Ear on Chicago; Harp

This is a sound of a harp being strummed and tuned, a new harp, it has been handmade, it is being finished today. This is Hugh Hill speaking from the world's only large manufacturer of harps, the Lion and Healy Music Company's factory at 1423 E. West Slake Street in Chicago, and this is the story of how a harp is made. Here at Lion and Healy about 80 harps are made each year. We will be concerned with how just one of those harps is made. Our guide for the program is Mr. Frank Hanslake, who was factory superintendent. While we're listening to the harp being strummed, perhaps I can ask you just a few questions about the company. Is this the only thing now that Lion and Healy manufactures anymore? That is all at the present time. Now what I'd like to know is how we're going to do the story. First of all, this is a finished and completed harp, a very handsome one indeed. But it comes

in separate parts and there are individual parts. Suppose you tell us what each part is. I know there's a long list, but don't go through all of them. Just name a few of the major component parts and then we'll start the program by telling how each one of these parts is made here. The major component part would be the sounding board. Much attention is given to it. Wood has to be seasoned properly and gauge properly to get the final tones, the proper tones. Then we have the action and the column and the base parts, which make the most important component parts. Now Frank, what type of people do you have working here? Do you have men who have been concerned with harp manufacture for many, many years and where do you find this kind of a person? The only ones that were connected with the harp manufacturing are that started with Lion and Healy many, many years ago. When we hire new people, we have to train them. The woodman, our experienced cabinet

makers, most of them learn their trade in the old country. We have to teach him how to make the harp. Okay, Frank, I think we better get on out there and what do you suppose we start with? The sounding board or the column? Well, I would say the sounding board. That's put on to the body first before the column enters the picture. All right, let's go take a look at that operation right now. We've reached the point now where the sounding board is put together. Well, Frank, I suppose since I don't know a thing about making a harp, I just should ask you obvious questions. How has it done? Well, the wood is playing to proper thickness to get the proper vibrations to get your proper tones, but I'd rather let you talk to an expert that's been with us about 43 years, Mr. Al Stiepick. Well, Al, first of all, let me ask you about the woods in this sounding board. Now, just in front of us is a sounding board. And I understand there are many kinds of wood in this

one particular part of the instrument. How many? Well, there is a maple, spruce, satin wood, beets, rosewood, birch, poplar, and walnut. All right. Now, at the moment, no one is working on this particular sounding board. There is one just in front of us. Tell us how it's made, will you? Well, it's the half inch strips are glued together, and then we glue a veneer on it, length ways, and then the top of the sounding board is supposed to be about 73 ,000 veneer thick, and then it... It's supposed to be half thick? 73 ,000, so veneer. 73 ,000 of veneer. Yes. And then it works up to 365 ,000 seat tapers, tapers from 365 ,000 to 73 ,000. Now, that's the board itself. Board itself with the veneer. The veneer is about a little over a

paper thickness on the top, and about... Well, I should say a little less than a eighth of an inch in the bottom. See, that tape is two. Yes. Well, now the board itself is a triangular shaped board. How wide is it up here at the top? Well, that's different lengths, different sizes. Now, we get some that's 22 inches, 20 inches, and 19 inches. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 inches anyway. And how narrow is it down at the bottom? Four inches. Four inches. So, a tapers down from 20 inches at the top, down to four inches at the bottom. Now, how long is it? About 50 inches or so? About 55 inches. Well, take a look. I came pretty close. It's 50, 55 inches. You said this is a long one, or a big one? This is a small one. A long one over there, 23 inches. Oh, I see. All right. Now, that's the board. Now, what about this part that comes on the bottom of the board, down here? What do you

call that? Well, that's a base frame there. It's made out of maple, and it's an inch and a one -eighth thick. It's all curved. It's a curved piece of wood. It's a solid piece of wood. What is a solid piece? This is what I'm talking about. The sides are glued onto it and on the top also. We have what they call a popular piece there. All right. Now, inside of here, we can see down through there, there are some sort of metal ribs. What are those in there for? Well, let's keep the hard part in shape. Keep the keep the shape with those metal ribs. Yes. Well, we want to thank you very much for telling us about this particular part of the operation. We're going to have to move on right now. Thank you very much. Okay, welcome. Frank, where do we go next? Well, there's a man building the neck of a harp, shaping it, which it's always shaped by hand to fit the certain harp. So that we can tell the people exactly where these individual parts

