Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-12-02
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TIE NOISY DRUM.


It'll. sN~s0 80
visit to . Town whore Thousands OF Tnese
Fearful Instrament. are Made.
The casual visitor would never sus-
meet that the quiet rural village OF
Granville, Mass. sends out INTO Inc
world thousands of no.se-makinS M
struments, cheap, 1t is true out nono
the less welcome to the AVERAGE Doy'
This place can practically be called tne
center and heart of the drum-making
business. Tt turned out 2OO.OO0 last
year It was in 1854 that the idea OF
Engaging in the drum making business
first suggested itself to MIR. Cooley.
He had been to Pittsfeld, where a rcia-
tive of his, Samuel Cooley. was making
a few drums in an old barn. Disguised
with the business, Samuel Cooley was
alb out to throw it up; he offered u 10 ms
nephew, John, with the remark tnas
there was doubtless money in 1t. ne
turning to Granville, j. T. Cooley
broa he'd the subject to his friend Nonie,
whom he found ready listener. 1ney
went to work, made drum'
which is still cherished at the OLD SHOP
took it to Boston, showed 1t, re-
ce we'd orders, and coming back invested
$50 in material, and thus started
probably the biggest concern OF ITS kind
in the world. The first year, 1854, they
built a little shed and altogether turned
out $50 drums. ma My of one pattern.
Year by year the business increased,
their quarters had to be enlarged, their
help multiplied, and to-day 10 men
and women are kept busy turning out
daily about /. 200 drums.
Within the last four years business
has greatly developed. The old-fash-
toned drum with woo den barrel, which
was formerly the only kind in the
market. is being rapidly supplanted by
the heater and lighter model with tin
barrel. For the manufacture OF the
latter tin of various colors is employed,
blue and red predominating, though the
larger quantities are made OF a prass
initial on. This tin comes in sheets OF
two sizes, 14x20 inches and 2Ox2o, the
sheets being packed in cases holding
112 These sheets are first sent 10 q
knife, which cuts them into various
lengths, from which drums vary
ing from six and onehalf inches
across the head to thirteen inches are
| made. This done the strips are each
punched with hole. then secured and
tightened together. Hoops are placed
on the inside rims and the barrel is
then ready to receive the sounding SKIN.
This is generally sheep skin, which
is stretched tightly across the head
above and below from the outs de by
hoops. These skins are sent to the fac
tory all ready for use from England. 1t
seems with all their notions and multi
pick ideas even imaginative Yankees
! ol1o RI SnnppSC-
fully such skins from American sheep.
Consequently all are imported from
Liverpool They come in hogsheads
holding from so to 120 dozen, and cost
from ST. IS to $3.50 per dozen. Noble
& Cooley expended for skins alone last
year $4,000, using mainly the higher
priced kind Previous to using the
Skins they are stretched and dried by
ST. am in the winter and the sun in sum-
mer. Before be NC stretched over the
drum barrels they are once more moist
cned, generally in a solution OF pure
water or water slightly tinctured with
ammonia. Then remains the tighten
ing of the drum hoops. This is done
Their by strings or rods. The first are
diagonally, leather tighteners being in
serted to stiffen the sound skins. The
rods are hooked on one end and screwed
at the other. OF this latter kind the
consumption is over six times that of
the old-fashioned. The wooden drums
differ but slightly from the above. The
barrels in this case are generally bass
OF 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
being 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 nothing more than
one mans fair days work.
1t is interesting to watch the continu-
| Gus process by which log, roughly
hewn from the forest, is transferred to
| a drum barrel. The machines which
affect this Transformation are various.
The most important 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 NC reduced to
| three feet in length, and the slicing be-
| gins. The knife receives it. and as the
log revolves the piece sliced is received
on wooden cylinder and then rolled up.
seventy-tive 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 hugo sheet to the desired
| length. A core of six inches thickness
| is left, which IS taken out of the jaws
and split into drum-sticks or ten-pins.
| The veneers are heated. then bent and
are soon ready to be shaped as drum.
There are also planning and sand-paper
machines, all run by water power. The
strips are put through the bender from
three to six at a time. The sticks are
; smoothed by rolling in revolving bar
rels, the process being continued for
three or four hours. This about COM
pletes the manufacture of drums, each
part being distributed among one hun
dred and twenty-five workers in the
factory. -Springfetd (Mass.) Cor. De-
troit Free Press
4 r.