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The Lumber Problems That Confront
the Player-Piano Manufacturer
They Must Be Considered Mainly From Such Standpoints as Lightness, Porosity, Ability to Retain Shape
Under Severe Warping, and Capacity to Vibrate in Certain Definite Ways—Co-operation With the
Lumber Manufacturers in Meeting These Definite Requirements of the Player Industry
U
SERS of lumber are as many as the sands
by the shore if one may judge from the
elaborate literature in which the various
associations of lumber men set forth the com-
plexities of their business and the difficulties of
supplying all users with what they want, or, at
least, what they think they want. As the forest
supplies of the nation gradually diminish and the
quantity of merchantable timber becomes ob-
viously smaller, lumber men begin to display a
certain not unnatural anxiety concerning the
future of their business. To-day they are calling
upon the users of their products for assistance
in selecting species, in economizing on their use,
and generally in whatever may be done to pre-
vent the present appalling waste of a diminish-
ing supply.
The music industries are very much interested
in anything like this, because they are users of
highly superior grades of lumber. They have to
pick and select to a very considerable extent,
and with a nicety which usually is not the rule
with most of the wood-using trades. Among
these industries the player business stands out
prominently. It is peculiar in that its require-
ments put it almost in the class of the scientific
rather than the commercial consumers, since the
kind of machine which it turns out is so highly
refined. At the same time the player business
is also peculiar in having to work in competitive
conditions which make the matter of cost of
materials always very pressing and often actual-
ly decisive.
The New Co-operation
A movement has now begun to initiate prac-
tical co-operation among the lumber manufac-
turers and the makers of pianos, for the purpose
of discovering what can be done by common
effort to improve the piano maker's position
with regard to supply, species and grades of
lumber at reasonable prices. There is reason
to hope that this movement will take practical
shape and will lead to very much good. At the
same time it is obvious that anything of the
kind should include the very important acces-
sory branch of pneumatic manufacturing.
For many years pneumatic engineers and pro-
duction men have been working around to a
standardized set of data regarding all kinds of
woods and their uses, as viewed from the special
standpoint of pneumatics. This special stand-
point is quite different from that of the piano
manufacturer. The latter has to consider mainly
the question of resistance to strain, expansion
and contraction and, in the special case of the
sound-board, capacity to vibrate in certain
definite ways. The player man, on the contrary,
has to consider mainly such questions as light-
ness, porosity, ability to retain shape under
severe warping, and matters of that nature. Tt
is evident that the player man has a set of prob-
lems of the greatest interest and complexity,
which have never yet been subjected to analysis
or made the subject of general study. If the
player business were a little larger than it is,
probably there would be a call for an Institute
of Musico-Pneumatic Engineers. As things are,
however, it is evidently the business of the
National Piano Technicians' Association to con-
sider these matters with the attention they merit.
Co-operation with the lumber manufacturers
should therefore be considered to include among
other things special attention to the particular
problems of the player manufacturer. Let us
see what some of these problems look like under
brief analysis.
Player Wood Needs
The first thing the player man has to consider
is the weight of the wood he is to use.
Obviously he cannot have it very heavy, be-
cause in that case the piano will have to be
specially reinforced in order to carry the weight
of the pneumatic action without giving way
under the task. There are many woods which
are not porous, which would take a good shape
and keep it, and which would not break up under
constant drawing and withdrawing of screws;
but which are quite hopeless because of exces-
sive weight.
Weight too often also means cost. Then
again, the player man has to consider constantly
the ability of the light woods he must use to
withstand 1 air pressure without leakage or warp-
ing. The total pressure of air under maximum
pumping against the outer wall of a valve chest
may run to hundreds of pounds and if the wall
be not well constructed of suitable wood it may
warp. A warped pouchboard means a player-
piano out of commission.
