| TEXT | Though less extensive and imposing in external appearance than the one already noticed, deserves a place among the largest and most important establishments of the kind in the United States. It is located on a corner of Twenty-second street and Second Avenue, and, including the space appropriated to storing lumber, covers about half an acre of ground. The manufacturing operations are carried on in two buildings - one, six stories high, having a front of sixty-six feet, and a depth of ninety feet; and the other, sixty by one hundred feet, four stories in height. Connected with the latter, is the Lumber Yard, in which a stock of nearly a million of feet is constantly kept, under- going the process of thorough seasoning. No lumber is used by this firm, in the construction of Pianos, until it has been seasoned at least a year, and then dried for four months longer in rooms, kept at a uniform heat of about 100° Fahrenheit. The drying-rooms are most admirably arranged, with a capacity sufficient to contain one hundred thousand feet of lumber. The selection of lumber, and its careful preparation, are points of essential importance in making Pianos that will be durable in any climate; and we know of no firm, engaged in the manufacture, who give more attention to this important particular than Haines Brothers, in which they are aided by a large capital. After the lumber has been thoroughly dried, and judged fit for use by a high and rigid standard, it is converted into cases, in the building on the north side of Twenty-second street, which is provided with all the tools - such as planers, circular saws, upright turning saws, etc. - necessary for expeditious wood-working. The machinery is propelled by an engine of forty-horse pqwer, and three boilers furnish steam sufficient for the drying-rooms, and to heat both buildings, in. which there are over ten thousand feet of steam pipes, and which are connected by means of pipes under the street. Passing to the main building, we find the office and warerooms on the first floor, two entire stories occupied as varnish rooms, and the other portions divided into numerous rooms, each devoted to a special purpose. About three hundred Pianos are in course of construction in this manufactory each day, and, consequently, the workmen have constant employment in that in which long experience has made them perfect. In the Action-regulating Department, for instance, there are men who are employed all the time in adjusting and regulating the "action", which, though composed of several pieces, has been arranged according to a mathematical scale, and made by those skilled in the several parts. Perfect workmanship is hardly attainable, except in establishments like this, where the business is sufficiently large to afford the principal workmen constant employment in one line of duty. The capital employed by this firm in the manufacture, exceeds two hundred thousand dollars, which enables them to procure materials in large quantities, and on favorable terms. In the store-room, there are as many as two hundred and fifty sets of keys, ready for use, and a large stock of wire, buckskin and metallic plates. The steel wire used by them is of American manufacture, which is quite equal (and some say superior), in quality and finish, to the foreign wire. All of the seven-octave Pianos, manufactured by this firm, have iron frames, with overstrung bass; and their seven-and-a-quarter-octave Piano is the most powerful and superb instrument that has, as yet, been made. Among the improvements made by them, and which are adopted in all their Pianos, the least costly as well as the most expensive, is a peculiar construction of the sounding-board, and the substitution of Wooden for Iron bridges. The latter, it is asserted, is one cause of the distinguishing feature of the Haines Pianos, viz.; evenness and equality, as well as purity of tone. Among the novelties to be seen in their ware-rooms, is a Stereoscopic view of the interior of their manufactory, prepared at a cost of six hundred dollars, by which the visitor may see all parts of the extensive establishment, while comfortably seated on a Piano stool. The firm of Haines Brothers is composed of Napoleon J. and Francis W. Haines, both practical workmen, who served a long apprenticeship in their present vocation. The senior partner has been engaged in the manufacture of Pianos since 1839, and, after thirteen years' service in other establishments, commenced business for his own account in 1852, in which he was shortly afterward joined by his brother. Adopting, from the beginning, the principle of making a thoroughly reliable instrument, and selling it for a moderate price, they, like the Steinways, have achieved a success that may truly be called remarkable. In 1856, they were enabled to erect their present manufactories, now too small for their extended operations; and, in 1857, they built the marble warehouses, now owned by them, Nos. 626 and 628 Broadway. Encomium, in instances of this kind, is but a just tribute to meritorious enterprise, which has compelled the musical journals of London to acknowledge that Americans are "much farther advanced in the art of manufacturing Piano Fortes than is generally supposed in Europe." Over 1000 Pianos were made by this firm in 1867. |
