My Special lady is working in the building where 'A' became 440.
I pass this building everyday and had no idea of it's history.
I just thought it might be of interest to some of the more nerdy folk around here.

Anything to add, Warmowski?

http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/deagan/index.html

japmn wrote:My Special lady is working in the building where 'A' became 440.
I pass this building everyday and had no idea of it's history.
I just thought it might be of interest to some of the more nerdy folk around here.

Anything to add, Warmowski?

http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/deagan/index.html

Ha! No, not too much to add. I started renting/working in here about six weeks ago.

The Deagan building has been home to mallet and percussion instrument-builders for 96 years. Chimes and mallet instruments are still being made by building tenant Century Mallet. The main craft guy there is Gilberto Serna, who serves as de facto Deagan historian...I'm sure I'll go and say hello any day now.

About the tuning system - the way I understand it, the Greeks along with Bach's well-tempered tuning got us in the neighborhood but until the Deagan company locked the system into a standard (A=440 Hz) in the 1910s, local preference determined tuning.

The Deagan company's business was manufacturing mallet instruments to the different tunings of different orchestras around the world. At the time, these were not standard. In Philadelphia, A=438. In NYC, it might be 442. Etc. That meant lots of extra manufacturing expense for Deagan (and all mallet/chime instrument makers).

A non-standard tuning reference meant that assembly lines and mass production techniques could not be used. One set of scale values in Philadelphia and another in New York meant that all manufacturers had to cut the chime bodies slightly shorter or longer or thicker for each different orchestra/customer.

J.C. Deagan did appeal to the AFM - the national musician's union - to enforce A=440 and it held, holds to this day as a recognized "standard" for the large majority of western music technology.

Slingerland drums bought Deagan at some point in the 60s, and Slinger drums were made here for a while. The Deagan name was bought by Yamaha at some later point.

There's no doubt more amazing stories. I will probably find a few out.

-r

Is this the building where Century Mallet Instruments is now? We rented an incredible set of Marimbas from them a few years ago. Magical sound.

steve wrote:Is this the building where Century Mallet Instruments is now? We rented an incredible set of Marimbas from them a few years ago. Magical sound.

Yep, this is the building...just down the street from Touch & Go in fact.

http://www.centurymallet.com/

-r

BadComrade wrote:The dial tone on the U.S. telephone system is A 440

I thought it was "Signal faded. Call lost."

smazur wrote:

BadComrade wrote:The dial tone on the U.S. telephone system is A 440

I thought it was "Signal faded. Call lost."

I'm too slow.

My joke was going to be:

"What the hell is a dial tone?"