Instrument maker

“ It is now safe to predict that the future instrument maker will be able to produce any sound now known in nature or in art that may possibly have musical significance. We already have at hand the means by which any such sound can be adequately defined, described, specified, measured, analyzed, and reconstructed. And there is reason to think that with the conquest of new and marvelous resources for musical media, musical composition will move with strides in step with instrument building. ”

“ It is possible to see in public collections, for instance, a Davis quadrant of English manufacture exhibited beside a later example, signed by a New England maker, which comes extraordinarily close to duplicating it in every feature.
As with the presumed influence of published works, the practice of copying imported instruments cannot be documented, but it must have been engaged in by many of the unschooled New England instrument makers. By this means some may even have profited to the degree that they became professional craftsmen without benefit of formal apprenticeship. ”

“ From all past experience, there can be no doubt that whatever pains or trouble a maker may take to bring his instruments, while new, to bear the character of old, his labour is quite useless. There is no instance of an instrument becoming famous for its fine tone till it had attained a good old age. ”

“ It is in fact a spinet, set upright. The internal decoration, as old as the instrument itself, may be North Italian or South German, authorities differ, but a piece of paper pasted over a split in the inside of the wooden back, possibly by the maker, proves to be a fragment of a lease or agreement contracted at Ulm, which is in favour of the Swabian origin. The instrument can hardly be of later date than the first years of the sixteenth century, and is probably the oldest spinet or key-board stringed instrument existing. ”

“ This theory is supported amply by the discovery that several of the instrument makers who worked in brass also made instruments of wood during the same periods. In addition to the evidence in the records of Daniel Burnap, there are the surviving surveying instruments in brass and wood made by Samuel Thaxter, Thomas Greenough, and John Dupee, leaving little if any doubt that the reason for producing surveying compasses and similar items of wood during the 18th century was to satisfy the need for reasonably accurate yet inexpensive instruments. ”

“ Comparatively speaking, the greater proportion of the early American instrument makers were native born. Among these were to be found a substantial number of artisans trained as clockmakers who subsequently produced scientific instruments to meet the surveying and nautical needs of their communities. [Pg 34] Together with the other craftsmen throughout the colonies who established and advertised themselves specifically as instrument makers, they produced a large number of the mathematical instruments used in the American Colonies in the 18th century. ”

“ Records derived from historical archives and from the instruments themselves reveal that a considerable number of the instruments available and used in the Colonies before 1800 were of native production. Apparently, relatively few instrument makers immigrated to the American continent before the end of the [Pg 4] Revolutionary War. Later, with the beginning of the 19th century, makers of and dealers in instruments in England and France became aware of the growing new market, and emigrated in numbers to establish shops in the major cities of commerce in the United States. ”

“ The identity of the maker is unknown, but it may have been the product of Hagger, who made a similar instrument, illustrated here, or it may have been produced by any one of the other makers noted. The type of instrument is an old one. It is described in John Love's Geodaesia, Or the Art of Surveying and Measuring Land, published in London in 1688. Abel Flint [78] also commented on this semicircle as being sometime used, as well as the plane table and perambulator—
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“ The necessary mechanical noises which accompany the production of tone in a piano may be largely eliminated if that should prove desirable. The acoustical engineer can now point out dozens of features in the piano which might be improved in future construction based upon analysis of the output in sound. In the same manner the organ, the king of instruments, if it is to maintain its pre-eminence in competition with substitutes, demands improvements in the light of new facilities. The more complicated the instrument, the more possibilities there are for improvement. ”

“ In the Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures, Yale University.
The most interesting of the three instruments was acquired by the Dartmouth Museum as part of a collection of the late Frank C. Churchill, an inspector in the Indian Service. The instrument (fig. 69) is a quarter circle with a compass in its center and sighting bars mounted on a swinging arm that reads the angle of the brass scale on the arc by means of a vernier. It is mounted on a wooden tripod with the customary ball-and-socket joint, which permits it to be placed on a vertical plane. ”

“ In construction and final completion they cost the inventor and maker three years of constant thought and labor. The result is truly marvellous. The perfection of harmony and purity of tone are convincing testimonials of their excellence. In operation these instruments are placed in a very large double tube made from a peculiar kind of metallic alloy recently discovered, which affords the most perfect conditions for the conservation and conductivity of all musical vibrations. They are capable of producing an almost endless variety of choice music. ”

“ In 1816 the same Edward Light took out a patent for an improvement in this instrument, which he now denominated 'the British harp-lute.' The patent was for the application of certain pieces of mechanism called 'ditals' or 'thumb-keys,' in distinction from 'pedals' or 'foot-keys'; each dital producing by pressure the depression of a stop-ring or eye to draw the string down upon a fret and thus shorten its effective length, and render the pitch more acute. ”

“ That is to say, the vibrating materials—wood, metal, parchment, and the combination of wood and strings—have peculiar properties, and the instruments formed of such materials must necessarily from the very first belong to different groups, each subdivision of the groups being dependent on some characteristic difference in methods of impressing the vibrations, or in the materials. Although all musical instruments have a common property and a common purpose, we do not regard them as transformations of one primitive instrument; their kindred nature is a subjective conception ”

“ Modern skill has not added one new means, but has simply improved the contrivances by which musical sound is produced. We can, however, trace the evolution and growth of the various instruments with considerable accuracy, and to this end it is of the utmost importance to have a clear understanding of the principles upon which musical instruments are constructed, in order to avoid bewilderment among the endless variety that have been and are yet made. All instruments may be divided into three general classes: Percussion Instruments, Wind Instruments, Stringed Instruments. ”

