Books › An encyclopedia of the violin, 1925 › scan 164
Scan 164
An encyclopedia of the violin, 1925
23 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 140. See the scan on archive.org.
1and economical to use bridges already prepared in the rough by modern French or Italian specialists in bridge manufacture. The real art in bridge making consists in the skill with which each individual bridge is fitted to the particular instrument on which it is to be used, and the violin maker can well dispense with the time and labor necessary to prepare semifinished bridges.
3VIOLIN STRING MAKING
5After the great violin maker has perpetuated one of his marvelous instruments, and the equally skilled bow maker has provided a stick which will satisfy the most exacting artist, there yet remains the vitally important accessory of strings, which must be of the right character and thickness in order to bring forth the glorious tone of the instrument.
7The following articles describe the manufacture of gut, silk and covered strings, first as made in Europe by time-old processes, and then as made in the United States at the present time by one of the largest packing houses. The average player knows so little of the methods by which strings are made that these articles will undoubtedly have the greatest interest. The illustrations of the article on the manufacture of strings in the United States are from photographs made while the workmen were engaged in the actual preparation of gut strings.
9EUROPEAN PROCESS
11The strings of the violin are made of the guts or small intestines of the sheep. The animals which supply the strings of the best quality are those raised on dry pastures and in hilly countries. The small-sized sheep found in the district of Berri and in several parts of Germany, also supply gut of an excellent quality.
13As is generally known, the small intestines comprise the duodenum, the jejunum and the ilion. These subdivisions, however, are in reality one, whose size is not uniform at either end, and which is largest at the duodenum and smallest at the ilion.
15Each of these three intestines or, better said, each of these parts of the entire intestines is made up of three distinct membranes, that is:
161. The external or peritoneal membrane.
172. The internal or mucous membrane.
183. The muscular or fibrous membrane, enclosed between the two others.
20Of these three membranes the first two are removed as useless, and it is the third, the middle one, of which the violin strings are manufactured. It is, incidentally, the only one of the three made of fibers which are sufficiently strong and tough for the purpose in view.
22The string makers buy these intestines from the butcher, but prefer to extract them from the bodies of the sheep while still warm, or to have this done by workmen experienced in so doing. Without taking this precaution
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