MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 



495 



branches of piano-making as action and key making, and the 

 casting of plates — apart from liammer making and covering, case- 

 making, string and felt making — have helped the general develop- 

 ment of the piano to a large extent. Action-making is the largest 

 of all these branches. Formerly a skilled workman was expected 

 to be competent in action-making and half a dozen other branches 

 now separated. While the present system tends to prevent the 

 coming to the surface of such skilled piano-makers as those who 

 built up the principal houses now in existence, and otherwise 

 confines the energies and intellect of clever young men in a nar- 

 row channel, yet the existing order of things is on the whole 

 beneficent and better than the old. 



The first action-making establishment in New York, and proba- 

 bly in the country, was opened by Andrew Brunet, an Alsatian, 

 in 1841, in Clark Street. His place was very small and unpre- 

 tentious. He was successful, for small manufacturers saw at a 

 glance the advantages of being able to procure their actions from 

 a specialist. Other establishments sprang up in a short time. 

 While there are numerous small shops throughout New England 

 and in the West, New York is the center for the production of the 

 best class of actions ; but Chickering & Sons, Boston, Steinway & 

 Sons, Knabe & Co., Baltimore and New York, and a few other 

 firms, produce their own. The two leaders in this branch of the 

 business are Straucli Brothers and Wessell, Nickel & Gross, of 

 New York. Both firms are engaged in a healthy rivalry for the 

 first place in production and in quality of work, and many tech- 

 nical improvements have resulted from this condition of afi^airs. 

 They both produce actions involving the same principles, but 

 differing in minor details. Keys are also manufactured specially 

 in New York and outside for the trade. 



The j)roduction of plates for pianos comes next in importance 

 to action-making. The first foundrymen to become identified with 

 this specialty were the Shrivers, well known in that connection. 

 To-day Shriver & Co., of New York, and Davenport & Tracey, of 

 Stamford, Conn., control the largest proportion of the business. 



The wonderful growth and extent of piano manufacturing in 

 America is further illustrated in the business established and con- 

 ducted by Mr. Alfred Dolge, the well-known initiator of the Dolge 

 system of jjrofit-sharing for employes. In the regions of sounding- 

 boards, felts for hammer-heads and other purposes, and a host of 

 incidental articles, he stands alone. In Dolgeville, a large town 

 he has founded in the northern jDart of this State, he employs over 

 six hundred hands in his felt and sounding-board factories, and 

 has other establishments in Leipsic, Otterlake, and Port Leyden. 

 Over 35,000 boards were turned out from this factory during the 

 last year. For this purpose 2,800,000 feet of choice lumber were 



