Klarinet Archive - Posting 000850.txt from 1999/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Oven baked clarinet
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 13:35:16 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.37
> Subj: [kl] Oven baked clarinet

> At 08:55 PM 5/15/99 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >I remember quite awhile ago reading about a NY flutist's theory (I just
> >forget who it was) that the molecules in the material gets "unsettled"
> >with playing.
> >He advocated putting the flute in an oven ( he had a process for
> >that) and "setting" the molecules for good.
> >That was of course a metal flute. You wouldn't want to do this with a
> >wooden clarinet, molecules or not.

The flutist's name was Harold Bennet and his theory was that the
manufacturing process disturbed the molecules of the wood from
their natural state when the wood was part of a tree. Thus he
developed a process that HE SAID realigned the molecules to put
them back the way they were originally. He called it "Homogonizing"
and it was not done in an oven. He never allowed people in the
room with him when he actually homogonized an instrument but the
general opinion was that he used a vibrator.

Some people swore by his process. Others said that he was simply
a superior technician who knew how to tighten up an instrument.
Others said that he was a fraud. After his death the details
of his process were lost and have not been replicated since.

But some very big people swore that he made miracles with
their instrument. I liked him because, at the time in
the early 1950s to the late 1960s, he had New York's finest
private collection of pornography.

>
> Actually, I *do* have a clarinet in my closet that I'd like to try this
> with, but I'll probably end up making a lamp out of it instead... :-)
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
>
> Gary Smith
>
>
> garysmith@-----.com
>
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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