“ When not playing, or composing, or teaching, he would often be found hard at work engraving his compositions on copper, or engaged in manufacturing some kind of musical instrument—at least two instruments are known to have been of his own inventing. ”

“ Acoustical research was his real interest, and to that he devoted all the time and money he could spare from his business. An exhibit which he sent to the London Exhibition of 1862 gained a gold medal, and at the Philadelphia Exposition at 1876 great admiration was expressed for a tonometric apparatus of his manufacture. This consisted of about 670 tuning-forks, of as many different pitches, extending over four octaves, and it afforded a perfect means for testing, by enumeration of the beats, the number of vibrations producing any given note and for accurately tuning any musical instrument. ”

“ It has been the aim of the writer to build a very simple instrument for amateur work which would be adjustable to any latitude, so easily set up ready for work and so portable that it need not be left out of doors from one evening until the next.
The instrument is mounted on a tripod or piece of iron pipe carrying a short vertical rod of 3/8-in. steel. A rectangular wooden frame with suitable bearings rotates about this shaft. The frame has also two horizontal bearings carrying a short shaft to the end of which the frame carrying the hour axis is firmly clamped. ”

“ That no improvement has been made during the last two centuries in instruments of the violin class is a well-known fact. As to lutes and cithers the collection at South Kensington contains specimens so rich and mellow in tone as to cause musicians to regret that these instruments have entirely fallen into oblivion.
As regards beauty of appearance our earlier instruments were certainly superior to the modern. Indeed, we have now scarcely a musical instrument which can be called beautiful. ”

“ Speaking on the subject of repairing old instruments, he says, "There is no violin maker now, who does not put, whether in the instruments he has to repair, or in those which he makes, a much stronger bar than those which were employed by the great makers themselves. ”

“ Some specimens (of which we give engravings) are singularly grotesque in shape, representing caricatures of the human face and figure, birds, beasts, and flowers. Some were provided at the top with a finger-hole which, when closed, altered the pitch of the sound, so that two different tones were producible on the instrument. Others had a little ball of baked clay lying loose inside the air-chamber. When the instrument was blown the current of air set the ball in a vibrating motion, thereby causing a shrill and whirring sound. ”

“ Raised to the strings in playing, these tangents set the strings in vibration, and at the same time form bridges to measure off the lengths required for the notes. The red cloth, woven in the strings behind the tangents, damps the sound. As far as we have met with the clavichords, the instrument has had two, sometimes three strings of brass wire to each note tuned in unison; the treble being, however, occasionally of steel wire to cause a brighter sound. There were sometimes octave strings to the lowest bass octave, after the manner of some theorboes, to make those notes distinct. ”

“ The instruments used are chiefly of the percussion type and are powerful sound producers. Amongst them are drums, cymbals, tom-toms, gongs and bamboo dulcimers. Stringed instruments are represented by a few squeaky one-stringed fiddles and an instrument that resembles a zither. A terrible wind instrument is sometimes employed when it is desirable to produce a sound that can be calculated to rival that of the bagpipes when played by a zealous but unmusical amateur. ”

“ It had, as this name indicates, ten strings, which were of wire, to be tuned in five pairs of unisons, and played with a plectrum.
The carving is surpassingly lovely, and bears comparison with contemporary Italian work. The jewelled centre of the rose in the sound-hole is so beautiful that an enlarged drawing of it has been made to show it to advantage. The shell at the back is a characteristic feature deserving attention.
The extreme length of this instrument is 2 feet 11 inches. The length of the body is 1 foot 4 inches. ”

“ Many volumes have been written concerning the varying excellence of instruments of the string family, but it does not seem to have been recognized that both woodwind and brass instruments vary greatly in quality of tone, accuracy of intonation, ease of blowing, and perfection of mechanism—all of which depend upon the skill of the makers. ”

“ A guitar having straight lines, giving it an old-fashioned appearance, can be made by the home mechanic, and if care is taken in selecting the material, and having it thoroughly seasoned, the finished instrument will have a fine tone. ”

“ The touch and action of the instrument are faultless; the firmness, the lightness, and the elasticity of the touch have won the praise of every pianist who has used it. A marked feature in the instrument to which we are alluding is its durability of tone, a result which, as we have already shown, is due to its careful and methodical construction. In every respect, it embodies within itself the conditions of the finest and most reliable of instruments. ”

“ The carillon in the ‘Parochial-Kirche’ at Berlin, which is one of the finest in Germany, contains thirty-seven bells; and is provided with a key-board for the hands and with a pedal, which together place at the disposal of the performer a compass of rather more than three octaves. The keys of the manual are metal rods somewhat above a foot in length; and are pressed down with the palms of the hand. The keys of the pedal are of wood; the instrument requires not only great dexterity but also a considerable physical power. ”

“ The rollers are made of light wood and the bearings and pins which are made of metal, WILL NEVER WEAR OUT. This instrument is the Perfection of Musical ingenuity and PLAYS MARCHES, WALTZES, POLKAS, JIGS, Reels, Sacred music, selections from Operas, Popular Songs, etc., and is peculiarly arranged for playing DANCE MUSIC in perfect time. If you have purchased any other style of an Automatic Musical Instrument and have found it a disappointment and a nuisance YOU SHOULD SEND FOR ONE of the above described instruments. ”