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APRIL 4,
THE
1925
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
49
SUPPLY BRANCHES OF THE INDUSTRY
Tracing the History of Mahogany From
the Veneer Back to the Growing Tree
Selecting the Trees in the Tropical Forests of Africa and Central and South America, and Some
of the Processes Through Which It Goes Before It Reaches the Piano Factory
IT is not often that piano superintendents and
those executives interested in the wood-
working end of a factory are afforded an oppor-
tunity to learn anything about what goes on
in the primary markets from which their ve-
neer stocks are drawn. The problems of the
supply merchants, who distribute the veneers to
the piano industry throughout the country, are
more familiar, perhaps, but facts about how the
wood is secured in the jungle, while not exactly
vital to the successful operation of a plant, are
always interesting when authentic.
Such a description is contained in a recent
issue of the Newark Evening News and bears
on how mahogany is selected from African and
Central American forests. Handling of mahog-
any is not greatly different from the handling
of most other woods, except for the skill and
care exercised, in deference to the value and
choiceness of the wood, and consideration for
the demands of those who later will work it
into its various beautiful forms.
For the history of a given piece of mahogany,
one goes back to the forest, in Mexico, Central
America, South America or Africa, where the
giant mahogany trees grow. The best mahog-
any, by the standards which consider color,
grain, figure, closeness of texture and other
characteristics of the wood, with the size of logs
which are obtainable, comes now from Africa.
Buyers, who are expert judges of wood, visit
the plantations, or forests, where they contract
for their supplies, usually picking out individual
trees, selected for the quality of wood, as indi-
cated by signs the experts know. But before
the buyer has appeared trees must be located
by hunters. Sweeping the country from the
tops of the highest trees, these hunters, or cruis-
ers, determine if the number of trees in certain
parts of the forest is large enough to make cut-
ting and hauling them out profitable. If the
prospect is satisfactory, laborers and apparatus
are brought in, camps are set up and the cut-
ting begins.
Chopping with hand axes, the cutters bring
the tall trees to earth, and then the trunks are
sawed off, as a rule with hand saws, into long
lengths and dragged to the nearest watercourse.
In Mexico, the West Indies and Central Amer-
ica, tractors or teams of oxen are used to
an extent, for hauling, but in Africa, where
the forest are many times almost inacces-
sible, tractors are used to a comparatively small
extent, and the tsetse fly renders the use of
draught animals impossible. Native labor is
employed, gangs of maybe 100 men pulling the
huge logs along the trail in the jungle until a
stream is reached which will float them down to
tide water.
At the edge of the watercourse the logs must
wait for the rainy season to bring the freshets
and high water. Then, accompanied by masses
of limbs, fallen trees and other forest debris,
the logs rush off toward the ocean. Frequently
they become entangled, forming jams which
must be broken up by natives who follow down
the streams in canoes.
At first, the logs are not permitted to float
out from the river into the sea, because ocean
water under the tropics is infested by the tor-
pedo worm, which bores into and honeycombs
any wood immersed in it. So the logs are held
in fresh water, where they are separated from
driftwood and other forest rubbish, and tied to-
gether into rafts. When the steamer arrives,
the rafts are towed out to sea where the logs
are cut loose and hoisted aboard. As hoisting
must be done in the open sea and as the logs
often weigh 20,000 pounds or more, usually the
mahogany goes aboard ship one log at a time,
to be stowed snugly below so it will not shift
when the ocean is rough.
Wrecks are rare, and the huge, precious logs
usually reach their destination safely. Arriving
off the plant, the logs are lowered overboard
and guided into the log pond, where they re-
main until they are floated one by one to the
hoisting contrivance which drags them up the
incline into the building which first receives
them.
From then on the treating and seasoning of
mahogany is much like that accorded any other
wood, handling of mahogany, however, being
accompanied by the greatest of care. Piled
just so, logs and boards are sunned and weath-
ered until in exactly the proper condition.
j A MESSAGE
• FOR YOU
Are you still wasting your time and
going to the expense of scraping off old
varnish and shellac to eliminate the
checks and cracks in order to secure a
smooth surface for rennishing?
Use Behlen's Varnish Crack Eradi-
cator.
It saves time, trouble and, incidentally,
expense, at the same time giving you as
fine a body surface for the new finish
as you could possibly wish for.
A sample can for trial awaits your
request.
W. M. Shailer on Road
W. M. Shailer, of the felt importing concern
of Philip W. Oetting & Son, New York, is at
present making his Spring trip through the
piano manufacturing trade and will return to
New York about the middle of April. Mr.
Shailer reached the Middle West via Canada,
and has spent several days in the Chicago dis-
trict. He will move eastward through Indiana and
PHILIP W. OETTING & SON, Inc.
213 East 19th Street, New York
Sole Agents for
WEICKERT HAMMER AND DAMPER FELTS
GRAND AND UPRIGHT HAMMERS
Made of Weickert Felt
Stains
Fillers
10-12 Christopher St., New York
Near 6th Are., and 8th St.
Finds Good Demand
for Player Leathers
William A. Wood, of T. L. Lutkins, Inc., Re-
ports Conditions Good Upon Return From
Trip
William A. Wood, traveling representative
of T. L. Lutkins, Inc., New York, dealer in
leather pouch skins for the player industry, re-
turned from a trip through New England re-
cently and reports a bright outlook in the in-
dustry. "Player manufacturers are already com-
mencing to give out orders for pneumatic skins
in view of the length of time it takes to get
these supplies from Europe. Most manufac-
turers are anticipating a strong demand and are
ordering proportionately. I have also called
on a number of organ makers in New Eng-
land and Canada recently and find that they
are especially busy this year, many of them
being booked with orders for a year in ad-
Freight Tonnage Increases
WASHINGTON, D. C, March 30.—The railroads
of this country during the first ten weeks this
year handled successfully the greatest volume of
freight ever carried by them at this season of the
year, according to a statement issued today by
^he American Railway Association. The amount,
measured in the number of cars loaded, even ex-
ceeded the expectation of the carriers.
On January 6, 1925, the association estimated
that during the first three months in 1925, 11,844,-
125 cars would be loaded with revenue freight,
the greatest number for any similar period on
record, exceeding by 256,851 cars, or 2.2 per cent,
the corresponding period in 1924.
It is interesting to note that the bulk of the
increase so far in 1925, compared with last year,
has come principally from manufactured products
or commodities used by the manufacturing indus-
try.
A. K. Gutsohn in Capital
A. K. Gutsohn, superintendent of the Stand-
ard Pneumatic Action Co., New York, spent
several days in Washington, D. C, last week in
connection with the graduation exercises of the
Eastern division of the Danquard School. Mr.
Gutsohn presided over part of the session and
lectured on the construction of Standard player-
actions and the proper methods of caring for
these mechanisms.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
WHITE, SON CO.
Manufacturer* of
ORGAN AND PLAYER-PIANO
ARJNOVELTYCO.
H. BEHLEN & BRO.
Anilines
Shellac*
Ohio and make stops at Buffalo and Rochester.
His letters to his firm indicate that manufac-
turers are ordering consistently, and, in the
case of the Canadian trade, many plants are
working close to capacity production.
Cxclusive manufacturers of
^
GOSHEN
Piano Benches
"• and tfusie Cabinets
Writ*far catalog and dtialU
INDIAMA
LEATHERS
530-540 Atlantic Are., BOSTON, MASS.