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OCTOBER 5,
THE
1918
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Special Pianos Necessary to Meet Export Demand
Advisability of Conserving Supplies Used in Making Pianos for Export Trade
Discussed by Chicago Piano Men—Some Modifications in Styles Suggested
the question are very much bound up with
each other. If we go into overseas business
with a will we shall have to build up a new
type of instrument especially adapted for such
trade. The requirements of South America,
South Africa, Australia and the Orient will have
to be studied, and the result will undoubtedly
be the production of a type of piano or player-
piano very different in certain details from our
domestic instruments. The differences will be
in details only, it is true, but they will be dif-
ferences all the same. Each of the markets
mentioned will require its own type, but in gen-
eral it may be said that the American overseas
piano will follow certain general outlines which,
for the purpose of the motion 1 have in mind,
may be summarized briefly and easily.
"This export piano," he continued, "will, I
believe, in general have to be smaller, it will
require a somewhat different case design and
will especially need a tone quality to correspond
with existing predilections of a public which
has been brought up on German tonal ideas.
It is not my idea that the thin nasal German
tone, the cheap German construction, and the
hideous German cases should be copied by us.
Far from it. I simply mean that we cannot
substitute for all these at one blow our own
much better achievements. We must go slow
and adapt ourselves to the possibilities of the
situation instead of attempting to teach the
overseas public what they are to like or dis-
like.
"Now this tits right in with the material scarc-
ity," this man went on. "In the matter of
tone, for instance, we should undoubtedly rind
it easier to produce something suitable to over-
seas ideas by building two-string unisons in-
stead of the usual triple unisons throughout
the middle and treble sections of the instru-
ment. Now by doing this we should actually
be able to cut down the number of tuning pins
and the amount of steel wire required for each
piano by about 25 per cent.; which simply
means that the amount of these two supplies
now needed for three pianos would stretch out
over four overseas instruments.
"Just for the sake of argument let us consider
that the third pedal, the continuous hinges and
elaborate folding music desk may be eliminated,
and that the whole size of the case must gen-
erally be smaller; and you will soon perceive
that, in case of a shortage of materials such as
we are now experiencing and discussing, the
overseas piano can be a regular life-saver for
the trade.
"For that matter," concluded the piano man,
"it is plain that we might take this whole idea
for a text and strive to see how perhaps we
might conserve in various other directions if
we had to. But I don't want to give the idea
that there is anything desirable about the ideas
I have put forth in themselves. We don't want
to do anything retrogressive, of course, or give
the idea that anything retrogressive is desirable,
for this would be a very great mistake. But I
wanted to bring out the fact that, if we really
should find ourselves in the spring desperately
short of supplies, we might work a great many
schemes to conserve and to cut down our pres-
ent rate of consumption per unit, while on
the other hand, if we are going to make an ex-
port piano the suggestions I have outlined be-
come not merely forlorn hopes for a great emer-
gency, but practical methods for making some-
thing suitable to the customer."
FUEL CONSERVATION MEASURES FOR FACTORIES OUTLINED
tuminous coal in large or small power plants.
It may be secured at a cost of 10 cents from
the Superintendent of Documents, Government
Printing Office, Washington, D. C."
CHICAGO, I I I . , September 30.—During the very
interesting, sincere and outspoken discussions
which enlivened the luncheon tables during
Wednesday's noon meeting of the Chicago Piano
and Organ Association, a great many sugges-
tions were set forth and ideas developed which
did not find their way into the printed reports.
As everybody knows by this time, the object of
the meeting was to discuss the present difficult
position of the trade with regard to the supply
of materials and the new excise tax of 10 per
cent, on the wholesale valuation of pianos which
is to become effective November 1. During the
discussion much emphasis was laid upon the
possibility of interesting the Government in the
value of the American piano as a factor in build-
ing up our foreign trade balance, and it was
pointed out that the officials in Washington
have been more impressed by arguments of this
sort than by any others which have been placed
before them.
This fact, and the undoubted
great possibilities of developing for our own
country the export trade on pianos previously
held by Germany, led to some very striking
ideas being put forth around the tables; one of
which specially captured the ear of The Re-
view's representative.
"It seems to me," said one man with an idea
to those around the table with him, "that we
have here a problem of which the two faces run
parallel with each other. We have an undoubted
shortage of supplies, and after March 1 we may
have a still greater scarcity, amounting to a
definite famine. On the other hand, we have
been urged to get behind the Government and
get our trade in a favorable position by co-op-
erating in the development of an overseas busi-
ness.
