Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
NOVEMBER 27, 1920
The Manufacturing of the Modern Player-Piano Can Only Reach Its Most
Efficient Phase When Exact and Economical Specifications Are Applied to
All Materials Entering Therein, as Well as to the Manufacturing Processes
As our industry progresses we find more and
more the importance of attending to detail.
There is a time in the evolution of every process
when the most important thing is to produce a
mechanism or a piece of goods which will satis-
fy a demand. The questions which later come
up and are concerned with economies and effi-
ciencies have little interest for pioneers. The
player industry remained rather long in a
pioneer condition, or, rather, its principal re-
sponsible men maintained the pioneer attitude
for perhaps a little too long. Now, indeed,
signs are not wanting that a more thoughtful
state of mind is exhibiting itself, so that there
is likely to be in the future a greater care for
detail, a greater willingness to take the scien-
tific point of view and, in brief, a greater desire
for system and method.
All this is said with no desire to wound
the feelings of anyone or to belittle the player
industry. It is said merely because it repre-
sents a state of affairs which has existed, with
few exceptions, until almost the present day. It
is also said because only by saying it can we
obtain a clear idea of what we may expect
to see developed within the near future; namely,
an approach to standardized methods both in
manufacturing and in distribution.
All scientific manufacturing to-day is based
upon the knowledge that mass production alone
provides the possibility of making economies
scientifically. Economy is a matter of small
savings. The most potent obstacle to scientific
saving in details is to be found in variations in
the dimensions, texture, density and other
properties of the raw materials which form the
basis of the manufacture. Just in the propor-
tion that the manufacturer can secure uniformity
in these properties of his materials, can he as-
sure himself that a properly devised system will
stop leakages and wastes. No system, however
good it may be in it-self, will avail to stop such
leakages when the materials themselves are
uneven in quality.
The Basis of Precision
This fact is so well known and so generally
recognized that it is scarcely necessary to set
it forth in detail. What, however, is less under-
stood is that all remedies for any such condi-
tion must be found in a co-operation between
the seller of the material and the buyer of it.
The manufacturer of the finished goods may
specify as much as he pleases, but he cannot
be sure that his specifications will be followed
unless he can also be sure that what he means
by his specifications is also meant by the man
LEERNOTE
TRADE MARK
Ree. D. S. Patent Office
The Most Practical Commercial Tracker-Bar Cleaner
on the Market for Use by Player Owners
Equipped with patented Duat Screen and Valvular features, causing the dirt, when drawn
through the tracker-bar openings, to be held for removal when desired, thus insuring a
Simple, Efficient and Sanitary cleaning operation.
Kleernote makes every note respond freely and avoids many player complaints
Made of substantial high-grade metal and carefully constructed to prevent device from
getting put of order.
The use of Kleernote gives patrons absolute satisfaction.
Indorsed and recommended by Leading Dealers and Mechanics.
Large demand by player users. Attractive discount rate to dealers.
AMERICAN DEVICE MANUFACTURING CO.
. 4520 Shaw Avenue, St. Louis, Mo.
Export D«partment—256 Broadway, New York City,N. Y., U. S. A.
LEERNOTE
from whom he buys the materials. Again,
unless he possesses precise methods for measure-
ment, it is impossible for his specifications to
have any precision. They must continue to
be vague and, to a large extent, the product
of guess-work so long as they are not based
on some predetermined system of measure-
ment.
Again, the maker of the raw materials cannot
possibly know that he is supplying what is
actually wanted unless lie possesses the same
system of measurement. It is very much as
if there were the possibility of two men trying
to do business without being certain that the
money in which they dealt had the same value
to both.
In short, any system of scientific specifica-
tions in the player business must be built upon
a system of common standards, understood and
used by both parties. This is the basis of all
satisfactory work in this respect.
The Raw Materials
The raw materials which enter into the manu-
facture of player actions may be summarized
a» lumber of various grades, shellac, glue, cloth,
leather, paper and hardware. Each of these
is again subdivisible into various elements, but
we can consider the classifications in general
and with reference to general properties, in
order to gain an idea of the system on which
specifications are most scientifically to be drawn.
In this way we can gain some idea of how such
a system of orderly specifications can be ap-
plied to the prevention of waste and the secur-
ing of economy in first cost and in the process
of fabrication.
The lumber which is used in a player action
must, above all, be capable of taking a coat-
ing or finish which will fill its pores so as to
render it air-tight. This fact applies through-
out all save the external non-pneumatic parts of
the action. In order to secure anything like
uniformity in this respect it is necessary that
a form of specification for such lumber should
include a formula for density, for porosity and
for resistance to a given vacuum pressure when
covered with a filler of a given nature. No
matter what the species of the lumber, if it
does not satisfy a test of this kind it cannot
possibly be a certain or a completely satisfac-
tory product. Of course, the specification will
vary in its details according to the particular
function which each and every piece of it has
to perform; but the principle laid down above,
if specifying according to function, and by pre-
cise figures, holds good.
Functional Specifications
In specifying shellac or other filling material,
similar considerations hold good. The function
should afford the basis for all calculation. The
practical fact is that on a given piece of lumber
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STANDARD PLAYER ACTIONS
STANDARD PNEUMATIC ACTFON C O .
- €.52
WEST
52 1?STREET
NEW
YORK
CITY