An Alfred Dolge Interview in 1881, Published in an 1881 MTR Magazine

Anything worth printing to-day?" one of our reporters asked while 
looking in at Alfred Dolge's office the other day, and a spirit of

mischief made him add: ''besides that bashful Sounding Board Advertisement

of yours?" That was too much, of course, and before he knew it, he

found himself in the sanctum, where Mr. A. D. unbosomed himself in his

usual drastic style.

" See here, sir, if an advertisement is to show what a man can do and is

doing, I should like to see one that is more to the point than mine. The

truth of my figures (which, by the way, never lie, you know) I can show

you from my books any moment, and if you will take the trouble of a trip

to Brocketts, you will see enough of the finest spruce there to make

my 41,000 Boards of 1880 twice over! I will just give you a nutshell full

of the fine points to which I have brought this industry, and then you will

understand its fabulously rapid growth."

Since I am cutting my stuff in my own forests, it pays best for the

present as well as for the future, to select only the largest and entirely

sound and straight trees; if I had to buy the stuff in the log, I could not,

of course, control the quality as I do now. Of every tree only the butt log

(the lowest 13 feet) is taken for sounding boards, no matter how clear and

tempting the next 13 feet look, because only this lower end is habitually and

constitutionally free from knots, wind shakes, cross grain and a dozen other

immoralities, of which you editors never dream. After sawing, the planks

are piled under open sheds and exposed to the sharp, dry, piercing winds of

our mountains for one or two years, which gives a most wonderful and

thorough seasoning without affecting the texture of the stuff. When

thoroughly seasoned, the boards are planed and edged, dried again for a few

weeks in steam-heated kilns, and then assorted according to length, width,

color, grain and other qualities, ready for use. This assorting, which is

performed by experts with admirably keen and quick eyes, is one of the

most important features of the whole work. Each lot contains several thousand

feet of faultless spruce of exactly uniform quality and size, so that the

men who ' match' or lay out the sounding boards,—experts again of ripe

judgment and unerring eye—are bound to make any number of boards absolutely

alike as long as they use the same lots of stuff. After gluing, which

is done with the best material obtainable and facilitated by several ingenious

machines specially got up for the purpose, the boards are tested, cut into

shape and pass through the planers,—unique machines again—where they

receive any thickness and taper desired, together with a highly finished surface.

This done, they are subjected to a final close examination and are then

ready for shipment. The test just mentioned consists in exposing a good

sample (say 6 or 12 boards) of each lot to a heat of 180 degrees Fahrenheit in a

steam-heated box for a few days. If they stand this without showing the slightest

effect, they are good; but if they crack or show any alteration, the entire

lot, which they represent, is put back for further seasoning until it stands the

test. So you see, complaints in this direction are well-nigh an impossibility.

The cases, especially those destined for export, are made as nearly air-tight

as possible, to keep out the moist air, and generally arrive in perfect order."

"Another good point in my favor is that I am a practical piano maker

myself, and have, with these my hands, made many a hundred sounding

boards in my day, all of which, I trust, are still doing duty and giving satisfaction.

So I know exactly what is needful, and have personally instructed

my foremen accordingly. Moreover, even now, when everything goes like

clockwork at the mills, and I am still waiting for the first word of complaint

about one of the forty-one thousand boards shipped last year, I never fail to

spend half a day or so in the sounding board department once a week, or

whenever I come to Brocketts, and to examine most critically into every

detail, down to the very glue brushes. That is what gives a man the right

feeling to stand up for h.s work if necessary. And the men like it too, I

assure you; for every one of them is ambitious and does his best. Why?

Because whenever I get favorable reports or other acknowledgments from my

customers abroad or here, I take the letters up to the factory and read them to

the men, and each one gets his due of the credit us well as of the more substantial

results.

" Where all these boards go? It would be easier to tell you where they

do not go. They go to about every place where there is a good piano made,

and where progress is appreciated.

" But now don't let me detain you any longer, sir; there is a nice half

column for you, and a good match to that advertisement you were pleased to

criticize just now. Good-bye!"