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NEW YORK, JANUARY 27, 1912
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
and who does not actually control his own retail
distribution has always been chary of interfering
with what, as he has contended, is not really his
business. Actually, of course, the manufacturer
of a complex product like the player-piano is pre-
cisely the person who should have from the first
controlled the retail selling. For if he cannot best
advise and plan selling methods, how can it be ex-
pected that the dealer shall do so? It is not like
selling pianos.
Selling player-pianos, as every
dealer knows, is a far more complex and difficult
matter. And so, in the article above mentioned,
the question of the manufacturer's neglected duty
is also touched on. Nevertheless, it must be borne
in mind that, as things are at present organized in
the industry, the dealer has the primary responsi-
bility for the matters under discussion.
cation with the pneumatic which actuate the track-
er bar.
The same inventor was also granted patent No.
1,014,942 this week on an improvement in tracker
bars. This invention relates to certain new and
useful improvements in tracker bars for self-play-
ing or automatic musical instruments and it has
for its objects, among others, to provide a simpli-
fied construction whereby one part is made mov-
able to change the position of the bleeds in accord-
ance with the desire to adapt the player for playing
05 or 88-note music.
REWINDING DEVICE FOR STEGER & SONS.
(Special to The Review.)
Washington, D. C, Jan. 22, 1912.
Steger & Sons Piano Manufacturing Co., Chi-
Attention is also directed to the article on the cago, 111, is the owner through assignment from
music-roll, which also appears in the present issue Wm. G. Betz, of patent No. 1.015,128 on a rewind-
of the Player Section. Considerable and careful ing device for pneumatic pianos, which has been
observation of actual trade conditions shows that just issued.
the economic, mechanical and commercial pos'tion
The object of the invention is to provide a sat-
of the music-roll is, at best, entirely anomalous. isfactory mechanism for the take-up spool and re-
In the article to which attention is drawn it is winding means in a pneumatic piano at the same
shown that the music-roll is actually a feature of
time alternately braking said take-up spool and re-
the most commanding interest and influence. And v/in ding means and also to provide a single means
an attempt is made to demonstrate that indiffer- for throwing said take-up spool and rewinding
ence to the music-roll, whether shown in manu- means alternately into and out of operation and
facture or retailing thereof, has had and is having a
actuating the brakes. Th : s will cause the music
great deal to do with the present not altogether sheet to be held under tension so that it will pass
satisfactory position of the player-piano. The ob- smoothly and evenly over the tracker bar, and it
ject of articles like these is to stimulate thought will also cause the music sheet to be rolled evenly.
and bring about sane consideration of the various
problems treated. No attempt is made to claim in-
fallibility. But it is urged, and urged here most STATUS OF THE RETAIL TRADE IN
FLAYER-PIANOS.
strongly, that the duty of a trade newspaper is but
indifferently fulfilled when such obvious tasks,
(Continued from page 3.)
lying so close at hand, are not courageously as-
sumed.
to do these things for one's self. And he will win.
Then, once more, what is worse needed than a
In fact, there is no end to the tasks which the reform in the manner of offering terms and prices?
Plain as this conclusion seems to be, it is a editorial writer on a newspaper like The Review
It can hardly be too strongly stated that it is almost
lamentable fact that practically no preparation has may set for himself. The player trade alone may,
a crime to sell player-pianos to those who would be
been made to meet the conditions implied in it. To and does, furnish enough problems for a lifetime
hard pushed to buy an ordinary cheap straight
be randid, the retail situation, which is apparently of thought and endeavor. We have touched on two
piano. To do this is not good business. And until
to be the one big pressing matter of the year, ap- of these above. Another, of the utmost importance,
player-pianos are entirely foolproof and entirely
pears to be regarded by those most deeply interest- is presented in the question of what is to be done
cheap it never will be.
ed in it, as something which may be handled by to improve the technical equipment of those tuners
Then, there is the music library question. It is
every man for himself. Nothing could be further and other practical men who will find themselves
worth
while asking why no systematic effort is
from the truth than to say that the piano trade from the present time onward in charge of the
has as yet come to consider the retail player prob- player-piano in the home. Some remarks on this being made to put this branch of the retail trade
where it belongs. Why, in heaven's name, can
lem in a systematic or even sane light, while there subject are to be found elsewhere in the present
we not make as much muney out of music rolls
has been yet absolutely nothing like any attempt issue, and it is to hope that trade attention will
as
talking-machine mei make out of records? We
to discuss the problems involved in a collective not be entirely lacking toward them. For the mat-
can,
in fact, and another article in this issue tells
manner. This is very unfortunate, for the final ter is important; how much so every piano dealer
some
ways bow.