fit. We have done the sounding board and how it is made. Now we're coming to the neck. Now, how do these two things fit together? Where is the first of all the sounding board? That's on the sort of the back end of the harp, isn't it? That's right. The neck is attached to the sounding board. The knee block comes down to the, he's just fitting the knee block here, making the knee block, which will be fit to the top of the sound board. The neck is the top of the sound board or the top of the harp. Top of the harp and the knee block in here that he is shaping fits to the top of the sound board, the narrow end of the sound board. Now, this piece of wood that I have my hand on right now is called the knee block. And it is attached to the neck. That is correct. Now, a little earlier, when we made our original tour, a very brief one indeed, we saw how the necks were made. Now, just behind me here are pieces of wood in the form of what is made over here, the neck. And these individual pieces are what? Oh, not even an eighth of an inch. What is this? That's one twelfth of an inch. That's curly maple.

That is put on top of the neck for decorative purposes only. The neck is made out of seven laminations to give it strength. What laminations are what kind of wood? That's maple. Maple. The reason for that there is a one -toned pressure from the sound board to the neck when it's properly strung and tuned. And the seven laminations in there to give it the strength so it don't collapse or bend or twist out of shape. And then on top of the laminations you put this? The curly maple is for decorative purposes. That's right. That's a one -twelfth of an inch maple. All right. Now, once those are put together, they're stamped together, is that pressed together, glued and they're pressed together? All right. Then they're brought over here for finishing. That is correct. All right. Now, that's what this man is doing right here. That is right. And he's doing it ever so lightly. Let's just listen to that sound. Go right ahead. We just like to listen. Go right ahead. Now, that's the sound of a metal file

being worked on that neck. Actually, he has fitted the neck of the instrument to this knee block. Knee block. And now he's measuring it for some reason. What's he doing now? To shape it properly to fit the heart. Everyone is fit independently to each heart. All right. Let's move on down here and see what's going on. Now, what's going on right here, Frank? This is the original part of the sound board, isn't it? That's the body. That's where the man starts. He's starting with the body. The sound board is attached to the body, which is all done by hand. Right now he is shaping the body for perfect loneliness and smoothness. Now, what purpose has the body with the heart? The sound board is attached to it, I know. But is that where the sound is made right inside of this? Your acoustics would come from that. Oh, I see. Go right ahead. I just like to see a do some of the work on. And he's he's planning it and shaping it now. The ribs are already in there. Where were the ribs, the metal ribs placed? I mean, where was that work done?

Well, one man is makes up the bodies. He's the component parts and he puts the ribs in when he finishes with his woodland. Are the ribs made here also? No, the castings are made on the outside. Go right ahead. That's all right. We can talk. Now, that's it. He's sanding it. What? He's sanding it for perfect smoothness. All right. Now, this vice that he's got this body in looks like it. Well, it looks must be about 50 years old at least, isn't it? I would say every bit of that. Now, Frank told me a story a little while ago that there wasn't too many years ago that the company decided they were going to start making harps on a production line method. In other words, machine tool them. Well, they tried it and it just doesn't work, does it? It just don't work. It's a handmade instrument and always will be. And this is one of the old vices they use. It's, oh, it's about five feet long, I guess, or a little bit longer. Made out of wood, an old vise. And he's got this body in here. We're going to move out of here because he's ready to work with that sander and it's going to be

rather difficult to talk. So we'll move on down the line now and take a look at some of the other operation. What's next, Frank? There's a man working on the columns, fitting the columns to the heart. All right. But first of all, before we do that, let's go back to where the columns are actually made prepared. Let's take a look at that. Right back there. Right back there, the man is working on eight columns, carving eight columns there. All right. Let's go look at that. Now, that sound is a sound of a carver. There are eight carving instruments being worked on eight columns here. And, Frank, once again, I'm just going to ask you what's going on. This gentleman here is carving eight columns. It takes the excess wood out, which, when he is through, it goes to a hand carver. But I'd rather have you ask an expert on this, Mr. Bill McKayka. Well, Bill, first of all, let me attempt at

