The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-28
IVORY FOR PIANOS
Method of Manufacture and
 Care of Keyboard
By Albert T. strauch.

The use of ivory on piano keys IS of comparatively modern origin. The keys on the old Clavichords and Spin cts were not covered at al or nad a thin veneeering of hard wood. Then followed the use of mother Of pearl. after which ivory came into vogue. and has been the substance most used for the last half-century.
 Ivory on piano keys is all elephant ivory, and comes almost exclusively from Africa. It is of two characters; hard ivory, which is obtained mostly from the Congo regions, and soft " ory, which comes from parts of Egypt. Abyssinia and Zanzibar.
 Hard ivory, as its namei implies, IS hard in character, translucent, and of a bluish color.
 Soft ivory is softer in character, more opaque, and of a creamy white
 Of the two, the latter is the super for ivory for key purposes.
 Although Liverpool, London. and Antwerp are the three great markets for ivory, the larger part of the ivory used by key makers in this country is imported direct, and large stocks of tusks are carried by the various manufacturers, owing to the difficulty of regularly obtaining the proper quality needed for their purposes.
 The tusks must be perfect and sound, and of large size, weighing from forty-five pounds to as high as one hundred and thirty-five pounds.
 The first process in the manufac- ture of ivory for keys is to cut the length after which the block is divid- ed into pieces of the necessary widths frim which are slit the small parts called heads and tails.
 Ivory is readily affected by heat or cold, so the saws used in cutting 1t ,f<,y~ f7nr cool and thus avoid heating and cracking it.
 After the ivory is slit into heads and tails they are soaked in water from ten days to two weeks to remove all grease and animal matter. Again thoroughly cleansed, they are laid flat on racks, and placed in bleach houses constructed somewhat on the plan of the florists hot houses. Here they remain in the sun, from two to three months, being regularly turn ed from one sid, to the other, expos ing each side to the sun until the ivory is bleached through and is per- fectly white. E
 The ivory is then taken to the matching room for the finishing work.
 During all this process the ivory of each tusk has been kept by itself, as, even after being bleached it will show a different shading in color, making it impossible to successfully match the ivory from one tusk into that Of another. In cutting the tusks, just sufficient of the heads and tails are cut to match out evenly the character of grain and number of pieces.
 Each tusk varies in quality of grain and may run entirely coarse or have as high as 50 per cent. of fine ivory which is a very high average. The fine ivory is much preferred because of its clearness and comparative freedom from grain.
 In matching ivory, the heads, or wide pieces on the fronts of the tops of the keys, are all picked over and separated into different grades, eac- cording to the coarseness or fineness of the grain, after which the tails, or narrow top pieces, go through the same process.
 The heads are then matched up in- to sets of fifty-two pieces. and each head has its individual tail matched to it that it will agree in character of grain, color,
 When this work has been complet- ed the ivory is ready to lay on the keyboard. a
 Owing to the absorbent nature of ivory, great care must be used to avoid having it come in contact with