Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1896-06-24
a VIOLIN MACHINE.
by Means Of His Invontlon . Seattle Nan
Says No Makes Thorn An Perfect.

Says No Makes Thorn An Perfect.
There is violin maker in this city,
who has an altogether new theory in re-
gard to this Instrument, and one so new
that it is totSlly at variance with the
general impression. 1t is that there Is
no accident or luck in the superior touc'
of u violin, but that they can be made
OF q given tone one after the other with
perfect assurance. 1t has been asserted
that u good, honest violin maker may
turn out so specimens of his best work.
and yet only few of these prove to be
Grst-class instruments. The history OF
famous masters in the art would seem
to bear out this assertion.
II. w. Cakes, who has been making
'iolins in this city for 10 months, aud
elsewhere for nearly twice. as many
years. brushes all this away like a moldy
cobweb, and says he can insure first
class instrument every time, and that
there is no secret ahoutit-
"Thc trouble about all the makers is
that they do all their work by rule of
thumb and by the eye. Imalte mine by
mathematical rules. Once having at.
TUNED n certain perfection can dupli.
cate that result with mathematical ac-
curauy."
"And the toner" .......
''The tone follows as q matter Of
course: 1t must. Now, there used to be
secrets in the art, of course. twas long
before anyone could turn out an instru.
laent that could compete with the old
Cremonas. First, they thought the Sc
"ret of the latter's superiority lay in the
varnish, and many years were spent i'm
attempts to find out that secret. They
found it out at last. or rather, that it was
no secret. They discovered that the
cabinet makers of Cremona used the
same varnish 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 ex.
traordinary pains to get just such re-
sonance and letter tone, and even took
The wood from a fine violin and put /,
with other wood, but with all their CT
forts they made as many failures as sue
cesses. ........ -.
"Now, Stradivari used the same ma
terial for the whole of the 500 violins he
made, and yet the good violins were the
accident. Only so of all he made turned
out to be good instruments, and yet
you call him n master"
"Are there any violins comparable
with these 500" s....
certainly. Within the last so years
just as good violins have been made as
have ever been made"
But age has something to do with
tone?"
Undoubtedly, provided the violin is
played on. 1t might lie century, and
if not used would not improve at all.
Victims are like everything else in the.
world; they have their birth, their
growth, maturity and decline. would
say that at about rs violin would be at
its best. / know that after 100 years
they begin to lose their power, anl
finally become comparatively worth
less so far as tone is concerned"
And how, in making an instrument.
are you SO confident what its tone will
he, MIR. Oakcs?"
''Dy this little machine here" he re-
piled, pointing to a machine that had
the appearance of little turning lathe.
IF you take one of my violins and mark
it into small squares, you will find tn.
thickness corresponds in each cor
responding square. This machine will
show the difference, if it is only the
thickness of q piece of gold leaf.
spent 20 years studying the defects OF
'iolins and how to remedy them before
made one. Then got down to mathe.
n,atical nicely and made this machine
to insure it. a''"
why, here is shop violin, costing
Si.50, that / have worked on FOR exDeri-
ment. Because Of it's correction of tone
IL is now worth from $50 to $780,"
How many vioiins could you make, In
n year?" ..
Il could make about one first-class
enc a month; say ten in the course of d
year, and If 1 disposed of TINT number
III Seattle I should be contented and
happy"
"lf they should all prove to be good ?"
was hazarded. 80
"Thcre is no if. They would be mathe-
mutically perfect, and the tone would
SDpak for itself sfrniObf IN tho 1,oo-t -