Scan 58
A Treatise On The Structure And Preservation Of The Violin, 1875
10 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1certainly made it harder; but, as it became incorporated with the vinegar, it acquired an opaque yellow colour, and, owing to the moisture it contained, clung to the bow and strings even worse than before. Had they known how to make it clear and transparent again, it would have been improved; but in that state it was not so. My instructor procured rosin from Prague, which looked like fine transparent amber, and possessed all the good qualities that could be desired in it. In the first place, it took hold [of the strings] very well, without scratching; secondly, it did not lie thick upon the strings, but dispersed in dust; and, thirdly, it kept the hair of the bow very white and beautiful.
3Having a knowledge of chemistry, I spent both time and money, thirty years ago, in endeavouring to imitate this rosin. However, I soon attained my object, and have since been rewarded for my labour, by the great quantity I have sent to the musical establishment of Dittmar and Gerstenberg, in Russia, without reckoning what I supplied to the chapels with which I did business.
5As some of my readers may, perhaps, be inclined to try experiments of this kind, I would observe that the basis of the common rosin is too coarse, and that, in order to obtain it perfectly good, only Venetian turpentine must be used.*
7* After a perusal of these remarks, and a due regard to the amount of chemical knowledge implied in them, the reader may feel somewhat astonished at the summary manner in which the subject is treated by Maugin (Manuel du Luthier, p. 138). "Behold the secret which is nothing:—Melt some common rosin in a new, glazed, earthen pot, over a moderate coal fire; and, as it dissolves, filter it through a rather coarse new linen cloth into a second pot of the same kind as the other, taking care to keep it near the fire; afterwards pour the rosin into little rolls of paper, or make it up into tablets for use."
9Otto himself, in the 1828 edition of his work, says:—"Put a
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