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35
The Music Trade Review
NOVEMBER 5, 1927
The Technical and Supply Department — (Continued from page 33)
I quite agree with you as to the absurdity of bit more complicated. 1 should think that if the Better Utilization Will
trying to reconcile an antiquated system of damper action were studied the facts would dis-
notation, with its multitude of various dis- close themselves. The extreme bass damper
Solve Reforestation Problem
crepancies, to a layout at once simple and equal
in all tonalities. 1 believe, however, in know-
ing the theory of just intonation as well as the
temperament.
"Several years ago i made up a diagram-
matic chart showing the pure diatonic and
equal tempered scales in comparison. I con-
sidered it qute novel for getting the theory of
tone relations across. I am sorry that I do not
have it on hand now, but shall sketch another
shortly and mail it to you for comment.—Carl
B. Klock, Hagerstown, Md."
Comment
Comparative charts are not perhaps so un-
common as Mr. Klock thinks. He will find
one, for instance, in Zahm's Sound and Music.
K. M. Payson, of Berkeley, Cal., has made sev-
eral of the most elaborate kind, and so I think
has Mr. Hart, Sr., of New Brunswick, N. J.
Certainly it is well to understand the theory
of just intonation, but there is no use whatever
in dragging it into practical music. The har-
mony books and harmony teachers go on in ap-
parent and blissful ignorance that their notation
and their distinctions alike are really meaning-
less in a world of music governed by equal tem-
perament, which quietly abolishes the very
points of distinction on which they insist. It is
simply idiotic to teach composition according
to rules which refer to relations which have
been wiped out, and I am inclined to think that
a good deal of the present deplorable condition
of creative musical art in this and other coun-
tries may be traced to the bewilderment which
is the natural result of trying to think in terms
which no longer possess an assignable meaning.
If musicians would simply recognize the ex-
istence of equal temperament and adopt a sane
notation based upon the equal division of the
octave, we could get somewhere. Once and for
all, let it be said that the only intervals now
significant in the actual construction of the
existing musical scale are the semitones. And
the only grouping of scales is into octaves, each
scale within each octave consisting of twelve
equi-distant semitones. I am grateful to Mr.
Klock for his accurate observations.
Dampers
F. W. Cooper, of Philadelphia, wrote some
weeks ago about a piano action which is giving
him trouble. He says that when he presses
down the damper pedal, ten of the dampers do
not rise, but that they do rise when their keys
are depressed. These dampers are all in the
extreme bass. He wants to know what is
wrong.
Mr. Cooper does not say whether this is an
upright or a grand piano. If it is an upright,
then I should think that the damper lifting rod
under the damper levers is warped out of place,
so that when it is rotated by the damper pedal,
the extreme bass end does not act upon the ex-
treme bass dampers. At any rate there must
be some perfectly simple explanation like that.
If it is a grand piano, the thing might be a
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levers might for instance be iitted with capstan
screws to connect with the lifting rail, and
these might be screwed down so far as to pro-
duce extreme lost motion. The thing ought to
yield to investigation.
It sounds, as a matter of fact, much more
like a case of upright than of grand. Upright
damper rods are made of heavy wire and some-
times do get twisted out of shape. The remedy
is to take them out and bend them back into
shape.
Correspondence
is solicited and should be addressed to William
Braid White, 5149 Agatite avenue, Chicago, on
all subjects of technical interest.
Member of Partnership
Limited in Tax Deductions
WASHINGTON, D. C, October 31.—A member of
a partnership may not take as a deduction in
his individual income tax return a proportionate
share of a bad debt due to the partnership, it
has been held by the United States Board of
Tax Appeals.
In its decision the board points out that the
partnership itself is- required to file a return,
although it pays no tax, and deductions for
bad debts should be taken in that return, such
deductions being reflected in the returns of the
individual partners by the reduced proportionate
share of net income received by them.
