Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 172
Scan 172
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
18 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 146. See the scan on archive.org.
1latter are then moistened with sponges, and after once more having been placed in the frame, they are twisted a second time, given a torsion sufficiently strong, and returned to the sulphur room.
3The sulphuring process as a rule, lasts two days in the case of the fine strings and as long as eight days for the coarse ones.
5Thinning the Strings
7The work or operation next in order after the strings have been sulphured, is that of thinning them. This is done for the purpose of cleaning and removing all grease from the strings by means of an energetic polishing which, at the same time, removes all inequalities and asperities, as well as the isolated threads and filaments whose agglutination is imperfect.
9To carry out this operation, the strings, still stretched on the frames, should be enveloped by several turns of horsehair cord, grouped in sheaves or masses of some ten to fifteen each. These preliminaries over, the workman takes one of these hair cushions in each hand, and, after having moistened them with a sponge dipped in potassa water, he rubs hard, passing the hair cushions from one end to the other of the strings as many as fifty times, taking care to stop from time to time to moisten his cushions with the alkaline water. This rubbing by hand being very taxing, it is nowadays, in all establishments of any size, carried out by means of a special apparatus, consisting of a carriage which holds the frame, and two inner jaws provided with hair cushions. When the machine is in action, the jaws, which are placed, one above the strings, the other below them, are held together by screws, and polish the strings in a forward and backward movement imparted by the motor of the factory.
11After the thinning, the gut strings are disengaged from the hair, and then wiped with a fresh sponge to clean away the dirt which the rubbing may have left. They are then moistened with fresh water, and once more returned to the sulphur bath, where they are kept for at least one night. On the following day they are given one more twisting and then dried.
13Polishing the Strings
15After the strings have been dried they are polished, though in the case of the E strings this process is usually omitted.
17The frames are first laid flat on trestles or on the freshener, and the strings, one by one, are placed in little gutta-percha cushions, or between folds of cloth, with a little olive oil, fine ground glass, or powdered pumice stone, and they are rubbed from one end to the other by hand until they are perfectly polished. In this case, also, in the larger factories, the hand polishing process is rejected in favor of a polishing machine similar to that used in the thinning already described.
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