St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-09-07
VIOLIN RINGS.
HOW They Are Made Abroad aad Why
They Can Not He Manufactured Here.

They Can Not He Manufactured Here.
The violin, it is said, is the only mu
sical instrument that possesses soul
But the quality Of its harmonies de
pends as much upon its strings rs upol
its body. The manufacture of thes
threads of catgut. from which = mas
ter of the art is able to draw such ex
quisite strains, is an important indus
try. 1t is not carried on in this coun
try to any extent-at all events, th'
finer qualities of strings are not mad,
here, because American sheep do no
have the right sort of intestines- Cat
gut, contrary to the popular notion. il
not derived from the back-feuce tabbv
but from lambs
A manufacturing center for violil
strings is the town of Markneukirchen
in Saxony. The business there is i,
very old one, and is believed to hav,
been started originally by immigrat
ing Protestant Bohemians during OF
sooSafter the Thirty Years war. TIL,
processes employed have always beer
kept secret, being handed down from
father to son, generation after genera
tion. However, the methods in . gen
eral way are sufficiently well known
for purposes Of description. In 1777 8
union of string-malers was founded
and q law was passed forbidding any
one not member of this organization
from plying the craft, penalties of flns
and imprisonment being established.
The secret held most important wa.
the composition Of the lye mixture EN-
ployed to bleach the strings In old
days likewise every maker of violins
had his own peculiar varnish. He was
perpetually seeking to discover the
philosophers stone of his trade-name
ly, \ varnish such as that used by
Stradivarius, Guarnerius and Amati
which should impart to his instruments
an imperishable beauty, while reveal
ing the satin-like finish of the wood
beneath. But since the days Of those
celebrated and unequaled manufac.
turers of fddles the production of such
a varnish has been lost art
The facts are summed up by Oscar
Gottschalk. United States consular
agent at Markneukirchen, in a COM
munication just received by the state
department at Washington. lie says
that the makers of the strings at
Markneukirchen formerly got their
raw material in Germany. But in 1s4O
the whole town was burned up, and
one manufacturer went away in search
of livelihood, finally reaching Copen-
hagen. Noticing large docks of sheep
in Denmark, he bought some of the
CUTS and made strings of them, which
were found to be of better quality
than the home brand. This discovery
resulted in large importations of the
article into Markneukirchen. and at
about the same time the first strings
were exported thence to the United
States. Since then the industry has
depended largely upon American
buyers.
The supply of material for the finest
strings has at no time equaled the de-
mand and half the world has been
ransacked for sheep-gut possessing the
requisite qualities In 1861 another
enterprising citizen of Markneukirchen
crossed Russia-at that time a ven-
ture of no small peril-and bought
quantities Of the intestines Of the
steppe sheep Of that country. These
were found to be superior to anything
previously obtained, and to the pres
ent day manufacturers at Mark
get the bulk of their
sheep-gut from Russia, amounting an
nualy to about two hundred thousand
dollars worth. Other material is i'm
ported from England, Denmark.
Spain, Bulgaria. Turkey. Java and
Palestine. Unfortunately, the Russian
gut has deteriorated since the flock
owners have crossed the breeds of the
steppe sheep and the Spanish sheep for
the sake of improving the wool.
The qualities desired in catgut for
violin strings are symmetrically
cylindrical form combined with trans
parent whiteness- Ordinarily the pur-
chaser contracts with the breeder for
all of his gut for at least one year. He
has his own cleaning establishment
to the slaughter-house. and in
person supervises the processes I'm
after the animal is killed all
grease and foreign matter must be
from the intestines, else the
latter will become discolored. Then
they are wound on frames and left to
dry in the open air. The gut for a
string must be from q lamb
born in spring and slaughtered not
ater than October or November of the
same year; those from older sheep can
be used only for bass strings or for
minor purposes The best quality is
termed summer gut" being from q
amb killed in summer. 1t is chiefly
to make f strings, which
ire the most important '.Spring gut"
IS second quality; though lacking
it is good enough for G, d and
A strings
The dried intestines, when they reach
he manufacturer, are placed in earthen
rats containing lye. After soaking for
hours they are unraveled.
Again they are put in lye, being SUBJ
ected to repeated baths in this sub
stance. Meanwhile they are manipu-
ated again and again for cleansing,
,he external membranes being re-
moved. SO as to leave only the fibrous
material. They are bleached in .
sulphur bath and exposed to the
un. The next process is to rub
ZACH string with pumice stone.
% remove any inequalities and to
,ring it down to the requisite diane
er. A polish is applied by frequent
viping with olive oil. Before ship
nent, the strings are dried. cut, rolled
ind assorted according to color. They
will retain their quality for an in
lefinite period If inclosed in hermet-
boxes.
The best violin strings are of Italian
The demand for them
$ so large that ten times as many
Italian strings are sold rs Italy is able
o produce. Markneukirchen turns out
argc quantities of so-called Italian
trings- Special care is taken to make
hem equal to the best. They are put
lp in Italian fashion, and sometimes
re disposed Of rs "Padua" strings
'adua being the Italian city where
musical strings are chiefly made. An
xpert string-maker in Germany earns
rom three dollars and fifty-seven cents
o 1--WE dollars . week.