Piano Patents
Tone Control Operable Successively in a Pre-
determined Manner. John Hays Hammond, Jr.,
Gloucester, Mass. Patent No. 1,645,048. A tone
modulating system for a pianoforte, comprising
a tone modulating pedal, means effective for
suppressing the musical sound emitted from the
pianoforte, a pianissimo action for controlling
the initial volume of musical sound produced by
the strings of the pianoforte, and means opera-
lively interconnecting the pedal, the sound sup-
pressing means and the pianissimo action ar-
ranged so that actuation of the pedal first op-
erates the sound suppressing means and there-
after the pianissimo action.
Axel H. Oxholm, Director Committee on Wood
Utilization of Department of Commerce, Out-
lines the Way
WASHINGTON, D. C, October 31.—Axel H. Ox-
holm, director of the National Committee on
Wood Utilization of the Department of Com-
merce, has recently made public a paper on "Re-
forestation Based on Utilization." His work is
in part as follows: "Millions of people in this
country believe that legislation must be de-
pended upon for the restocking of our forest
lands, but they overlook the important fact
that artificial measures of this kind will never
alone accomplish the desired results. Refor-
estation must stand upon its own legs; or, in
other words, we must make it commercially
feasible.
"One of the most important questions han-
dled by the Committee is that of the utilization
of so-called short lengths, i. e., lumber in
lengths of less than eight feet.
"Under normal conditions about 25 per cent
of the saw log produces short lengths, partly as
a result of the tapered form of the log and
partly due to the necessity of eliminating seri-
ous defects, such as knots. Unfortunately the
public is still adhering to consumer habits,
which started during the time of the early
settlers when lumber was more plentiful than
it is to-day, and insists on specifying long
lengths.
"A number of wood-using industries, the box
and crate industry, the furniture industry and
others, which seldom use lumber in excess of
eight feet, will only buy a negligible quantity
of short lengths, preferring to pay an additional
price for long lengths to be cut into short
lengths at the consuming point. As a result of
these conditions a very large percentage of the
short lengths produced are actually burnt at the
sawmills."
Honduras Mahogany Exports
WASHINGTON, October 31.—Mahogany exports
from British Honduras to the United States
during 1927 will in all probability exceed
previous records, according to a statement from
the Department of Commerce. Production has
gone beyond trade expectation, in view of im-
proved prices, favorable weather and the preva-
lent use of tractors in logging activities. Ship-
ments of logs invoiced at Belize totaled 10,-
168,751 feet valued at $1,110,264 in 1925, and
14,052,634 feet in 1926. The 1927 shipments to
AKRON, O., October 29.—William Kirk, fifty-
eight, well known to the music trade, and for the United States up to September 5 totaled
more than forty years identified with the M. 11,131,021 feet valued at $1,355,073, and it is
O'Neill Co. department store here, died sud- estimated that the total for the present year
denly at his home this week. Deceased had will exceed 17,000,000 feet.
for more than twenty years been assistant su-
perintendent of the O'Neill store and had under
his supervision the talking machine, piano,
radio and record departments of the big store.
ATLANTIC CITY, October 29.—An active year in
Funeral services were held in Akron and burial 1928 for the paint, oil and varnish industries was
was made here. No successor has as yet been prophesied by E. T. Trigg, former president of
named.
the National Paint, Oil & Varnish Association,
in an address before the American Paint &
Varnish Manufacturers Association and the for-
mer body in annual convention here this week
at
the Ambassador Hotel. He discounted the
WASHINGTON, D. C, November 1.—The subject
fact
that the presidential year would have any
of imports of tuning pins and zither pins from
effect
on the nation's business. Some inter-
Germany by Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co.,
New York, was taken up recently in an appeal esting facts concerning the China wond oil
case argued here before the United States Court situation were brought out by Dr. H. A. Gard-
of Customs Appeals. The Government appealed ner, of Washington, research chemist.
from the decision of the United States Customs
Court, which was in favor of the importers,
and asked reappraisement of the imports on the
ground that it was not clear whether the ap-
Kienle & Sons Music Co., McMinnville, Ore.,
praised value of the pins was based on foreign
has opened a branch store in Tillamook, with
value or export value.
Milton Kielne as manager.
Death of William Kirk
Varnish Industry Good
Impprted Tuning Pins
Opens Store