Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 149
Scan 149
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
8 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 127. See the scan on archive.org.
1By 1904 the fine quality of these pianofortes was recognized in the United States and abroad, as was attested by the artists using them. When the company required more capital to develop its business, the need was supplied by the Cable Company of Chicago, owned by the Haverfingers of Minneapolis, since this firm made no high-priced quality instrument and desired one. The management continued as before. By the time the Haverfingers sold their interest in 1924 to the American Piano Company, the Mason & Hamlin pianoforte had won a reputation second to none, both in the United States and abroad. The American Piano Company introduced the Ampico into all styles of Mason & Hamlin grands and the Welte-Mignon reproducing mechanism into their uprights.
3Up to the time the American Piano Company reorganized and the Aeolian Company bought the Mason & Hamlin Company, about 35,000 pianofortes had been manufactured. They were made for a long time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, later in the former factory of Hallet, Davis & Company in Neponset, and since 1932 in a separate plant of the Aeolian American Corporation at Rochester, New York.
5The Mason & Hamlin Company contributed in 1900 a major invention, the tension resonator. Various attempts had been made previously to overcome the loss in tone quality due to the inability of the slightly-arched wood sounding board of the pianoforte to retain its tension under varying climatic conditions which often caused the wood to contract and flatten. In this invention the underside of the arch or crown of the sounding board was re-enforced by bars at right angles to the grain of the board, which was parallel to the bridge in order to help resist the downward pressure of the strings due to their 40,000 pound tension. There were also two cases, and continuous outer and lower inner rims to hold the iron plate and sounding board. This construction gave greater strength, preserved the elasticity of the sounding board and also unified the various contributory tonal factors.
7The result of this invention has been to give Mason & Hamlin pianofortes a remarkable singing tone. While it is still somewhat of a question how permanently effective the tension resonator is in fulfilling its mission, this invention has spurred on other pianoforte manufacturers to make efforts to attain the same end.
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