Staying on the Subject
By Jody Kravitz
There has been a lively conversation going on the last few weeks regarding the appropriateness of differrent restoration techniques. We've had discussions about "original" restorations .vs. renewal using modern technologies and safety standards. We've seen discussions about motor rewinding, mechanical switch repair, and grounding to name a few. Recently, nothing has sparked as much debate (sorry for the pun) as the use of mercury switches (especially "open topped" ones) in restored instruments.
I feel very torn about how to deal with topics like this. Generally subscribers debate the pros and cons of various techniques, often sharing personal anecdotes which make for entertaining reading as well as providing educational content. When several opinions on a subject of discussed, its my expectation that the readers will come to their own conclusion as to what correct for them, balancing things like safety, originality, etc. in a way that is appropriate for them. Its my preference in most cases to not take sides on an issue, but rather let the group reach a concensus or agree to disagree.
Because I felt it was important for some balance regarding "safety" issues, I allowed two "rebuttal" articles to go out regarding the safety aspects of using "unsealed" mercury. Unfortunately these two articles resulted in additional (unpublished) articles to arrive rebutting the rebuttals. Thus the discussion of mercury has gone beyond a tecnnical discussion and is starting to feel like a political or religious discussion. When it comes to politics and religion, reasonable people WILL disagree and may even become unreasonable about their disagreements.
While I think that it is "on the topic" to discuss statistics regarding reproducing pianos, vacuum systems, motor life, market values, etc., I don't think its on the topic to discuss medical or environmental data, especially data which has come to us 3rd or 4th hand, nor is it on the topic to discuss the politics associated with them. There's plenty of other forums on the Internet for these topics (there are dozens if not hundreds).
I've held up publication of the digest for a couple of days while I thought this problem out and have decided to NOT publish several submissions that further the diverging discussion on this topic. I want to thank those who have written further on the topic for their time and trouble, but its time to move on to technical topics on which we _ARE_ the experts.
Once again, my apologies to those of you who took the time to write on the subject of mercury safety who haven't been heard. I value your continued input to the digest on other topics.
Jody
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(Message sent Sun 25 Aug 1996, 01:31:17 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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