THE MOUTH ORGAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1939, Page 4

THE MOUTH ORGAN

INVENTED BY WORKMAN ' The mouth-organ is a lusty old centenarian that carries its years heartily and has already rounded the world. In the Swiss canton of Lausanne it is known as the “lip file” (lime levres). In German Switzerland it is called “mouth fiddle,” in Mexico “mouth organ” (organ de boca), in Columbia it is the “dulzaina.” In its native town of Trossingen it is simply the “mouth harmonica.” Its big brother, the accortion, is called the “hand harmonica,” writes Marc F. P. Angier, in the “Science et Voyages,” Paris. The mouth organ was invented by an artisan living in the Black Forest in 1821. To-day it is manufactured with highly-perfected machines to the tune of a million a year. Industrial concentration has put what is virtually a world monopoly of harmonica production in the hands of a single firm. Though a few Italian, Swiss, and Czech shops still produce accordions, the production of “mouth harmonicas” is confined to Trossingen. It is no accident that the mouth organ still remains attached to the region of its birth. Despite its metal shell and its brass sound-boards, the harmonica is essentially a wooden instrument. The wood for its manufacture comes from the Black Forest. It is. allowed to dry in the open-air for four or five years, and then it is baked in ovens for 15 days at a temperature of 112-140 degrees. After this processing, the wood does not contain more than 3 per cent, of water.

Regardless of shape or musical properties, all mouth organs consist in essence of the following:—A slab of wood in which the air channels are cut out, two brass or iron soundboards that hold the reeds —the small copper tongues that produce the notes by their vibrations. The two metal soundboards are nailed on to either side of the slab of wood. The instrument is then placed in an outer shell consisting of two metal covers. The slabs of wood with the air channels are carved, polished, and cut with machine tools that have been specially designed for the factory at Trossingen, a gigantic industrial unit employing 3000 workers and containing some unusual machines. There are as many air channels as there are reeds, and the dimensions of each channel correspond to the reed that is to vibrate in it. The slab of wood is polished, daubed with varnish, and distributed in large baskets. The soundboards for cheap instruments are made at tremenoous speed with a punching machine from an iron plate. But, despite the pace, at. which i it works, the machine operates with the greatest precision—its accuracy is within 1-JOOth of a millimeter. The covers are stamped out by the thousands. The inscriptions that go on them are in all languages, since they are ear-marked for every corner of the globe. SKILL IN PRODUCTION As production approaches the later stages, an increasing degree of skill is involved. The reeds come in heaped baskets —a basket of A’s, one of B’s, another of C’s. etc.—and the women who attach the reeds to the*

sound-boards must see to it that the rivetting takes place with the first stroke of the rivetting machine. Next the soundboards are wrapped up and stacked away in large rooms for entire weeks. When the metal rivets and reeds have taken their definite shape they are brought to the “tuning” dpartment. This tuning is a highly-specialised operation. The free vibration period of the reed on the soundboard must be ascertained. Each man tunes about 40 dozen instruments a day. The tuners have been transmitting their skill from father to son since 1880, and it has been primarily due to this select personnel that the firm has managed to retain its world monopoly. If it is relatively easy to produce a mouth organ, it is infinitely more difficult to provide an instrument that is perfectly tuned and that will not react to heat, cold or humidity. To this end a large section of the factory is divided into innumerable small soundproof compartments. In each of these a “tuner” is at work. He has before him something that looks like a small organ and a • model harmonica attached to it. He connects the blowing apparatus with the soundboard that he is to tune, and as he works the pedals two notes are heard —that of the model and that of the reed that he is adjusting. If the reed produces a sound that is too high he brushes its base with his file; if it is too low he files the extremity. Before long the two reeds are vibrating in unison like the wings of a large insect in the sun. The first tuning takes place only after the soundboards and reeds have been stored for weeks. They are then put away a second time for several weeks and tuned again. Finally the rest of the assembling is done and the instrument is ready for the market. It seems incredible that the output of mass production during the early operations is absorbed by the handicraft work of the final stages. Yet such is the case.