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TECIMCAL^SIIPPLY DEPARTMENT
William Br a\dWlute,recAfifcal Editor
What Was Accomplished at the Meeting
of the National Technicians in Chicago
Papers Presented to the Third Annual Meeting of This Association Valuable Contri-
bution to a Number of Important Problems in the Industry
AM sure that all readers of this department
will be interested in some comments from
me upon the technical side of the annual
meeting of the National Piano Technicians As-
sociation, which took place last week during the
conventions of the trade associations at Chicago.
The papers presented were really quite im-
portant and their probable effect upon the future
of the industry was, I think, even more im-
portant.
It is certain that by now the technicians, that
is to say the factory men, the designers and the
builders of pianos and player-pianos, are in a
position more favorable vis-a-vis the industry
than any they have occupied before during the
whole of their history. It is as certain as any-
thing can be that the ancient tradition of
suspicion and secrecy is dead. There are still
factories into which indeed the stranger is not
welcomed; but these are negligible alike in num-
ber and in importance. The greatest factories
in our industry, those which have the most hon-
orable and the longest histories, welcome the
accredited visitor and show him freely what
they are doing.
All this simply means that the piano indus-
try has awakened from its coma and has begun
I
0
Remember Us
Our largo itock U very seldom
depleted, and your order, whether
Urge er •mall, will receive imme-
diate attention. In addition, you
get the Ttry hest of
Felts— Cloths— Hammers —
Punchings — Music Wire —
Tuning Pins—Player P a r t s -
Hinges, etc.
We hare in stock a full line of
materials (or Pianos and Organs.
The American Piano Supply Co.,
to face the not too pleasant facts of its con-
temporary position. It realizes, that is to say,
that the future of the American piano is at stake,
and that among a crowd of competing, fighting
and highly organized new industries, it must
fight, too, and fight for its life. Recognition of
this fact was the keynote of the whole conven-
tion.
In the Picture
Into this new picture the Technicians Associa-
tion easily and naturally fits. Among the points
which have been brought out forcibly during
this convention has been the point that the
future of the American piano depends quite as
much upon better design and construction as
upon better merchandising, and that in conse-
quence the technicians, the men who have to do
the designing and the construction, no longer
may be dismissed as almost negligible items in
the organism called the factory. The technician,
in fact, becomes now a person of immediate im-
portance, and his doings matters worthy of pub-
licity.
Lacquer
The outstanding feature of the technicians'
convention was undoubtedly the paper on
lacquer and its problems by Mr. S. M. Silver-
stein, of Boston. This gentleman is an eminent
industrial chemist, who has given a great deal
of attention, during the last two or three years,
to the study of lacquer as a possible substitute
for varnish, and has seen this synthetic product
of nitro-cellulose drive varnish out of the auto-
mobile industry and make a bid for supremacy
in the wood-working trades. It is true indeed
that the wood-working industries have not
shown for lacquer the same enthusiasm that the
automobile people have displayed, and a good
deal of the value of the paper read by Mr. Sil-
verstein lay in his exposure of the causes as he
saw them, for this somewhat skeptical attitude.
Mr. Silverstein's paper is being abstracted in
The Review and in this place it is only neces-
sary to say that the discussion which followed
it at the meeting dealt mainly with the practical
difficulties which have been found.,; by piano
manufacturers in using this new finish. Mr.
Silverstein is of the candid opinion that the
wood industries, including our own, have been
misled by enthusiastic salesmen into believing
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George W. Braunsdorfi. Inc.
Direct Manufacturers of
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that with the advent of lacquer all their finish-
ing troubles would instanter vanish. It was
the natural disappointment following undue en-
thusiasm which has led some piano manufac-
turers to the belief that lacquer is not suited to
pianos.
C. D. Bond, of the Weaver Piano Co., doubted
that the sort of finish given by lacquer would
suit the wants of a public which has become
used to the traditional piano finish; but Mr.
Silverstein remained of the opinion that if only
piano manufacturers would study the pre-
liminary requirements as to condition of wood,
proper stains and fillers, and proper methods of
applying the lacquer (which he believes should
always be sprayed), they would soon believe
that nothing else is half so good.
The virtues of lacquer are immediate drying,
hard tough finish which will not check and great
resisting power against changes of temperature
and moisture content. In all these points, of
course, it is vastly superior to varnish. Its appli-
cation to the piano industry, however, undoubt-
edly must be gradual as there is much to be
studied and worked out before the process can
become general.
President Gutsohn performed a public service
in accepting a resolution to appoint a committee
of experts to study the lacquer situation as a
whole in its relation to the piano industry and
submit an authoritative report.
Grand Regulating
Another very interesting paper was read by
E. S. Werolin, who is very well known as the
chief of the service department of the American
Piano Co., in New York, on grand action regu-
lating practice. This paper will be published in
full in the transactions of the Association and
at this time it is only necessary to say-that Mr.
Werolin's purpose in writing his valuable paper
appears to have been to give the mean results
of a survey which he has made of current regu-
lating practice. His examination of methods
and practices current in various leading fac-
tories revealed certain varieties which in his
paper he endeavored to reconcile, showing that
mean measurements could be obtained on al!
items of the work of adjustment. It is evident
from the facts disclosed by Mr. Werolin that
the practice of grand action regulation will profit
(Continued on page 30)
William Braid White
Associate, American Society of Mechanical
Engineers; Chairman, Wood Industries
Division, A. S. M. E.; Member, American
Physical Society; Member, National Piano
Technicians' Association.
Consulting Engineer to
the Piano Industry
Tonally and Mechanically Correct Scalot
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ftoforoaew
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209 South State Street, CHICAGO
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Srnd for Catalog M
Y. M. C. A. Piano Technicians School
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Wood.ide, L. I., N. Y.
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