Wood, too, must be porous, as little as pos-
sible, or must be capable of absorbing shellac
or other covering to a sufficient extent to render
it non-porous. Porous woods are not good for
player construction unless they are well shel-
lacked or otherwise protected, and the question
is always between lighter woods which can be
shellacked so as to be fairly satisfactory, and
heavier harder woods which are less porous and
therefore more nearly air-tight. It is evident
that each individual maker has a great deal of
information on certain aspects of this subject,
as these have appealed to his own special condi-
tions; but it is also equally evident that no one
house can have more than a partial view of the
whole subject. Hence open discussion would
be of the utmost value to every one, while no
one could be harmed by it. Furthermore, if the
desire of the lumber manufacturers for co-
operative work with the lumber consumers is
to come to anything so far as the player indus-
try is concerned, it is evident that the necessary
data must first be collected. At this point it is
proper to say that the piano manufacturers and
their superintendents have so far been a good
deal less secretive than have the player men in
this respect, with results which have been to the
general and common benefit.
Really of course there are no "secrets," for
everything in a player action can be seen and
freely examined without the slightest trouble,
nor would anything about it remain concealed
for a moment from the eye of an expert, suppos-
ing that such an one wanted to find out anything
about an unfamiliar player action.
General Clearing Up Now Possible
It is evident that the way is now open for a
general clearing up of the present vagueness,
obscurity and indefiniteness which prevail with
respect to the lumber wants of the player in-
dustry. As things stand, it is necessary to say
with the utmost seriousness that individual
houses in any wood-using industry can no
longer safely stand apart from their fellows and
obstinately insist upon planning their lumber
supply without reference to what others are
doing. For the lumber industry itself is enter-
ing upon a period of self-regulation during
which it will do its utmost to bring the cutting
of timber and the manufacture of lumber for
industrial use to a scientific system. To this
end it will, for its own safety, bring to bear
upon the consuming industries all possible pres-
sure towards co-operative effort; and this will
mean that these latter industries will in their
turn be compelled to acquire a certain technical
solidarity, dropping their exaggerated individual-
ism and learning that common needs demand
common remedies discovered by common effort.
To these ends one may well suggest to the
player experts of the country the propriety of
their taking advantage of the existence of the
National Piano Technicians' Association. This
body is the recognized technical representative
of piano and supply manufacturing. It is now
engaged in an effort to bring before the con-
sciousness of the industries it represents the
need for study and common endeavor towards
more scientific use of material and methods.
Player men are too much aloof from this organ-
ization, which is capable of doing them most
valuable services. It would be a good thing if
every player man in the country engaged in
production or design would join this associa-
tion. Then some of the needed co-operative
work mentioned above would, with other equally
necessary things, become practically possible.
Starr Reports First
Quarter Broke Records
Company Will Shortly Bring Out Two New
Types of Phonographs — Portables Selling
Well
RICHMOND, IND., April 19.—At the headquarters
of the Starr Piano Co. it is stated officially that
the volume of piano business handled by the
company during the first quarter of this year
broke all previous records for a similar period.
Some time ago a number of particularly attrac-
tive models were included in the Starr line and
these have apparently had a strong appeal for
both the trade and the public. The company is
also giving attention to the future possibilities
of the phonograph business and is prepared to
introduce in a short time two new improved
phonograph models, one designed on scientific
lines by Professor Arthur L. Foley, professor
of physics of Indiana University. The other
model was developed as a result of experiments
in the Starr Co.'s own laboratories. In both
models the range of tone is materially increased,
particularly in the lower registers and distinct
progress has also been made in the improvement
of tone quality.
The Starr Co. is also giving considerable at-
tention to the portable phonograph business and
is shipping in quantities to the trade the new
Starr portable, as well as the new Gennett
portaphone, the latter being particularly de-
signed for handling by dealers in Gennett
records.
Fred. Gennett, secretary, and R, C. Ball, ad-
vertising manager of the company, spent the
week in Detroit attending the National Con-
ference of Music Supervisors at the Book-Cadil-
lac Hotel.
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