The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-12-15
MAKING DRUMS.
A PLACE WHERE 1900 ARE
TURNED OUT DAILY.
The Sounding Skins Made in Eng
land-Tin Barrels Supplanting
Wooden Ones-Tightenins
the Drum Hoops, Etc.

"OQhtu oIlCS-
the Drum Hoops, Etc.
The casual visitor would never suspect
that the quiet rural village of Granville,
Mass, sends out into the world thou
sands of noise-making instruments,
cheap, it is true, but none the less wei
come to the average boy. This place
can practically be called the center and
heart of the drum. making business. It
turned out 200, 900 last year. 1t was in
1855 that the idea of engaging in the
drum-making business first suggested it
self to Mr.. Cooley. He had been to
Pittsfeld, where relative of his, Samuel
Cooley, was making O few drums in an
old barn. Disguised with the 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 it. Returning to Granville, j.
P. Cooley broached the subject to his
friend Noble, whom he found a ready
listener. They went to work, made a
drum, which is still cherished at the old
shop, took it to Boston, showed it, re-
ceived orders, and coming back invested
$3.50 in material, and thus started prob
ably the biggest concern of its kind
in the world. The first year they
built little shed and altogether turned
out $50 drums, mainly of one pattern.
Year by year the business increased,
their quarters had to be enlarged, their
help multiplied, and to-day 1875 men and
women are kept busy turning out daily
about 1900 drums.
Within the last few years business has
greatly developed. The old-fashioned
drum with wooden barrel, which was
formerly the only kind in the market, is
being supplantcd by the neater and
lighter model with tin barrel. For the
manufacture of the latter tin of various
colors is employed, blue and red predom-
mating, though the larger quantities are
made of brass imitation. This tin
comes in sheets of two sizes, 14x20 inches
and 2Ox3s, the sheets being packed in
cases holding 112. These sheets are first
sent to knife which cuts them into va
rious lengths, from which drums varying
from six and one-half inches across the
head to thirteen inches are made. This
done the strips are each punched with q
hole, then secured and frightened to-
gether. Hoops are placed on the inside
rims and the barrel is then ready to re.
ceive the sounding skin. This is gener.
ally sheep skin, which is stretchel /
tightly across the head above and below
and from the outside by hoops. These
skins are sent to the factory all ready for
use from England. They come in hogs
heads holding from fifty to 120 dozen,
and cost from $1.75 to $3.50 per dozen
Noble 6 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 steam in
the winter and the sun in summer. Be-
fore being stretched over the drum bar
rels they are once more moistened, gen.
orally in q solution of pure water or
water slightly tinctured with ammonia.
Then remains the Tightening of the drnm
hoops. This is done either by strings or
rods. The first are 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 gen.
orally bass or whitewood, occasionally
oak. The stray 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 production, so that
1900 drum pieces is considered nothing
more than one mans fair days work.
tits interesting to watch the continu-
Gus process by which log, roughly
hcwn from the forest, is transferred to
drum barrel. The machines which af-
1ect this Transformation are various. The
most important is that which does the
slicing. The log, no matter how thick,
is placed between the tech of this huge
machine, usually being reduced to three
feet in length, and the slicing begins.
The knife receives it, and as the log re-
wolves the piece sliced is received on q
wooden cylinder and then rolled up.
Seventy. five thicknesses make one inch
of the log. If, then, the log is three
feet through, one revolution will yield q
piece nine feet long, and the totallength
sliced from the log would extend over a.
mile. Cutting machines further reduce
this huge sheet to the desired length. A
core of six inch 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
q time. The sticks are smoothed by
rolling in revolving barrels, the process
being continued for three or four hours.
This about completes the manufacture of
drum, each part being distributed
among 125 workers in the factory.-De-
tr0it Free Press.
There is an artesian we'll 1000 feet
deep in Aberdeen, Neb., that throws out