Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-08-12

LIVER SINCE THE LAMENTED CARHART gave
to the world the first perfect melodeon,
that form of musical instrument has been
steadily gaining in popular favor. Twenty
thousand homes were rejoicing in its sweet
and touching melody before the initial pat
ent was five years old; and, so great did
the demand become that other manufac-
tories sprang up TO vie with the originating
firm, well known as Carhart 81 Needbam.
now L. 2, Needham & Son, of the CITY of
New York. Many of these rival makers
i have ceased to manufacture the melodeon
in its original form, but the pioneer house
referred to is still shipping to various parts
of the world thousands of the scroil-lep
and piano-case instruments, with the man
ufacture of which their immense business
started in 1916; and the constant demand
for these cheap and yet dear little home
companions has not suffered them to relax
their efforts to make them more and more
worthy of their popularity.
Extensive, however, as their melodeon
trade still continues to be, it forms but
fractional proportion OF the business of the
great New York firm; and il is only a por-
ton of the credit due their efforts TO saw
that they established the reed instrument
trade in this country; for they have been.
also, the most energetic and successful ex-
perinentors for its improvement and de-
yelopment to Its present prevailing type
the ''Organ. The firm in question was of
a composition that could not fail to pro-
duce remarkable results. Where Carhart
left the melodeon, Needham took il nm
and transformed it from tho beautiful lit
tie songster that might grace the cottage
parlor or the city boudoir, to the mag
nifcent reed organ whose rich and
mellow tones peal thro' the aisles of
many church and fill with their majestic
melody the gilded halls of our metropoli.
tan palaces; and now when we come to
consider the vast number of church, school
and parlor organs that are constantly issu-
ing from the extensive works of 4. p. Need
ham x Son, the difference is SO great as to
throw the melodeon figures. large. as in
deed, they are, entirely into the shade.
Their extraordinary success is a natural re-
suit of the'possession of certain original
advantages as well as q constant care to
improve those advantages and secure all
others that enterprise, hard thinking and
experiment could compass. Starting with
all OF Carhart's patents, and with the full
and exclusive benefit of his fertile ingenu-
lty when in its prime, their improve
ments were not even limited to his
experiments and successes. They held and
used at an early day, the Pneumatic STOP"
an automatic device for securing the whole
weight of the atmosphere as q means of
closing the registers. Experienced in the
manufacture of reeds the inventors, in
fact Of the reed in its present form-they
were the first the bass down to thirty-two
feet Z. But their greatest step in advance
was taken In 1853, when Mr.. Z. T. Need
ham, perfected and patented peculiar
construction of the action, which enables
them to combine any desired number sets
of vibrators and yet retain light key
touch. The mechanism is simple, COM
pact and economical, yet capable of
indefinite extension, and has been applied
to organs with eighteen sets of reeds This
house also introduced the Combination
SWELL and 'Grand organ Foot-stop,"
which can be operated with the feet while
engaged In supplying the bellows, giving
an immense graduating powerto the instru-
ment, while they are far more manageable
and convenient than the old knee swell and
stops. Mr.. Needham has lately supple
mented TO the Pneumatic STOP" an ar
rangement which he holds under the name
Of ''stop-keeper," anu which renders the
stop forever Interchangeable by the influence
of atmospheric variations.
Messrs. q. =. Needham & Son have
an almost exclusive control over the trade
in the matter of large instruments. since
they alone have facilities for constructing
them with durable certainty IF action and
at reasonable prices They are never with
out contracts to build for churches or pri-
vate individuals, extensive and ornate
styles of the reed organ. But; of course. in
respect of numbers of sales the smaller
kinds, coming at low figures, are vastly in
excess; and it is probably upon this claes
M IN a RIM lratc hot fIo
firm depends. Their parlor and church
organs are scattered all oven the west, and
everywhere carry reputation for
sweetness of tone and durability
that is as laudatory of
their makers skill as their beautiful finish
and proportions are hattering to their
taste. Their most prominent agents in
the west are Messrs. Bauer & Co., of Chi
cago; Mr.. G. NJ. March, of Cincinnati; Mr..
l.. Kussner, of Terre Haute, and Mr. T.
p. Anderson, of Ft. Wayne. We have
just had under examination a handsome
pamphlet issued under the name of ssThe
Silver Tongue" which, among other in
teresting ard readable musical matter, con-
tains an illustrated description of Messrs
E. p. n. Il Sons instruments. 1t is pre-
pared under their own supervision, and is
: sent free, we understand, 20 any one MAX
ing application.
We can not more fittingly close this ar
ticle than by the following notice of "a
new achievement in the world of Music"
which We clip from the New York Daily
Tribune:
The enviable reputation which Messrs.
T.. Z. Needham Son of this city have
long enjoyed as the pioneers (under the
style of Carhart 4 Needham) and most reli-
able producers of reed musical instruments
seems about to culminate in the grandest
and most comprehensive combination OF
improvements that has ever fallen to the
lot of a single business firm to
, introduce to music loving public
They have ever recognized the fact that
the reed-so rich and mellow in its gentler
breathings can never rival in power and
roundness of tono the pipes of the ordin-
airy church organ; and indeed the problem
of the harmonious combination of pipes
with reeds has been the ultima hale of all
! lovers OF the separate beauties of these
hitherto distinct styles of musical instru-
ments. The problem has been trium-
: phantly solved by the persevering
study OF Mr.. Needham, and the first
and onsy successful combined pipe in
; reed organ now stands, mid the thousand
''silyer tongues" that speak his fame, in
, the warerooms of the firm in Twenty
third street-a combination capable of
softer and sweeter range of expression
than any exclusively pipe instrument
grander and more powerful than any
mere reed organ-more various and
! yet more evenly balanced than
| either alone. It is well worthy the
visits of any OF our citizens who may be in
terested in the progress of musical science,
or blessed with love of the noble melody
which that science has enabled man to
produce"
No. 2S.