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The Music Trade Review
36
APRIL 16, 1927
The Technical and Supply Department—(Continued from page 35)
manufacture. This is what the chemical in- facturer would be using it and to his benefit. Pratt Read Representatives
What would the organization amount to?
dustry docs, what the steel industry has long
to Move New York Offices
done, what the automobile industry began to Probably for the first few years the whole
do when it was yet young, and has never
ceased to do since. In fine, it is what every
mechanical industry does which is wide-awake
and intends to hold its market for itself.
What May Be Expected
What might be expected from the establish-
ment of a research institute? At least the
following additions to knowledge, any one of
which would in itself suffice to justify the ex-
penditure of much more money than would
ever in all probability be called for:
1. Accurate knowledge of the operations of
the sound board, from which each manu-
facturer might derive formulae and constants
enabling him to obtain the best possible results
from any given array of materials, any given
limits of size and any given cost of workman-
ship. At present the whole operation of the
sound board is a mystery, and its design and
construction pure guesswork.
2. Accurate knowledge of the tonal effect of
the processes of wire-drawing, with consequent
opening up of improvements in the metallurgy
of piano wire and a final settlement of the
much-disputed questions of needed tensile
strength, relation of tension to tone, and so
on, all of which at present are more or less
open, so that standards are almost out of the
question and the whole art remains in a con-
dition of unproductive flux.
3. Accurate knowledge of the functions of
the piano hammer, based upon the two above-
mentioned fields of research but combined with
an independent investigation into the constitu-
tion and manufacture of tone felt. From this
would ultimately come the establishment of
standards, whereby hammers could be built
upon rigid specifications, with resulting
economics to both parties concerned and
greatly increased efficiency of the manufactured
product.
4. Investigation of the possibilities of further
advance in the mechanism of touch. It is not
at all impossible that the next great improve-
ment, if and when it comes, will appear from
this direction. Such devices as the Moor
double clavier point the direction of the wind.
It is not at all unlikely that a combination of
advanced action with advanced pneumatic play-
ing mechanism could be worked out which
would provide a musical instrument of astound-
ing power and beauty, vastly surpassing any
such combination hitherto envisaged.
5. Investigation of the question of new styles,
new types of instrument, costs of manufacture,
possibilities of labor division, application of
machinery to processes hitherto dependent upon
hand skill, etc.
6. Investigation of substitute materials, new
processes of finishing, seasoning, etc.
Surely it is not necessary to labor the argu-
ment as to the needs and wants here set forth.
If to-dav we had in operation a tonal research
laboratory as a trade institution financed by
the Manufacturers' Association and open to all
upon some equitable arrangement, every manu-
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
Piano Tuning, Pipe and Reed
Organ and Player Piano
YEAR BOOK FREE
27-29 Gainsboro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
Tuners
and Repairers
Our new illustrated catalogue of Piano and
Player Hardware Felts and Tools is now
ready. If you haven't received your copy
please let us know.
OTTO R. TREFZ, JR.
2110 Fairmount Ave.
Phila., Pa.
thing could be run by four men: (1) the
director, (2) an engineer-draftsman, (3) a high-
grade patternmaker and (4) a high-grade piano
mechanic. A couple of thousand square feet
would furnish for a long time all the space
needed, and either New York or Chicago would
do for the home of the institution.
Equipment would not be expensive—work
benches, drafting tables, experimental bellying
equipment, phonodeik for sound analysis, stand-
ard tuning forks, wire-testing machine, measur-
ing machine for hardness and other physical
properties of materials, a small pattern-making
equipment with power drives, and a simple
chemical analysis equipment. Ten thousand
dollars would probably cover the cost of equip-
ment for the first two years.
Twenty-five thousand dollars a year would
cover all the expenses, at least until the
laboratory had demonstrated its usefulness
to all.
Player Action Experts to Move to New Loca-
tion at 657 Fifth Avenue on May 1—In Same
Building With American Piano Co.
Miss M. A. King and L. J. Eyring, player ac-
tion experts and representatives of the Pratt
Read Player Action Co., Deep River, Conn.,
will move shortly from their present location
in the Knabe Ruilding, 437 Fifth avenue, New
York, to 657-59 Fifth avenue, at the corner of
Fifty-second street. The new address is the
building taken by the American Piano Co. and
William Knabe & Co. as temporary quarters fox
a period of one year. Miss King and Mr. Kyr-
ing will take a suite here as representatives of
Pratt Read Products and will move about May
1. Their room number and new telephone will
be announced later.
New Piano Patents
Correspondence
Truss Structures for Upright Piano Cases.
James D. Hurst, Rockford, 111., assignor to the
should be addressed to William Braid White, Schumann Piano Co., same place. Patent No.
5149 Agatite avenue, Chicago.
1,623,188. In an upright piano, in combination
with the case, a truss unit of assembly adapted
Superintendents to Visit
for attachment to and detachment from the case
beneath each end of the key-board comprising a
Krakauer and Winter truss proper and an upright stile joined at the
The Superintendents' Club of the New York top and bottom and held in rigid spaced rela-
Piano Manufacturers' Association will visit in tion by a truss cap and a base-piece, respec-
a body I IK- Krakauer Bros, factory, Cypress tively, the truss proper being equipped at the
avenue and 136tli street, the Bronx, on Tuesday, lower end with a caster and disposed in front
April 19, at 2.30 p. m. Another group-visit on of the base-piece to support forward lean of
the part of the New York superintendents will the piano, and means for detachably connecting
be made at the Winter & Co. factory, 863 East the upright stile of each unit to the inner side
141st street, on Tuesday, May 3, at 2.30 o'clock. of one of the sides of the case and the truss
These two visits will practically complete the cap to the underside of the key-board.
schedule of group inspections decided upon by
the superintendents last year, after the sugges-
Piano Key. George J. Becker, Annandale, N.
tion of Charles Miller, president of the club.
Y. Patent No. 1,623,331. A device for leveling
Tuners Carrying Case
LIGHT—COMPACT—SERVICEABLE
Weighs Only 6 Pounds
Outside measurements 15J4 inches long, 7
inches wide, 8 inches high.
No. 150—Covered with seal grain imitation
leather. Each $13.00
No. 200—Covered with genuine black cow-
hide leather. Each $20.00 F.O.B. New York.
When closed the aluminum
trays nest together over the large
compartment, which measures
137/g" x 6" x 4". The two left hand
trays measure 13%" x 2%" x iy s "
and the two right hand trays 13^g"
x 32/4" x iy 8 ". The partitions in
right hand trays are adjustable or
may be removed. Case is fitted
with a very secure lock and solid
brass, highly nickel-plated hard-
ware.
We have a separate Department to take care of special requirements
of tuners and repairers. Mail orders for action parts, repair materials,
also tuning and regulating tools are given special attention.
Hatnmacher, Schlemmer & Co.
Piano and Player Hardware, Felts and Tools
New York Since 1848
4th Ave- at 13th St.