describing what a column is. Earlier in the broadcast, when Frank was telling us that the column is part of the heart, I said that it looks like the column at a house, at a home, in front of a home. It's round, and that's exactly what it does look like on a much smaller scale. Now, first of all, I think I better ask you the dimensions. How long is the column? Oh, approximately about 67 inches. And how thick is it? Oh, three and a half, two, three and three quarter inches thick in the center. Now, at different ends of the column, you have different carvings made. Is that the top end down there, the fat end? That's right. The heavy end is the top end. And then it tapers down. How thick is the top end? Oh, five and about five and three eight inches in diameter. In diameter and down at the lower end? About five inches. All right. Now, tell us exactly how this works. First of all, may I say that in the very middle of the one, two, three, four, eight columns, four columns on the right and four columns on the left, and then in the middle, is a column that is in place and has already been carved. I

suppose he uses that for a model. Is that right? That's right. That's the model. In other words, he takes his instruments, he lines them up on the model, and the other eight tools cut new columns. They follow the center pattern, yes sir. And what is that instrument called that he guides with on the center pattern? Well, it's a guide. They call it a guide in a carving machine. And there's one for each different size of tool. What size of tool is he using now? That's a quarter inch. Now, you start out. You should start out with a three quarter inch tool. Take off the heavy wood. And then you take the quarter inch tool, and you must smoothen everything out. Make everything get the shape of everything. And then with the third tool, it's a fine tool. You've vained line it. You get your sharp edges and the scrolls and everything else. Well, now Bill, we've arrived to the point where he's making the carvings. But at one time, you would have to start with just a piece of wood that would look like a post, I suppose. That's right, sir. Then we build the column with a straight piece of wood and when the column is finished, it's squared. Well, I think that pretty much tells the story. But Bill, where

is the man working that does the hand carving? Oh, right over there, right behind the carving machine carving machine. Oh, I can see him from here, yes. He's going to work on one of the columns over there. Well, Bill, thanks a million for talking to us about this. Thank you, sir. Frank, I guess we better move on. Then we're talking too much about the columns, probably. We have so much more to cover. Where do we move on? Well, I think you should step in a little bit to see that hand carving. That is very interesting and highly skilled work. All right, let's walk over there. Now we've arrived at the point where the man is working on the column. Actually, he's working on another piece of equipment right now. A bit of feet. A bit of feet. And he is hand carving defeat on it. Now as Frank told you, there are between 50 and 100 different tools, chisels. And I asked Frank when we walked over here, what does he do? Chisel him down to a certain smoothness and then sand them off. And he said, no, there's no sanding at all. That the chisel does all the work.

And if you've ever wanted to see a man do precision work with tools, this is the place to see it. A man here standing here, could I have your name, sir? William Bussie. William Bussie. William, how long have you been doing this kind of work? Oh, on my wife. For that's how many years? Well, 45 years. On carving. 45 years you've been carving. Yeah. Well, you do a fine job. That's beautiful work. Believe me. Thank you. Now after the carving is done, the column is finished. And of course, he has Frank said he's working here on the feet. And all of the carving is done right in this general area. Pretty soon we're going to have to get to the point where all of these parts are assembled. But before we do, there must be a part or two we haven't seen being manufactured, or carved, or whatever they do to it. What's next, Frank? Well, I would say the final assembly of the wood parts. Down at the other end? We'd go down to the other end. All right, let's go down to the other end of the building.

It's only about 100 feet away and take a look at that. Frank and I have now arrived at the place where all of the parts, or at least most of them, are fitted. Now by that, we mean they, first of all, let me explain, that since a harp is all handmade, no two harps are the same. So for example, we have here the sounding board and the body which fits on the sounding board, standing on the upright. Now in a moment, they're going to fit the neck of this instrument, and there's a small hole here at the top of the sounding board, and into that hole fits the small wooden peg which is attached to the end of the neck. Now that has to fit perfectly. Then they bring the column in, and the column is stood upright, and that must fit perfectly. So the man that is working over here with the plane and the chisel, and all of the instruments that he has to work with, has to fit each individual harp. I suppose I described that properly, didn't I, Frank? I think very well. Well now, he has one two columns there and two

