Books › A treatise on the structure and preservation of the violin and all other bow-instruments : together with an account of the most celebrated makers, and of the genuine characteristics of their instruments, 1875 › scan 20
Scan 20
A treatise on the structure and preservation of the violin and all other bow-instruments : together with an account of the most celebrated makers, and of the genuine characteristics of their instruments, 1875
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 4. See the scan on archive.org.
1the thick or bark-parts of the pieces for the belly are so fitted and glued together, that the under side may be even, but the upper or outside elevated down the middle and slanting off gradually towards the edges, something like the flat roof of a house. (See Illustrations, Fig. 1.) The even side is then smoothed and the model traced on it,* after
3for the purpose of extracting the resinous particles from it. (Leipzig Allgem. Mus. Zeitung, XXXIV., pp. 833-4. 1832.)
5The enthusiastic and ingenious Mackintosh, now deceased, published an interesting pamphlet at Dublin, in 1837, under the title of "Remarks on the Construction and Materials employed in the Manufacture of Violins," in which he observes:—"I am borne out by traditionary accounts in believing that the Cremona makers actually put their wood through some process for the purpose of not only preserving, but cleansing it, and making it consequently a better conductor of sound." This cleansing refers to the extraction of the resinous or gummy substance with which the pores of the wood are clogged, and in effecting which, without injury to the wood itself, the great difficulty consists. Mackintosh further states that the wood must not only be of firm and regular texture, but have "pores of a certain size and formation; and, above all, it is essential that it shall have attained, not only full maturity of growth, but shall have remained for some years after being felled, in order to make it fit to go through a process by which the pores (for that is the great object to be arrived at) may be rendered so perfectly dried and cleared, as not afterwards to be liable to close or alter their natural position, or become crooked or irregular, as would be the inevitable consequence if cut up immediately into thin pieces, as it is then liable to shrink, which is also objectionable, as being injurious to the pores." He subsequently adds—"When experimenting, I have had recourse to steaming, steeping, stoving, boiling, and baking the timber: I have also used all kinds of spirits, caustics, and acids; but all these disorganized the pores and impaired the fibres of the timber, which ought to be preserved in a sound and perfect state." The secret of his own process for the thorough cleansing of the pores is not declared. Notwithstanding what Mackintosh here says, Abele assures us, at p. 98 of the second edition of his work, Die Violine (Neuburg, 1874), there is no proof whatever in existence that the old Italians used any artificial means for drying or preparing their wood.—Tr.
7* A simple method of tracing a model is given in No. I. of the Appendix.—Tr.
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