OF OHIO 81 



MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 



Pianos and organs are the only products reported under this 

 heading 1 , but the industry is an important one in Ohio and the 

 aggregate quantity of wood used is quite large. A large majority 

 of the manufacturers make only certain parts and purchase a por- 

 tion of their material already to put in place from factories special- 

 ing in these lines. Only a few makers today manufacture the piano 

 or organ complete. Spruce is the essential wood for piano sounding 

 boards. It must be carefully seasoned and manufactured, and since 

 they are made from wide stock, trees that are suitable are sought 

 after over great distances, until now many are shipped from the 

 northern Pacific Coast states and British Columbia, where Sitka 

 spruce meets the demand. Trees obtained from high -altitudes, 

 where the rate of growth is slow and the annual rings closer together, 

 are preferred for sounding boards and ribs, and bring higher prices. 



Chestnut is the first wood on the list for piano shells or cases, to 

 which is glued an overlay of veneer of some expensive cabinet wood 

 which gives the finish. The light weight, combined with strength, 

 durability and gluing properties put chestnut ahead of any wood for 

 this purpose. White ash being stronger and less liable to warp 

 than chestnut probably accounts for the tops of grand pianos being 

 made from it. Sugar and silver maple, elm, ash and sycamore, are 

 the woods going into posts and back casing. Owing to its hardness 

 and strength, sugar maple also finds service for wrists, pin blocks, 

 action parts and other mechanical pieces in the piano. It is almost 

 an exception when other woods than this are used for action parts. 

 Piano legs are of a variety of woods, red oak probably being the 

 foremost, because of its great strength and being porous it holds 

 veneer well. It is interesting to note that neither ebony nor white 

 pine, the principal key woods, were reported, which indicates that 

 piano keys are manufactured elsewhere and shipped to the Ohio 

 manufacturers. Basswood to a limited extent was used in other 

 states for piano keys but in Ohio with sugar maple and black walnut 

 it serves for organ keys. 



Action chests in organs are of a strong wood, usually red oak or 

 some other species of oak, white pine, sugar pine, redwood and 

 cherry all answer for organ pipes, while for organ bellows, wind- 

 chests and swell boxes white pine, basswood, Sitka spruce, and red 

 spruce were the ones reported. These woods are employed owing 

 to their being fairly strong, light in weight, free from pitch, and 

 holding their shape well. Redwood has begun to be used by the 

 eastern manufacturers for parts of organ framework, and being a 

 suitable wood and in high favor with the manufacturers for that 

 purpose, will probably be used more extensively in the future. 