fate of the piano trade will very largely hang upon
in the United States well knows. Something must
Common•
sen?e, a desire to re-create public opin-
what is done during the next year or so in the way be done about it. What may be done and how, the
of handling the retail distribution of the player. reader, perhaps, will find out by studying the ar- ion-, a careful study of the situation in all its
branches; these are the requirements for the heal-
There is no use in pretending that the player is no ticle above mentioned,
ing of the retail player trade. We have entered the
different from the straight piano, or that what suits
period
in which these things must be worked out
one will necessarily suit the other. The very sim-
TWO PATENTS FOR GEO. P. BRAND. to their conclusion. And nothing that we, as mem-
ple fact remains that the truth is the very oppo-
bers of the piano trade, can do is to be compared
site of this.
One Is an Improvement in Tracking Devices and in importance with this one thing. For if we are
the Other Bears on a Simplified Construction going to let things go on in the same old foolish
With a clear appreciation of the very serious sit-
of Tracker Bar and Its Improvement.
way, then we are digging a pit into which our own
uation which has been allowed to develop in the
feet shall slip and which shall engulf us to our
retail trade with regard to the handling of players,
(Special to The Keview.)
own destruction. There is no gainsaying the facts.
the Review publishes in the present Player Section
Washington, D. C, Jan. 12, 1912.
But there is all the need in the world for trumpet-
an article on the retail player-piano situation. In
Geo. P. Brand, the well-known inventor of New ing them abroad* till every piano dealer, every
this article an attempt .is made to show clearly that York, was this week granted patent No. 1,014,941 manufacturer, every salesman, appreciates their
the fate of the player-piano has by now definitely on an improvement in tracking devices of that significance and dek rmines to do what he can to
passed into the hands of the retail dealer, and that character in which is employed an edge guide for
straighten things oit.
the responsibility for the future rise or fall in pop- contact with the music sheet. The invention has for
It is to desire that what has been here set down
ularity and value of this instrument must be placed its objects, among others, to provide a simple, effi- will not be entirely in vain. If it does no more
squarely upon his shoulders. If the facts and de-
cient and reliable mechanism for the automatic than stimulate thought, even hostile thought or
ductions therein- set forth be indisputable, as we movement of the tracker bar so that the perfora- opinion, then it will have fulfilled its object. For
believe them to be, then the matter is up to the tions of the music sheet and the ducts of the the greatest evil wherewith we have at present to
dealer, and up to him entirely. We do not believe tracker bar shall be kept automatically in alinement. contend is the spirit of indifferentism. That spirit
that any question can be brought against the con- Means are provided whereby the proper adjust- must once and for all be definitely exercised, if in-
clusions at which this article arrives, but if any- ment is made in order that the necessary aline- deed this second period of the player industry is
thing could be successfully urged against them, it ment of the tracker bar and perforation.', of the to be brought to the full flower of its potential
would doubtless be that the retail situation is not note sheet may be made when the sheet is first accomplishment.
the fault of the dealer at all, but of the manufac- placed in the machine. The mechanism insures
turer who has neglected to give the dealer due aid this maintenance of such relation without attention
E. M. Farrand & Sons, piano dealers of Syra-
and selling assistance.
on the part of the operator.
cuse, N. Y., will shortly move to new quarters in
The edge guide and the closely associated parts the Whitbeck block, that city.
There is something to be said for the objection. are mounted on the tracker bar. The inventor pro-
Still, in the present system of conducting the piano vides a valve actuated by the movement ot the
The Webb Housefurnishing Co., Neenah, Wis.,
business, the manufacturer who deals with agents edge guide, which valve controls ports in communi- has planned to reopen its piano department.
The student of conditions in the player industry
will he inclined to the conviction that the year 1912
is to mark the opening of the second great stage in
the development of this business. Until the pres-
ent time the atfent'on of the best minds has been
principally devoted to the problem of building an
instrument which shall be efficient and satisfactory.
The actual details of construction and design have
been presenting problems so pressing and immedi-
ate that it has hardly been possible to consider
systematically the cognate matters of populariza-
tion and distribution. We have been learning how
to make something. What to do with it when made
has been at best a secondary consideration. But
the progress of design and construction, together
with the gradual but steady development of man-
ufacturing systems in respect of systematization
and general efficiency has brought us already with-
in sight of the time when radical changes in these
matters shall no longer be sought. And the atten-
tion of the trade must, therefore, necessarily turn
towards the working out of the problems connected
with the distribution among the people of this
highly standardized product.