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The Manufacture of Drums 



Chicago is said to be the center of the drum manufacturiug busi- 

 ness of this country. It is eveni claimed that more than half of the 

 drums made in the United States are manufactured in Chicago. Dif- 

 ficulties are encountered when an attempt is made to compile figures 

 showing the extent of the drum business in this country, for statistics 

 collected by the census do not list small musical instruments sepa- 

 rately, and drums are classed among such instruments, and most of 

 them are moderate size; but the largest drums are by no means 

 diminutive. 



What is said to be the largest factory in the United States devoted 

 exclusively to the making of drums is located at 218 North Main 

 street, Chicago, and is known as the Wilson-Jacobs Drum Manufac- 

 turing Company. The establishment has 21,000 square feet of floor 

 space. 



Although the drum is one of the simjDlest of musical instruments, 

 and appears to tlie uninitiated as though there is little to it, yet its 

 manufacture by modern methods requires no small amount of special 

 machinery and demands skilled labor in several departments. Some 

 of the machines are for working in wood, others for metal working, 

 and though the cutting and manipulating of the skins of which heads 

 are made are done chiefly by hand, yet even that requires considerable 

 apparatus in a factory that consumes 10,000 skins a year. 



Witliout the skin there can be no drum, for that is one thing for 

 which no substitute has yet been found. In every part of the world, 

 among savages who make drums of gourds and hollow logs, as well 

 as among civilized men of all nations, the drumhead is of skin. It 

 appears to be the only material yet found that will produce the 

 proper vibration when struck. The drum belongs to the stringed 

 instrument class. The entu-e head acts as one broad string, and the 

 size of the instrument and the tautness of the niembrance determines 

 the tone produced when the drum is struck. 



Size and tautness are not the only factors in choosing a druuihead. 

 The qualit}' of the skin is of prime importance. The experienced 

 drum maker selects the skin as carefully as the maker of fine violins 

 selects the spruce whicli he uses. Ordinary leather will not answer. 

 In fact, no kind of leather will do. The skin intended for a drum- 

 head must not be touched by any sort of tanning material. It is 

 simply tlie raw hide with the hair scraped off. It is treated with 

 ilivers rubbings, scrapings, and manipulations to reduce it to uniform 

 thinness and texture, and then it is properly cured, and it becomes 

 the raw material which the drum maker takes in hand to give the 

 final finishing. What he does to it is part of his art. Every drum 

 manufacturer possesses a few secrets which he keeps to himself, and 

 most of these are in regard to the final finishing of the skins that go 

 i>n high-class drums. 



Calf skins are used more than any other for this purpose ; but some 

 drumheads are of sheep skin and a few of angora goat. They are 

 yellowish white when they reach the drum factory, but when they 

 have gone through the succeeding processes they are a translucent 

 white. Some are almost transparent and look like the finest parch- 

 ment. A drumhead must consist of a single skin. It is possible to 

 splice and patch them, but the process is not usually regarded as satis- 

 factory. An otherwise good skin may be rendered practically useless 

 by the presence of a small hole. 



Drum shells are either of wood or metal. If of metal they are usually 

 copper plated with nickel, or the plating may be of silver, or even 

 of gold if the purchaser is willing to pay the price. Manufacturers 

 of drums insist that the material of which the shell is made has noth- 

 ing whatever to do with the quality of sound emitted when the head 

 is struck. Experiments have been made to prove or disprove this 

 claim, and the conclusion has been that a wooden drum shell gives no 

 different sound from one of metal, and that as far as tone, pitch, 

 and quality are concerned, one wood is the same as another when 

 worked into drum shells. 



The selection of the material is wholly a matter of choice. If of 

 wood, the manufacturer uses whatever hia customers want. How- 



ever, the numljer of woods commonly used is not large. Almost any 

 wood that can be had in suflScient sizes may be occasionally employed ; 

 but i^ractically all drum shells are of one or another of the following : 

 Oak, maple, mahogany, rosewood, black walnut or holly. 



The making of wooden drum shells is not a very complicated pro- 

 cess, but it involves a nmnber of points. The visible part of the shell 

 is veneer. It is bent to the required form, and is steamed and passes 

 through the hot box — a finishing kiln — and comes out so firmly set in 

 its shape that it never warps or changes form. The veneer outer shell 

 is only part of the completed shell. It is lined with yellow poplar 

 veneer. The graitt of the outer veneer runs round the drum; but the 

 grain of the poplar veneer is up and down. The poplar is known as 

 cross-banding. 



It is noteworthy that the lining or cross-baudlng is always yellow 

 poplar — at least it is so reported, but doubtless other woods are occa- 

 sionally used. The reason assigned by the manufacturer for selecting 

 yellow poplar in preference to all other woods as drum lining is that 

 it is superior to aU others when strength, clear stock, lightness, dur- 

 ability, and ease in working are considered. That is exactly the testi- 

 mony given in favor of poplar by the manufacturers of fine carriage 

 and automobile bodies where curved panels are used. 



The oak, maple and holly shells are light-colored; the mahogany, 

 rosewood, and walnut are dark. The different woods are finished in 

 styles which harmonize best with color and figure. 



All wooden shells have hoops, which are necessary to give the requi- 

 site strength, and to provide fastenings for the heads. The hoops arc 

 nearly always of maple, which reaches the factory as planks two and 

 one-half inches thick. The hoops are cut out, dressed, polished and 

 coiled by machines in the drum factory. The Chicago factory, men- 

 tioned above, uses 3(5,000 feet, board measure, of two and one-half- 

 inch maple a year, and 100,000 square feet of veneers of various woods. 



The manufacturers of high-grade drums place their names in 

 every instrument sent out. Those who do not know the location of 

 the name would search a long time without finding it. A small hole, 

 usually about a quarter of an inch in diameter is bored through the 

 shell. The hole is usually finished with a nice metal eyelet. It might 

 be supposed that it is for ornamental purjioses, but the opening 

 through the shell is for business. If the drum is set in a good light, 

 and a person places his eye near the opening he will see the name 

 of the maker of the drum. It is located on the inside of the shell 

 du'ectly opposite the hole. It is a sort of trade secret, but all drum 

 dealers know liow to find the name of the maker. 



The hole in the shell answers another very important purpose. If 

 it were not there, the drumhead would be in danger of rupturing 

 when struck. The imprisoned air, if it had no other way to escape, 

 would force out the head opposite the one receiving the blows. The 

 hole through the shell prevents this. Air escapes and re-enters freely, 

 thus keeping the pressure within the drum approximately the same 

 as that outside. 



Drums are a somewhat difiieult commodity to place on the market. 

 They ai'e exceedingly bulky for their weight. A ton or two will fill 

 a freight car. Railroads charge four times first-class rates for trans- 

 porting them, and in long hauls this adds much to the retail pric«; 

 for, as in nearly every other instance, the consumer is the final pay- 

 master. The manufacturer usually sells to jobbers who buy in large 

 quantities, and then distribute to the trade in their respective ter- 

 ritories. Chicago furnishes drums to dealers in every state of the 

 Union. California, which is farthest away, is a large buyer. The 

 people on the Pacific coast seem to have a special liking for the 

 drum 's characteristic music. The explanation is that the drum is 

 peculiarly an out-of-doors instrument, and the mild winters of the 

 Pacific coast render the drum serviceable the year round. The people 

 of Texas are large buyers of drums, also. 



A complete change in the use of drums has occurred in this country 

 in the last century. Formerly the largest demand for drums came 

 from military companies. Every county had its militia. The citizen 



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