The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-12-11
THE NOISY osvM.
visit to n Town Where Thousands of These
Fearful INSTRUMENTS are Made.

he casual visitor would never sus-
pcct that the quiet rural village OF
Granville. Mass. sends out into the
world thousands OF no se-making in
struments, cheap, 1t Is true. but none
the less welcome to the averaro boy.
This place can practically be called the
center and heart OF the drum-nak,ng
business. il turned out 200,0 last
year. II was in 1854 that tho idea OF
engaging in the making business
first suggested itself TO Mr.. Cooley.
He had been to Pittsfiold, where rela-
tive OF his, Samuel Cooley, was making
q few drums in an old barn. Disgustcd
with tho business, Samuel Cooley was
about to throw It up; he offered 1t to his
nephew, John, with the remark that
there was doubtless money In 1t. Re-
turning to Granville, j. z Cooley
broa he'd the sub ect to his friend Noble.
whom he found n ready listener. They
went to work, made drum.
which is st II cherished at the old shop.
took it to Boston, showed 1t, re-
ce ycd orders, and coming back investe
$3.50 in material, and thus started
probably the biggest concern of its kind
in the world. The first year, 1864, they
built little shed and altogether turned
out 150 drums. ma My of one pattern.
Year by year the business increased,
their quarters had to be enlarged, their
help multiplied, and to-day l25 IN II
and women are kept busy turning out
daily about 1.2J0 drums.
Within the last four years business
has greatly deve' oped. The old-tash-
ioned drum with woo den barrel, VIII cE
was formerly the only nj in the
market, is being rapidly supplanted by
the ncater and ghter modes with IL tin
barr |. For the manufacture of the
Inter tin of various colors is employed,
blue and red preloninating, though the
larger quantities arc made of a brass
imitat on. This tin comes in sheets of
two sizes, 14x2O inches and 20x2S, the
sheets being packed in cases hold ng
112. These sheets are first sent to
knife, which cuts them into various
lengths, from which drums vary-
ing from six and one-ha.t inches
across the head to thirteen inches are
made. This done the strips are each
punched with hole, then secured and
tghtencd together. Hoops are placed
on the inside rims and the barrel is
then ready to receive the soundng skin.
This is general v sheep SIX n, VIII cf
is stretched tightly across the head
above and below from the outs de by
hoops. These skins are lent to the fac
tory all ready for IL from England. 1t
seems with all their notions and multi
plex ideas even imaginative Yankees
have not b Ell able to prepare success
| fully such skins from American sheep.
Consequently all are imported from
Liver pool. They come in hoysheadS
| holding from so to l20 dozen, and cost
from 81. 75 to $3.50 per dozen. Noble
d Cooley expended Tor kins alone last
year 5000, using mainly the higher
pIced kind. Previous to using the
skins they are stretched and dried by
st am in The nter and the sun in sum-
mer. Before be ng stretched over the
d um bal rels they are once more moist
encd, generally in a so ution of pure
water or water slightly tincturcd with
ammonia. Then remains the tighten
ing of the drum hoop. This is done
ther by strings or rods. The first are
diagonally, leather tighteners being in
rods are hooked on one end and screwed
| itJ llC Otiicr. vi tliiS ldltcT hilu
consumpt on is over six times that of
the old-fashoned. The wooden drums
differ but slightly from the above. The
barrels in this case are generally bass
or white wood, occasionally oak. The
stay hoops are of oak or beech. Before
the strip of wood can be used it needs to
undergo many processes, among others
be ng bending, planning and sweating.
! The first drums made used to be boiled
; in open tanks and the limit that could
thus be prepared daily was less than
| fifty. The introduction of machinery
and more perfect methods has increased
the daily product on, so that 1000 drum
pieces is considered moth ng more than
one mans fair days work.
It is interesting to watch the continu-
Gus process by which a log, roughly
hewn from the forest, is transferred to
drum barrel. The machines VIII ch
affect this transformation are various.
The most impo tant is that which does
the 81 cling. The log, no matter how
thick, is placed between the tee h of this
huge machine, usually be ng reduced to
three feet in length, and the slicing be-
gins. The KIN fe receives it. and as the
log revolves the piece slic d is received
on a wooden cylinder and then rolled up.
Seventy-iive thicknesses make one inch
of the log. If, then. the log is three
feet through. one revolution will yield a
piece nine feet long. and the total
length sliced from the log would extend
over mile. Cutting machines further
reduce this huge sheet to the desired
length. A core of six inches thickness
is left, which taken out of the jaws
and split into drum-sticks or ten-pins.
The venecrs are heated, then bent and
are soon ready to be shaped as a drum.
There are also plan ng and sand-paper
machines, all run by water power. The
strips are put through tho bender from
three to six at time. The sticks are
smoothed by rolling in revolv ng bar.
rels, the process being continued for
three or four hours. This about COM
plctes the manufacture Of drums. each
part be ng distributed among one hun
lred and twenty-five workers in the
factory. Springfield (Aiass.) Cor. De.
troll Free Press
e