Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A New flethod of Tuning Pianos.
———-
y
DESIGNED WITH THE OBJECT OF SAVING TIME
BETWEEN FACTORY* TUNINGS.
An important patent (No. 602,499.) w a s
granted John B. Dayfoot, of Cambridge,
Mass., on April 19, bearing especially on the
tuning of pianos.
In the manufacture of pianos, especially
those of high grade, the tuning is accom-
plished in two stages, the first being done in
the "strung frame" and the second after
the "action " and " c a s e " have been added
to the strung frame. In the first the tuner
turns the tuning-wrench with one hand,
while with the other he " snaps" the strings
to sound them, gradually bringing the
strings to the desired pitch and tuning them
to the scale, at the same time bringing the
three strings, which together make up the
volume of each note, into unison. The
strung frame is now laid aside for a consider-
able length of time, varying with circum-
stances from one to several weeks, until the
various influences of temperature, the
" s p r i n g " of the sounding-board, and the
yielding or relaxing of other parts, as well
as of the natural stretch of the strings them-
selves, throw the latter out of tune. The
stretching and soundi-ng of the strings is
again gone through, as before, and this is
repeated from time to time until the point is
reached for the beginning of the second
stage of tuning. To accomplish this latter,
the action is added to the strung frame and
the whole placed in the case of the piano.
The tuning is now effected by stretching the
strings by means of the tuning-pins, as be-
fore, but in lieu of the light snapping or
picking of the string with a wooden picker
in the tuner's fingers heavy blows are struck
upon the strings by the hammers of the
action in order to enable such strings to
withstand any pounding action which may
be imparted to them by a musician. This
second tuning is repeated from time to time,
with intervening lapses, until the piano is
considered fit to be delivered.
In a word, the tuning of a piano in a man-
ufactory consists in stretching the strings
and bringing them to the desired pitch and
allowing them afterward to gradually go
out of tune in the course of time by the or-
dinary strain brought to bear by the pro-
cess of bringing them to pitch.
Now the object of Mr. Dayfoot's invention
is to reduce to the lowest possible point the
extent of the " w a i t s " between the various
tunings of the strings, and this result is ac-
complished by a method which consists in
applying powerful pressure to the strings
(in addition to. the strain exerted by the
tuning-pins) and between the two sets of
bridges, preferably at the point of impact of
the hammers, this additional pressure hav-
ing the effect of accomplishing in a few
hours results which have heretofore neces-
sitated weeks of time to bring about. This
economy of time is effected not only by the
additional pressure upon the strings, but
by the fact that a large number of strings
may be acted upon simultaneously—for in-
stance, the whole of the bass in one divis-
ion and of each section or possibly the
whole of the treble in another division.
An approach toward accomplishing the
result sought by this invention has hereto-
fore been made by Mr. Dayfoot and others
by exerting a temporary rubbing action up-
on the strings by means of a padded tool in
the hands of a workman; but this has been
done upon only a very few strings at a time,
of the treble only, as the covering of the
bass-strings prevents its being applied to
them. This plan is crude and inefficient.
A mechanical device which, among others,
Mr. Dayfoot has employed in carrying his
method into practice consists of one or more
presser-bars carried by and made adjustable
upon a suitable cross-head or beam, by
means of which the presser bars are sus-
pended immediately above the various
strings of the bass and treble. Each pres-
ser-bar is raised and lowered with respect to
the piano-strings by means of adjusting-
screws which screw through the cross-head
and are swiveled at their lower ends in the
upper part of the bar. By means of the
presser-bars and screws any desired amount
of pressure may be exerted upon such a
number of strings as practice may deter-
mine to be best. At present three presser-
bars are employed, one each to the bass and
to the two divisions of the treble.
Sohmer & Co.'s Magnificent Factory Buildings, at Astoria, N. Y.
Since the opening of the new Sohmer
warerooms in the Sohmer Building, Fifth
avenue and Twenty-second street, the Soh-
mer firm and the Sohmer products have,
more than ever, secured unusual attention
from music lovers and all others who are
interested in the development and progress
of the piano industry.
Several illustrations of the new Sohmer
Building have appeared in The Review dur-
ing the past three months. These merely
show the home of the Sohmer piano in New
York city. A fitting companion picture is
that of the Sohmer factory as it is to-day,
with every advantage of location and every
modern facility for producing artistic and
accurate work of the highest class. A glance
at the illustration is sufficient to emphasize
its importance.
The output of the Sohmer factory, it is
needless to say, is steadily increasing. This
has been the case without intermission from
the start. The policy of the firm encourages
progression, and it is likely to continue.