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AUGUST 28,
51
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1920
PIANO WOODS AND THEIR VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS—II
The Second Instalment of an Interesting and Authoritative Article by Hu Maxwell, Reprinted From
the American Forestry Magazine, Describing Woods Used in the Music Industry
Apparatus has been used to test and determine
the vibratory qualities of wood, and formulas
and equations involving higher mathematics have
been worked out to express values; but no scien-
ti'ic process has found out much more than has
b>?en ascertained by simple experiments with
different woods by practical makers of musical
instruments. When Philadelphia was a village
of small houses and wooden roofs, Gottlieb Mit-
telberger listened to the patter of the rain on
the-thin roofs of white cedar shingles and from
the tones thus produced he worked out the in-
vention of the cedar pipes for his organ. He
declared the musical sounds of that wood supe-
rior to those emitted by metal.
The most highly specialized use of wood, due
tc its resonance, is found in the piano sounding
board. The finest spruce goes there, though
occasionally other woods have held the place.
Southern white cedar was once more popular
than spruce as sounding boards, but it is not
so now.
The piano is not the only musical instrument
which profits by the resonance of wood. The
pipe organ does it, but probably not so much as
formerly. Most pipes are now made of metal.
The quality of wood in a violin has much to do
in determining the value of the instrument. The
NEW YORK
WOOD FINISHERS' SUPPLY CO.
INCORPORATED
B. MEIER, President
Manufacturer*
Powder and Liquid Wood Stains
Wood Fillers, Shellacs, Varnishes
Shellac Substitutes, Paint Specialties
Office*
304 Eighth Avenue
NEW YORK
Factor;
17-19 Ninth Street
BROOKLYN
old master makers of violins, like Stradivari,
Amati and Guarneri, selected their wood and
prepared it with as much care as they bestowed
on the actual shaping and joining. Maple has
always been one of the finest violin woods, and
it is nearly always combined with some soft-
wood like pine or spruce.
Some of the finest working in wood is done
in producing high-class horns for talking ma-
chines. The horn is a sort of sounding board,
corresponding to that of the piano. There are
very fine instruments which are made without
wooden horns, but many persons claim that the
wooden horn gives a softness and richness of the
tone which is extremely rare.
The xylophone is a small musical instrument
which does not rank very high in science or art.
Its name is a combination of two Greek words
meaning "wood sound." The music which it
produces is caused more by the vibrations of
wood than is the case with most musical instru-
ments which utilize the resonant qualities of
that material. The manufacturer's success with
this instrument, as with most others where the
resonance of wood has an important function to
perform, depends upon the care with which the
wood for the rods are selected, shaped, seasoned
and mounted.
Most softwoods listed in this industry do not
owe their place to their resonance. For in-
stance, much white pine and sugar pine are
manufactured into keys for organs and pianos,
but they are preferred for those places on ac-
count of their lightness and small tendency to
warp, and not for any quality of resonance which
they may possess. Such softwoods as hemlock,
Douglas fir, yellow pine and cypress are de-
manded for the frames of large instruments to
give the necessary strength without too much
weight or at too great a cost.
Hardwoods constitute eighty per cent of all
the material furnished by forests to the manu-
facturers of musical instruments in this country.
That figure alone tells the story of the impor-
tance of this class of woods along the line indi-
cated. Measured in feet, there is much more
softwood in the United States than hardwood—
five or six times as much. But in kinds or spe-
cies, hardwoods are far more numerous than the
others. Manufacturers engaged in the industry
under discussion use not only more kinds of
hardwoods but a larger quantity. Five feet of
hardwood go to these manufacturers to one fool
of softwood. The list follows:
Native Hardwood
Feet Used Yearly
Maple
45,482,775
Yellow poplar
40,371,925
Chestnut
3S,125,141
Oak
20,608,480
Elm
15,602,440
Birch
12,349,055
Basswood
10,968,180
Red gum
9,243,825
Black walnut
4,991,808
Beech
4,186,000
Ash
2,377,332
Cottonwood
2,351,000
Tupelo
460,000
Cherry
334,180
Sycamore
304,600
Butternut
98,100
Buckeye
6,000
Holly
3,580
Hickory
225
Total
207,894,636
Maple leads all others. It is not because this
wood has some special use which accounts f'>:
the large demand, but it is due to the general
fitness of maple for many parts of musical in-
struments. Most of its qualities are good ones,
and it has many. It fills numerous places and
does it well.
(To be continued)
INVISIBLE HINGES
"OUT OF SIGHT
HEED OUR ADVICE
Write for a sample can of Behlen's
Varnish Crack Eradicator and try it.
Once you learn how much it means to
you in trie saving of time on your refin-
ishing jobs by eliminating the necessity
of scraping off old varnish and shellac,
and how much more satisfactory are
the results, because of the better sur-
face it gives to work on, you, like others
will continue to use it.
And when you're satisfied
that we've the best punch-
ings on the market, cut
clean and accurately from
the best of material in
celluloid, cloth, felt, fibre,
leather, paper, rubber or
whatever you want, give
us credit and send your
orders to
EVER IN MIND" I
When you fail to
see an unsightly
Hinge protruding
you know "SOSS"
is the answer.
Write to-day.
H. BEHLEN & BRO.
C. F. GOEPEL & CO.
10-12 Christopher St., New York
NEW YORK
Anilines
Shellacs
Stains
Fillers
Near 6th Ave.. and 8th St.
137 E. 13th STREET
J
Soss Hinges
emphasize beautiful
wood finishes as
there is no project-
ing metal on either
side of door.
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Made in
numerous sizes.
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Send for Catalog "S" jf
SOSS MANUFACTURING CO.
Grand Avf. and Bergen St.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
mini:
George H. Harper Co.
Orange, N. J.
Circassian Walnut, Oak, Walnut
and Specializing on Mahogany.
Capacity—5 Million Feet