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 67
Scan 67
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
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 51. See the scan on archive.org.
1Fétis's "Rapport sur les Instruments de Musique dans l'Exposition universelle de Paris, en 1855," p. 34.
32. In the French Exhibition of 1867, M. Miremont showed some violins with a second bar (for which he took out a patent), extending from the top and bottom blocks inside. This was found to be the reminiscence of a system proposed some fifteen years previously by an American maker, named below. M. Miremont, it appears, did not declare his secret to the jury, who failed to perceive the results in his instruments!
53. Wm. B. Tilton's (American) Improvement, introduced into this country about the year 1852, consisted of a bar placed as Miremont's above mentioned, the upper and under surfaces of the end blocks to which it was fastened being sloped inwards, to prevent contact with the back and belly of the violin, so as to leave these parts more free to vibrate.
74. Dr. Stone's and Mr. Meeson's elliptical tension bars. This invention was brought before the members of the Musical Association at their first meeting (Nov., 1874), and is thus described in one of the notices which appeared soon afterwards:—"Four strips of white deal, curved to an elliptical figure, pass parallel, from end to end, on the inside of the belly. Thus they intercept the f-shaped sound-holes, and remove a well-known cause of weakness and a break in the vibrating body," &c. It is further said—"Dr. Stone asserted that, by the adoption of this process, a common instrument can be made nearly equal in tone to an old Italian fiddle!"
9Against this opinion must be set that of M. Gallay, who, in commenting on changes made in the barring of violins up to the time of the publication of his work, in 1869, says:—"All attempts at improvement have yielded nothing but deception." An anecdote, also, in reference to Tilton's Patent Improvement, may likewise here find a place. Charles Maucotel, who formerly carried on the business of a violin-maker in London, having heard of Tilton's Improvement, obtained one of the violins fitted with the new bar, which was examined by some connoisseurs, and created the greatest admiration. They even went so far, as the Editor is informed, to rank the instrument equal in tone to that of some old Italian violins with which it was compared. In their exuberance of delight at so wonderful an achievement, they promised, on leaving, to bring others in a day or two to see the novel invention. Maucotel, however, who was an adept in his art, believing that the violin would sound as well without the precious bar as with it, opened the instrument after the gentlemen had left, took out the bar, and again adjusted the violin apparently as before. On the return of the gentlemen, with their friends, the "Patent Improvement" violin was tried and re-tried,
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