Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-30
A VIOLIN MACHINE.
Seattle Nam Says He Makes Them
All Perfect Instruments.

From the Seattle Post -Intelligencer.
There is a violin maker in this city who
has an altogether new theory in regard to
this instrument, and one so new that II Is
totally at variance with the general I'M
preston. 1t is that there is no accident or
luck in the superior tone of violin, but
that they can be made of given tone one
after the other with perfect assurance. 1t
has been asserted that good. honest violin
maker may turn out fifty specimens Of his
best work. and yet only few OF these
prove to be first-class instruments. The
history of famous masters in the art would
seem to bear out this assertion
H w. Cakes, who has been making Vio-
Inns in this city for eighteen months. and
elsewhere for nearly twice as many years,
brushes all this away like a moldy cobweb,
and says he can insure a first-class instru-
ment every time, and that there IS no
secret about 1t.
THE trouble about all the makers is that
they do all their work by rule Of thumb
and by the eye. l make mine by mathe-
NAUTICAL rules. Once having attained Ger
tain perfection l can duplicate that result
with mathematical accuracy"
And the toner
THE tone follows as a matter of course.
1t must. Now. there used to be secrets in
the art Of course. 1t was long before any
one could turn out an instrument that
could compete with the old Cremonas.
First. they thought the secret of the lat
ter's superiority lay in the varnish, and
many years were spent in attempts to find
out that secret. They found 1t out at last,
or rather, that 1t was no secret. They dis
covered that the cabinet makers of Gre
mona used the same varnsh as Stradivari
used. Then they thought the secret must
be in the wood, and for some time they
pinned their confidence to that. They took
extraordinary pains to get just such reso-
nance and letter tone, and even took the
wood from a fine violin and put it with
other wood. but with all their efforts they
made many failures as successes.
Now, Stradivari used the same material
for the whole of the 500 violins he made,
and yet the good volins were the accident.
Only fifty of all he made turned out to be
good instruments, and yet you call him a
master"
Are there any viollns comparable with
these fifty?'
Certainly. Within the last fifty years
just as good violins have been made as
have ever been made"
But age has something to do with toner"
Undoubtedly. provided the violin is
played on. 1t might lie a century, and if
not used would not imppevs,at all. Violins
nave their birth, their, growth, maturity
and decline 1 would say Hthat at about
seventy-five a violin would be at its best.
l know that after one Aundred years they
fe gin to lose their power. and finally be-
tonne tone is worthless so far
ana now, in making an instrument, are
you so confident what Its tone will be. Mr..
Oakes?"
by this little machine 9here.'' he re-
Piled. pointing to machine that had the
appearance of little turning lathe. IF
you take one of my vioHns and mark 1t in
to small squares. you will find the thick
ness corresponds in each corresponding
square. This machine Will show the differ
ence, II it Is only the thickness of piece Of
gold leaf. l spent twenty years studying
the defects of violins and how to remedy
them before 1 made one. Then l got it
down to mathematical nicely, and 1 made
this machine to insure it.
why, here is a shop VIOLIN, costing $1.50,
that have worked on for experiment. Be-
cause of Its correction of tone 1t is now
worth from $50 to $IOO"
Year,
Il could make about one first-class one a
month; say ten In the course of a year, and
II disposed of that number in Seattle I
should be contented and happy
IF they should all prove to be good?"
was hazarded.
There is no if. They would be n,athe-
maticaiiy perfect, and the tone would
speak for itself. straight to the heart of
those who know music"