sounding boards over here and two neck, so I suppose that we have two harps right in front of it. Every man works on harps and pairs, works on two harps. For the reason while he's gluing on one, going through the drying process, he's working on the other one. Well now, Frank, once he has all of these pieces fitted properly so that they can be assembled, we're just about to the end of the harp manufacturer. All you have to do is assemble the parts. Am I right? That, and there's a lot of gluing and finishing of the wood parts, spring, rubbing. Where do we see that? That's just a little way down. All right, let's go take a look at that, and then what about the final assembly? That's back in the room where we started. That is right. All right, let's move on down here to that sanding and working on it down here, the finishing. We're in the room where the spring of lacquer on the wood pieces is being done. You probably hear a little bit of an echo here and back behind us, you could hear the sound of a fan. Hear that hiss? That's the sprayer right there. Listen to it.

Now, Frank, after this point, we might explain that we've been working with raw wood. The wood was being finished and fitted and put together, and now we have to reach the point where the lacquer is going to be put on. Now, he's putting on one coat here, but I notice that the wood that he's putting it on already has, at least one, or perhaps two, or maybe even three coats of lacquer. How many do you put on? We put seven coats of lacquer on every heart, and after each coat, it is a properly dried end rep. Now, the heart piece working on is what we call a natural heart. Sometimes, he's spraying the column at now. That will be a natural, a natural wood. Other hearts are finishing gold. The one behind us over here, which has just been sprayed, is still wet. Is a body, is that the part to this one over here? That is the body to that time, yes sir. In other words, what he's doing now is working on the column. He's almost finished this coat that he's working on here. A few moments ago, he finished the

body, and the body is over here on a vice, standing just behind us, and it's drying out. And now, a little while later, after it dries out, he'll rub it. Is that right? That is correct. All right. Now, Frank, there's one more thing here that I want to ask you about, and that's the design, which is imprinted on this body. Where is that done? That's done in the gilding room. This particular heart you're looking at designs are decals. We have some harps that are hand -painted. Will we be able to see some? I believe so. But this is a decal, right here. That is a decal. The striping you see if the gold striping is done by hand. The gold striping, you mean along the... On the soundboard. Yeah, I see. Oh, yes, in here. A long stripe running the full length of the soundboard makes a complete... Parallelogram, I suppose you'd call it, and you wouldn't be completely correct, but you'd be very close. Well, anyway, let's move on into the gilding room and take a look at what goes on in there. Now, we've come into a room where there's some painting

going on. I'm not sure that this is gilding. Is that right? That's the gilding room. That's right. It's a preparation for the gilding. All right. I use the proper word. Now, tell us what happens here. There's four coats of white ink put on a column, and it has to be smooth as glass. It's sanded and slipped. After that's prepared, there's three coats of clay put on. Then your gill, gold is put on. There's 24 -curred gold leaf put on. It's two and three layers of gold leaf. But I've got a man here, Mr. Snegowski. That is very well. Your handle is very well. Very good. Much better than me, so I'll turn you over to Mr. Snegowski. Okay, Frank. Listen, first of all, may I ask you about the white ink that he mentioned. Now, this column looks like it's been painted white. Well, it has. It has four coats of white ink brushed on it. It's not actually paint, though, is it? No, it's not paint. It's sort of a filler. Is that what you'd call it? It's not sort of a filler to fill all the pores in the wood and gives it a smooth finish. Now

what happens after that? Well, after we get this whining, we have to slip it with sticks and stones and using water. Sticks and stones? That's right. I don't understand that. What do you mean by that? Well, what I have to see it to understand it? Well, I'd like to show you a couple of these pieces and you get an idea of just what's being done with it. All right, show me another one. Then I can understand. First time we ever got to the point where sticks and stones. All right, I'll hold it up for you. Now, you see this whiting, it's mixed. It's got a mixture of rabbit skin glue. And by using these stones, they're shaped to fit each ring and each part of the carving in the column. Each groove of that carving. That's right. And all these stones and sticks are shaped and we use water to rub them down with. And this water dissolves that and smooths it off. Smooths it off. All right, I understand now actually what he meant. Sticks and stones is the terminology used by you. It's really

