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ON THE MANUFACTURE OF STRINGS FOR MUSICAL INSTRU- 

 MENTS, AND OTHER USES OF GUT AND SINEW. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



A manufacture of which comparatively little is known, is the prepara- 

 tion of the substance usually termed catgut, though for the most part made 

 from the dried, twisted, peritoneal coverings of the intestines of sheep. 

 Catgut-cord is used for a variety of purposes where strength and tension 

 are required, as for the strings of musical instruments, for suspending 

 clock-weights, bow-strings, for hatter's use, and for archers bows. 



The manufacture of musical strings requires a great amount of care 

 and skill, both in the choice of materials and in the manufacturing pro- 

 cesses, in order to obtain strings combining the two qualities of resistance 

 to a given tension and sonority. Until the beginning of the last century, 

 Italy had the entire monopoly of this trade, and they were imported under 

 the names of harplings, catlings, lute-strings, &c. ; but the trade is now 

 carried out with more or less success in every part of Europe. However, 

 in the opinion of musicians, Naples still maintains' the reputation of 

 making the best small violin strings, because the Italian sheep, from their 

 leanness, afford the most suitable material ; it being a well-ascertained fact, 

 that the membranes of lean animals are much tougher than those of high 

 condition. The smallest violin strings are formed by the union of three 

 guts of a lamb (not over one year old), spun together. 



The chief difficulty in this manufacture is, in finding guts having the 

 qualities before mentioned — namely, to resist tension, and giving also good 

 vibrating sounds. It is far more easy to arrive at the proper point in the 

 making of harp, double-bass, and other musical strings, and the manufac- 

 turer is not so much circumscribed in the choice of the proper material. 

 The tension upon the smallest string of the violin, which is made of only 

 three guts, is nearly double that on the second string, formed by the 

 reunion of six guts of the same size. 



In the preparation, the sheep's guts, well washed and scoured, are 

 steeped in a weak solution of carbonate of potash, and then scraped by 

 means of a reed cut into the shape of a knife. This operation is repeated 

 twice a day, and during three or four days, the guts being every time put 

 into a fresh solution of carbonate of potash, prepared to the proper strength. 

 In order to have good musical strings it is indispensable to avoid putrid 

 fermentation ; and as soon as the guts rise to the surface of the water, and 

 bubbles of gas begin to be evolved from them, they are immediately spun. 



In spinning, the guts are chosen according to their size ; combined with 

 three or more, according to the volume of the string required, they are 

 fastened upon a frame, and then alternately put in connection with the 

 spinning-wheel, and submitted to the required torsion. This operation 

 performed, the strings, left upon the frame, are exposed for some hours to 