It seems to me that these two sides of
Comprehensive Bulletin Sent Out to Manufacturers by Bronx Board of Trade Contains Many
Items of Interest—Simple Rules Whereby Manufacturing Plants May Economize in Use of Coal
The Bronx Board of Trade, whose executive
offices are at 137th street and Third avenue,
New York, working in co-operation with the
local Fuel Administration, has sent out a bulle-
tin containing recommendations as to how local
manufacturers can conserve fuel. This is the
third bulletin which has been sent out, the
first being to householders (small users of coal)
and the second to apartment house owners.
Regarding the fuel situation the Board of
Trade states:
"The war program of the nation demands 80,-
000,000 more tons of coal this year than last.
"We are calling for 8,000,000 tons of steel
ships, and to manufacture and deliver the steel
for them will take 14,000,000 tons of coal.
Three million tons are needed to carry our aver-
age monthly delivery of troops to Europe, and
4,000,000 tons to transport their supplies. One
hour of intensive artillery action at the front
uses up 1,800 tons of steel, which it takes 7,200
tons of coal to produce. To manufacture and
transport the 60,000,000 shells that were fired
by the French in the battle of Verdun called
for the consumption of nearly 9,000,000 tons of
coal.
"The demands for coal this year have in-
creased in American industrial plants, 18 per
cent.; in gas and electric utilities, 15 per cent.;
in shipping, 30 per cent.; in the railroads, 7 per
cent.; and in domestic consumption, 13 per cent.
"It has been impossible to provide for these
increases by increased production. There have
been 224 new mines opened and weekly produc-
tion has risen as high as a 17 per cent, increase
over the corresponding week of 1917, but there
has not been the necessary mine labor available
to meet the whole demand, and there have not
been coal cars enough to keep the coal moving
from the mines.
"In an attempt to meet the deficit the Fuel
Administration has carried out a thorough cam-
paign of saving. It has undertaken to inspect
the country's 250,000 steam-producing plants,
and hopes to save thereby 20,000,000 tons of
coal a year. The outcome may be a regula-
tion forbidding the delivery of fuel to any plant
that is below a standard, and for that ruling
power plant owners should prepare, if they al-
ready have not done so.
"Among the measures which local manufac-
turers may take to aid in this fuel conservation
are the following, suggested at a meeting held
in the Board of Trade rooms in April, under
the auspices of the Committee on Fuel Con-
servation of the Industrial Bureau of the Bronx
Board of Trade, and the Piano Club of New
York:
"1. Analyses of flue-gas to determine carbon
content.
"2. Pre-heating of water feed pipes.
"3. Control of air flow, to prevent losses of
heat up chimney.
"4. Prevention of cracks in the settings of
boilers.
"5. Use of the damper to control air flow,
rather than opening and closing of boiler doors.
"6. Keeping burnt-out spots in furnace bed
covered.
"7. Prevention of clinkers, by not making the
fuel bed too thick.
"8. Use of improved instruments and methods
for the scientific regulation and operation of
boilers, even in the smallest plant.
"Attention of local manufacturers is also
called to Technical Paper No. 80, an eighty-
four-page booklet entitled 'Hand Firing Soft
Coal Under Power Plant Boilers,' issued by the
Bureau of Mines, which gives explicit and de-
tailed directions for methods of conserving bi-
BRAMBACH SUBSCRIPTION 100%
Officials and Employes of Brambach Piano Co.
Make Record Subscription First Day of Drive
The Brambach Piano Co., New York, manu-
facturers of the Brambach baby grand pianos,
639 West Forty-ninth street, New York, an-
nounced this week that the subscriptions to the
Fourth Liberty Loan on the first day amounted
to 100 per cent., the subscribing being entered
into with great enthusiasm by the officials aad
all the employes.
Not only is there manifested in this announce-
ment the patriotic support of the employes of
this establishment to the U. S. Government and
the Allied cause, but also to Mark P. Campbell,
president of the company, who is chairman of
the Allied Music Trades F'ourth Liberty Loari
Committee, and who has worked prodigiously
both day and night to make the big drive the
greatest success ever.
MISS OKTAVEC A BRIDE
Miss Georgianna Marie Oktavec, daughter of
Joseph Oktavec, president of the Laffargue Co.
and president of the Piano Club of New York,
will be married to-day, October 5, at the resi-
dence of her parents in New Rochelle, N. Y.
The bridegroom is Lieut. Robert McDonald
Graham, of Graham, Va., instructor of history
at West Point Military Academy.
WILL A. WATKIN'S NEW POST
i
DALLVS, TEX., September 2M.—Will A-. Watk-in,
president of the Will A. Watkin Co., has re-
cently been elected vice-president of the San
Jacinto War Board.