not a stick or a stone. It's a piece of wood with a little groove in it. And the groove, the groove fits into the carving here on this column in which he's working. And he rubs that. And here's the stone. The stone is just a small, well, it is a stone, isn't it? It is. It's a stone. Some of these stones are something like you find in limestone and others. All right, now after he has the whiting on, there's another coat put on over here. This is another filler material of some kind. After the whining is slipped, we sandpapered, smooth. And then we size it again. The rabbits can glue which is a little weaker than the size we used before. And then we apply about four coats of that red clay. And then the gold. Then that red clay is sandpapered again. And then you finally come over here to the gold. And it has to be polished and sized over again. And then we begin to apply the gold. Actually, to take quite a good deal of time

to explain completely the entire process of putting gold leaf on part of the harp. So we won't be able to go into that. Well, now there's one more thing that we have to do. And that's going into the assembly room and see all the parts put together. We've seen how they're made and we've seen how they've fitted and we've seen how they are finished. Now the parts are all finished and fitted and ready to be put together. The strings attached and the harp completed. Where has that done, Frank? That's in the next room. All right, let's take a walk over there. Frank, we've come into the room where we started the program. Where we heard the strumming of the harp. The time that we left, the young man that was working on it has finished. And in here, as you said, is where the instruments are assembled. Now, we don't want to go into complete detail because we don't have much time left on the program. But you might describe briefly to us how it's done. Why don't you let me turn you over to a young man here, Mr. Joe Blod. It's been with us for 43 years. I think he can do a better job. Joe, I hope

he's not saying anything that isn't true. You look like a young man to me. 43 is 47 years. All right. Now, Joe, tell us briefly how they're assembled. We saw how the parts were made and fitted. We received the harps in three parts. We get the calium and the neck separate. The body is separate and the action is separated. And then, of course, we combine the body with the neck. Then we apply the action on there. Then our pedal works in rods. And after it's time standing up, then we put the strings on, tune them. And after about eight or ten tunings, then comes the final regulation, where the strings must be perfect condition in a flat key, natural key, and sharp keys. Then you get the correct combinations of tones like the key of A, key of G, key of B. And then the harp is already to play. Joe, are you a musician? Well, when I was young, I started off on a accordion, hand accordion, the first thing, when I was only about six years old. But I had that tune in me ever since. And I can tune a harp in the fraction of about three minutes,

47 strings, yeah. Well, how do you do it just by listening? By area. I tune it in a key of C or a key of A, 448, like they tune a violin and all other instruments. Just just by ear. Well, now, Joe, I won't go into detail as to how a harp is played because it is rather complicated, but is it similar to any kind of a string instrument, such as a guitar? Yes, the same, same as a guitar, a band you're mandolin. As you shorten the string by your pedal action, you shorten the string, you sharpen it. Joe, how much does a harp like this one right here cost? That one is about $1 ,600. That's one of our keep on $1 ,600. And they run up to $4 ,600. I understand you just came back from fixing a harp. Yes, I was down orchestra hall. I was putting a pedal rod in an accident, finally happened. And it was a minor, but we took care of it, all right. Whose harp was it? Mr. Vito's from the first harpist of the Chicago

Symphony Orchestra. Now, let me ask you this. Is this the finest harp in the world? There's nothing finer. Absolutely. You make 80 a year here, is that all? 80, 90. And then we have quite a number of repair work. It comes in, we take care of repair work. It comes in, you know, about 16 repairs a month that we take care of. And we rejuvenate, you know. Where are our harps made other than here at Lyon and Healy? Well, there's a small independent fellow down in Lindemann, and that's in Chicago on Peterson Road. And he manufactured about three harps the most a year. They made overseas, too? Yes, they are made overseas. We're not in any kind of a capacity like this. No, no, no. They still make them little foreign harps that are of a weaker construction, because then people carry them on their backs and they play in backyards and wherever they get a little job, you know. And they're

really, really light. They only weigh about 30, 32, 34 pounds. How much is this one weight? They're 72. Well, Joe, this is not only a beautiful instrument to listen to, it's a beautiful instrument to see. It's just a handsome thing. This one that you say costs $1 ,600. One of your cheaper harps, believe me, is a magnificent piece of equipment. Well, we want to thank you, Joe, for talking to us about how they're put together. Frank, thanks a million for going through and showing us how harp is made. It was a pleasure. That's the story of Lyon and Healey's harp manufacturing plant out on West Lake Street in Chicago. And this is Hugh Hill speaking.