The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-10-16
Where Drums are Made.


The casual visitor would never suspect |
that the quiet rural village of Granville,
Mass, sends out into the world thousands
Of noise-making instruments, cheap, it is
true, but none the less welcome to the aver
age boy. This place can practically be called
the centre and heart of the drum-making
business. OF 100000 drums manufactur-
ed last year, 138,000 came from the shops
of Noble & Cooley alone. Two other
shops, those of Gibbons & Henry and of
E. d. Dickson, turned out, perhaps another
40 900, and the rest came from Brooklyn
shop. 1t was in 1853 that the idea of
engaging in drum-making first suggested
itself to Mr.. Cooley. He had been to
Pittsfeld, where relative of his, Samuel
Cooley, was making a few drums in an old
barn Disguised with the business, Sam
uel Cooley was about to throw it up; he
offered it to his nephew, John, with the re-
mark that there was doubtless money in it.
Returning to Granville, j. P. Cooley
preached the subject to his friend Noble,
whom he found ready listener They
went to work, made drum which is still
cherished at the old shop, took it to Bos-
ton, showed it, received orders, and coming
back invested s450 in material, and thus
started probably the biggest concern of its
kind in the world That first year,
1854, they built little shed, and altogeth-
er turned out $50 drums, mainly of one
pattern. Year by year the business in
creased; their quarters had to be enlarged,
their help multiplied, and to-day 125 men
and women are kept busy turning out daily
about l 200 drums
Within the last few years the business
has greatly developed. The old fashioned
drum with wooden barrel, which was for
merly the only kind in the market, is be-
ing rapidly supplanted by the neater and
lighter model with tin barrel For the
manufacture of the latter tin of various
colors is employed, blue and red predomi-
mating, though the larger quantity of tin
drums are made of abrass imitation. This
tin comes in sheets of TWO sizes, 14x2O
inches and 20x29, the sheets being packed
in cases holding 112. These sheets are
! first sent to a knife, which cuts them into
various lengths from which drums of sizes
varying from g. inches across the head to
| 13 inches are made This done, the strips
are each punched with hole, then secured
and frightened 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 stretch
ed tightly across the head above and below,
and fastened from the outside by hoops
go kl,af oil 1xT
for use from England. 1t seems that with
all their notions and multiplex ideas, even
our imaginative Yankees have not been
able to prepare successfully such skins
from our own sheep. Consequently all are
imported from Liverpool. They come in
hogsheads holding from so to 120 dozen
and cost from S1.75 to $3.50 dozen.
One firm expended for skins alone last
year, $4,000, using mainly the higher
priced kind. Previous to using they are
stretched and dried by steam in the winter
and by the sun in summer. Before being
stretched over the drum barrels they are
once more moisteped, generally in solu-
ton of pure water or slightly ammonical.
Then remains the tightening of the drum
hoops. This is done either by strings or
rods. The first are stretched diagonally,
leather tighteners being inserted 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 gener-
ally bass or white wood, occasionally oak.
The stay hoops are of oak or beech. Be
fore 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 he boiled in
open tanks, and the limit that could thus
be prepared daily was less than so. The
introduction of machinery and more per-
feet methods has increased the daily pro-
duction, SO that 1000 drum pieces is con-
sidered nothing more than one mans fair
days work.
1t is very interesting to watch the con,
tinuous 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 slicing
The log, no matter how thick, is placed be-
tween the teeth of this huge machine, usu-
ally being reduced to three feet in length,
and the slicing begins. The knife receives
it, and as the log revolves, the piece sliced
is received on wooden cylinder and then
rolled up. Seventy-fve thicknesses make
one inch of the log. If then the log is
three feet through, one revolution will
yield piece nine feet long, and the total
length sliced from log would extend
over a mile. Cutting machines further
reduce this huge sheet to desired lengths
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 a drum. There are also planning
and sand papering machines, all run by
water power The strips are put through
the bender from three to six at time
The sticks are smoothed by rolling in re
volving barrels, the process being continued
for three or four hours. This about COM
pletes the manufacture Of drums, each part
being distributed among 125 workers il
the factoFy,-Spragfetd Republican,.
..l.-:.. 20 sooalan, A.