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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
13
Consideration of the Subject of Installation—Why Complaints Exist and
How They May Be Eliminated—Correct Installation Summed Up in
the Production of Careful Work on the Part of Intelligent Mechanics.
One who, like the writer, has occasion to be
pretty constantly in conversation with player man-
ufacturers, player dealers, player inventors, player
repairers and player users—to mention only a
few—finds that certain broad currents of thought
may be traced with fair consistency throughout
whole masses of men who on many other points
are largely at variance. For example, dealers are
just at present thinking a great deal about the
disposal of traded-in pianos. Tuners are always
in a chronic state of thought about the inacces-
sibility and unintelligibility of this, that or the
other mechanism. And manufacturers, too, have
their own little grievances. Like the burglar of
W. S. Gilbert, who was more or less constantly
maturing his felonious little plans, one finds that
player manufacturers get into the habit of thinking
quite chronically about certain aspects of their
business; and in many very noticeable broad ways
much alike.
One of the main currents of this communal
thought is represented in the one word "installa-
tion." Player manufacturers may be divided, and
in point of fact are divided, on almost every other
question that arises in the course o.f their busi-
ness, but they are almost a unit in their opinions
of the installation question. And that is why we
propose here to attempt to set forth the general
view of player manufacturers on a very important
topic, in what we conceive to be a sane transla-
tion of the views and opinions which we have
gathered among them.
The Handling of Complaints.
Every manufacturer of player mechanisms is
aware that a more or less constant stream of com-
plaints flows into his office regarding the behavior
of pianos in which his mechanism is fitted. These
complaints in part originate from the retail pur-
chasers of player-pianos, in part from dealers and
in part from the piano manufacturers who are his
direct customers. In detail and variety their name
is legion. They range from general allegations
that the mechanism will not run to specific com-
plaints as to matters like repetition, bellows power
unsteadiness of motor and so on, Some of them
can at once be found trivial and dismissed with a
word of direction and advice. Others require in-
vestigation. And when investigation is made, in
only too many cases the trouble is tound to have
originated, not in the defect or fault of the player
itself, but in the process of installing it in the
piano; a process that usually takes place within
the factory of the piano manufacturer. One would
venture the assertion that not one single player
manufacturer of the country is free from com-
plaints which may be directly traced to faulty in-
stallation and to nothing else.
What Installation Includes.
In order, however, to make a discussion of this
topic in the least valuable, it is necessary to know
just what installation includes and how in general
it is carried out.
Installation is the name of the process which
the piano manufacturer undertakes in his own
factory of fitting the player to the piano. The
player, in order to be rightly associated with the
piano, must be closely and accurately adjusted and
regulated to the latter after much the same
fashion as the piano action is adjusted and regu-
lated to the piano scale. In fact, at least as much
trouble, time and expense, proportionately speak-
ing, should be devoted to the one as is commonly
devoted to the other. Take the case of the pneu-
matic stack. It is obvious that the latter must be
(1) rightly fitted above the key bed, (2) adjusted
for distance from the abstracts, (3) adjusted for
height, (4) adjusted for each and every pneu-
matic to its corresponding abstract. And there
are other adjustments.
If all these processes must be undergone for the
one element represented by the pneumatic stack,
how many more will there be when we consider
the bellows system, the tracker box and motor,
and the expression devices? Consider the exceed-
ingly important question of timing the motor. To
a certain extent the adjustment of the motor gov-
ernor and the regulation of the motor slide valve
rods for this purpose can be carried out in the
player factory before the mechanism is shipped to
the piano manufacturer. But it will always be
found that in practice the final adjustments must
be accurately and skilfully made after the player
is installed.
Let it not be forgotten, either, that the mere
placing, fitting and fastening of the various ele-
ments into the piano is itself a task calling for
care and attention, even if not for a high degree
of 1 mechanical skill.
Importance of Careful Work.
It is surely obvious that, since the mere number
of the various operations is so great, there are
many opportunities for incorrect work. And this
means that there are an equal number of oppor-
tunities for mistakes of adjustment which must be
realized later in the form of defective operation.
So that, even if we have no direct proof, we at
least have excellent circumstantial evidence for
supposing that correct installation, if it were uni-
versal, would result in less cause for complaint on
the part of dealers and retail purchasers, and
therefore on the part of piano manufacturers
themselves.
One is justified then in making a distinct plea
for the exercise of greater care in this important
department of piano manufacturing, for so it has
come to be. The truth of the matter probably is
that piano manufacturers have not as yet all come
to understand their responsibility in the matter of
installation and have failed to see that this is as
much their responsibility as is that of good action
regulating. If as much trouble were taken, pro-
portionately, to secure good workmanship in in-
stallation as in tuning, for instance, there would be
very little cause for general complaint as to de-
fective operation of new players.
The Need of Intelligent Labor.
Along this line it may be said that many player
manufacturers have complained, and with justice
apparently, that piano factory superintendents are
prone to turn over the job of learning installation
to cheap laborers, whom the player manufacturer's
experts are expected to turn into good mechanics
within a few days. Cheap labor is not intelligent
labor. And intelligence is the prime requisite in
good installation. The mechanic who does not
know why he is doing a certain piece of work
will never do it as well as he might. And to do it
as well as possible is, in player installation, an
essential.
Thus briefly the complaint *of the player manu-
facturer. May the piano makers heed what, in
our opinion, is both a just and a very well founded
plea.
PATENTS REWINDING DEVICE.
(Special to The Review.)
WASHINGTON, D. C, May 25. — Frederick W.
llempelmann, of Cincinnati, O., has this week been
granted Patent No. 1,097,020 on a rewinding de-
vice for selector sheets, and has for its object the
regular and accurate operation of the selector
sheet of the instrument, permitting its ready re-
moval and insertion.
VISITS WASHINGTON.
J. H. White, of the Wilcox & White Co., Meri*
den, Conn., received a warm welcome from his
many friends in Washington when he visited the
capital recently.
fipes for Automatic Pianos
for VIOLIN and FLUTE music
Furnished in both wood and metal;
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SAMUEL PIERCE ORGAN PIPE CO., Reading, Mass.