22
PRESTO
LISTEN=IN TO "ECHO" ORGAN
Philadelphia Diners Last Week Heard Effects Sent
for First Time by Radio.
UJhere Supply
always meets
Hie Demand 7
Hardware, Felts, Cloths, Hammers, etc
for Pianos, Organs, Players, Talking
Machines, Special Stampings, Turn-
ings, etc., when you order from us.
The American Piano Supply Co., Inc.
No. 112 East 13th Street
NEW YORK CITY
SCHAFF
Piano String Co.
"Echo" organ effects, long dreamed of by radio
engineers, were produced last week for the first time
electrically at a demonstration in Philadelphia which
was given at the annual banquet of the Institute of
Political and Social Science. They followed a paper
by W. H. Martin of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company, and Dr. Harvey Fletcher of the
Western Electric Company, explaining the funda-
mental principles of high quality broadcasting and
reproduction and declaring that radio listeners more
and more were insisting on quality rather than on
long distance "stunts."
Through loud speakers in one end of the long ban-
quet room the diners heard the music of the main
organ at a local broadcasting station, while other
loud speakers at the other end projected the music of
the echo organ, installed at a distance from the main
organ, but picked up by the same microphone.
The banquet room was connected with the broad-
casting station by two wire circuits, the music from
the main organ being received over one system of
amplifiers and from the echo organ over another.
Beautiful antiphonal effects were produced.
Heretofore, those in charge of the demonstration
said, radio audiences had not been able fully to appre-
ciate the effect of the echo organ. With the new de-
vices, they declared, listeners to transmitted music
would hear the echo as distinctly as the main organ.
Most modern pipe organs are equipped with echo
attachments. In some cases there are two separate
instruments, one of which has pipes of small scale
and soft tones for distant effects. They are operated
by a single keyboard.
Manufacturers of
TELLS BANJO'S ORIGIN
Its Development from Simple Shape to Present
Scientific Form Told by Dr. R. E. Challis.
Piano Bass Strings
2009-2021 CLYBOURN AVENUE
Cor er Lewis Street
CHICAGO
PERFECT PUNCHINGS
AT
€.F.GOEPEL*Co.
OUAUTT (( [ y\
twine**
137 E A S T I3 T -? ST.
NE.WYORK
The varieties of banjo has induced Dr. R. Ellmore
Challis to tell about the first and simplest form ot
the instrument in an article in the Philadelphian Pub-
lic Ledger.
"The man who, sixty years ago," said Dr. Challis,
"conceived the idea of stretching calfskin over a rim
and attaching thereto a neck and strings, started
something, the end of which, in those days, was not
even dreamed of. Contrary to general opinion, the
banjo was the invention of a white man and not a
Negro. The name of the inventor was Joe Sweeney,
and his name figured in the naming of the instru-
ment, for which, at that time, he had devised no
especial name.
"According to the story which is generally accepted,
Joe Sweeney produced so much music from his inven-
tion that the neighbors declared he was a whole band
in himself, and nicknamed him 'Band-Joe.' The con-
traction to the present name of the instrument is
readily seen.
"Thus, the banjo was born in America, christened
here, and for a long time was played in this country
exclusively, although today it has become practically
a universal instrument. For a long while it was
pla)'ed for amusement only. Then it gradually en-
tered the minstrels, appeared on the vaudeville stage
and latterly on the concert platform. Within the last
few years it has been universally accepted by the
dance orchestras of the country, and recently two
national vaudeville circuits have adopted it for use in
their theater orchestras.
"Like all virile families, the banjo family grew, and
from the common ancestor devised by Joe Sweeney,
there are now five distinct varieties of the instrument.
These are the ordinal banjo, a long necked instru-
February 16, 1924.
ment; the tenor-banjo, a shorter necked instrument;
the mandolin banjo, still shorter; the guitar banjo and
the banjo ukulele.
"When I say that the banjo is now the most popu-
lar musical instrument in the United States, I am not
talking at random, for there are about 4,000,000 of
them in the United States today, and I very much
doubt if there is anything like that number of other
instruments.
"Modern science has aided in the tone and carrying
power of the instrument by the invention of various
devices, and the banjo in use today is as different from
the crude instrument of Joe Sweeney as was the old
harpsichord from the modern grand piano. Truly our
only American musical instrument has made gigantic
strides within the few decades which have elapsed
since its invention, and so numerous are the perform-
ers on it that a national organization, which includes
mandolin and guitar players, has been formed and
annual conventions are held to promote interest in the
fretted instruments."
WOOD'S AND MOISTURE
Experiments by Federal Laboratory Shows Coating
of Varnish Merely Retards Moisture.
According to experiments made by the Forest
Products Laboratory, Madison, Wis., varnishes do
not completely prevent the transmission of moisture
to wood. The covering of varnish merely retards
the absorption and one species of wood is affected
like the others.
The panels used in the experiments were of yellow
birch, basswood, red gum, African mahogany, white
ash, white pine, Sitka spruce, Southern-yellow pine,
bald cypress, incense cedar, white oak, Western yellow
pine, Port Oxford cedar and sugar pine.
Three coats of high-grade spar varnish were applied
to four panels of each species. Two panels of each
species were brush coated and two were dipped by a
special dipping machine designed to secure an even
coating. The panels were allowed to dry seventy-
two hours between coats and ten days after the final
coat before they were given the moisture resistance
test.
The moisture resistance test consisted in exposing
the panels for seventeen days to a humidity of 95-100
per cent, or in an atmosphere practically saturated
with moisture.
At the end of this test it was found that all the
brushed treated panels had absorbed between 5 and
6.5 grams of moisture per square foot of surface, and
the dipped panels between 4 and 5 grams.
Charles E. Cameron, Newark, N. J., recently was
granted a patent for a position rectifying device for
playerpiano rolls.
Paragon Foundries
Company
Manufacturers of
Paragon Piano Plates
Oregon, Illinois
HAMMACHER, SCHLEMMER & CO,
PIANO and PLAYER
HARDWARE, FELTS, TOOLS,
RUBBERIZED PLAYER FABRICS
New York, Since 1848
4th A W . 311(1 13th S i
PRACTICAL PIANO MOVING SUPPLIES
INCREASE SELLING POWER
One-Man Steel Cable Hoist; Two-in-One
Loaders, Trucks, Corers, etc.
G«t Our N*w Ctrc ulara and Pric*a
PIANO MOVERS SUPPLY COMPANY
LANCASTER, PA.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/