the height above the
white keys to which the black keys rise in various
pianos. Of course, in the first place, the portions
of the keys, white or black, which lie behind the
digitals, should be absolutely at the same level
with each other throughout. But if my correspon-
dent refers to the digitals themselves, then I am
entirely unable to tell him why in some pianos
the black portions rise higher above the white
keys than in others.
It will be understood that the construction of
the black key digitals may be such that the dip
may remain at three-eighths inch or any other pre-
determined measurement, while the digitals them-
selves may stick up any distance above the white
keys. In this latter case it is merely a matter of
how high one builds the black finger plates.
In regulating, the rear portions of the key-levers
should be planed level throughout, after the key-
board itself has been leveled from the front in the
usual way and before the touch is laid. This will
insure an even line of black digitals. The dip is,
after all, the really important thing. One should
look out for the black digitals perchance dropping
too far down, so that they dip, in front, beneath
the level of the white digitals adjacent to them.
If one starts to plane off the black key-levers at
the balance rail, after laying the touch, one is
likely to spoil the dip altogether.
ON SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.
Lately we have been hearing a great deal about
the economic and industrial waste which follows
unsystematic ways of performing various mechani-
cal operations. To a very large extent, undoubt-
edly, there is a great deal to be said for methods
which tend to save labor and make workers more
efficient. Such methods are usually along the line
of conserving the muscular strength by analysis
of the various operations which enter into any sys-
tematized piece of work, with a view to eliminat-
ing unnecessary motions, and thus conserving mus-
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cular energy while producing more work in a
given time with less fatigue.
Now, it might be pointed out that similar ideas,
so long as they do not tend to make men too much
dependent upon automatic processes of the mental
and muscular systems, may be applied to all sorts
of work. For instance, although such methods
are chiefly valuable in cases where the work to be
performed consists of a continually recurring series
of related simple actions, there is no reason why
the "conservation of energy" idea could not, and
should not, be carried out, in its broad sense,
through the most individual and complex work.
Even in our own work, for example, there is un-
doubtedly an immense amount of energy continu-
ally wasted, simply because the processes inciden-
tal to it which happen in themselves to involve
these series of recurring similar muscular actions,
are not analyzed, but are permitted to be per-
formed in the most unsystematic way.
Let us take a concrete instance. The other day,
in a piano factory, I was watching a young man
gluing shanks in hammer heads. Now, the general
order of processes is as follows, roughly speaking:
1. Pick up hammer head.
2. Take shank from sand-box.
3. Dip shank into glue.
4. Insert shank into hammer head.
5. Lay shanked hammer on shanking board.
6. Adjust level of head to straight edges of
frame.
7. Adjust level of shank to back of frame.
Now, as I watched this young man, I observed
that he did not conserve his energy at all during
the series of seven recurring actions which to-
gether constitute the shanking of a hammer. He
would pick up a shank from the hot-box, then
take up a hammer head, see that it was the right
one, and then discover that the shank had become
cold. So the shank had to go back into the box
and another one h?.d to be selected. Thus one
complex motion, occupying about half a second,
was utterly wasted.
Then, again, I saw him
pick out a shank and insert it in the glue-pot be-
fore selecting his hammer head. Again there
was waste, complicated by the further fact that
the time occupied in taking the hammer head up
was just so much time wasted in which the glue
might possibly chill on the shank. I calculated
that 10 per cent, of that young man's time was
utterly wasted; and wasted, be it noted, to no
good end. Indeed, the only result was to give
him extra labor with less efficiency; a double
waste. Examples like this might be multiplied in-
definitely.
For the benefit of the captious critics, I might
say that I am aware that shanks must be rolled
and tested before being put into the hot-box. And
I am also aware that, in very artistic piano mak-
ing it is customary to test the shank in the ham-
mer head before putting any glue on it. But I
simply mention two series of wasted motions,
with the view of showing that this was simply
a case of energy going to waste.
Another instance: In the same shop I observed
a finisher gluing hammers into butts. Now, we
all know that when this work is being done, the
finisher must test the travel of each hammer be-
fore he glues it into the butt.
In the case I
speak of, the natural thing to do is to travel each
hammer, see that it was right or correct its
travel, and then glue it in at once, without touch-
ing another until the whole operation is com-
plete. In the case to which I have reference, the
finisher would travel a hammer, re-insert it in
the butt, and then take another one and travel
that. Of course, when he returned to the first
to glue it, he had to travel it again to make sure
that it was. all right. Consequence: more wasted
energy, wasted time, wasted expense.
Now, it is perfectly true that one cannot sys-
tematize a man's action too much, for if we at-
tempt this sort of thing, the man in question will,
not unnaturally, rebel. But a great deal can be
done. It should be observed that men themselves
are not very likely to initiate time-saving pro-
cesses, even when these are really for their own
benefit. Always one must guard against the sus-
picion that one is devising means to make the
men do more work for less pay. Personally, I
should not wish to be a party to such devices.
But in the piano business, where piecework is so
common, systematization of processes, as applied
to the mechanic himself, is likely to be of a double
advantage to him; as a saver of fatigue and as a
means for quicker work and therefore greater
earnings. It is a case primarily for fair and
decent treatment on both sides.
It might well be pointed out that this waste of
energy is a producer of expense, a waste of
money. But, at the same time, it must be noted
that only certain processes incidental to piano
making can be treated, however skilfully, with
the systematization remedy. For only certain
processes are sufficiently regular, continuous and
similar to make the method either economical or
practicable. To ask a tone-regulator to system-
atize his methods with a view to producing uni-
formity of muscular action would probably be to
invite disaster. And so on.
Again let it be said that one must guard con-
tinually against taking remedies such as we have
been discussing without the traditional grain of
salt. It is a national vice that we continually
bring up this that or the other possibly admirable
idea and proclaim it to be the panacea for all our
industrial ills. Most single ideas have some-
where an incidental and often admirable use. But
few are fitted to remedy all the ills to which man
is heir.
And while on the subject, perhaps it would not
be amiss to point out that in many industrial
plants one finds that the beginning of scientific
management should be undertaken with the man-
agers themselves. Doubtless more than one of
my readers has been surprised to observe the con-
fused manner in which departments are grouped,
so that a piano first goes upstairs and then down
again, during the process of construction. There
is a point here worth remembering.
Communications for this department should be
addressed to the Editor, Technical Department,
The Music Trade Review.
W. B. W.
Hammer Head
and
Butt Borer
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