[ This is a portion of the correspondence from Dr. Clarence
 [ Hickman to his great niece, Judy, and is provided through the
 [ generosity of Dr. Hickman's family and MMDer James Brady.

June 3, 1978

Dear Judy:

The attached long letter was written not to minimize the importance
of my contributions to the development of the Model B Ampico but was
written to claim that it required no great brain power or ability to
make those contributions.

This is true of my contributions in other fields such as archery,
rockets, submarine mines, magnetic records, telephone equipment,
electrical computations and measurements, and photographic equipment.

I consider that my greatest contribution was the development of a very
simple grand piano action, which was never put into production.  Even
this invention did not take much brain power.  The present grand piano
action is very complicated and often requires adjustments.  I have in
my piano one of my grand piano actions that was installed in 1928 and
it never has required any adjustments.

It is too bad that the stock market crash came when it did, for that
put a stop to any further improvements in pianos.  The organ develop-
ments have been fantastic but the piano action remains the same.

References in the long letter to other fields were included to again
show that my contributions were valuable but required no great brain
power.

I do not think that I will be coming to Indiana this summer.  I doubt
if Ruth comes.  She now has a kitten that will keep her from leaving
Tampa.

I hope that what I have written will be of value to you.  Ruth sent
me a clipping about the birthday for Nicole.  I guess she is some gal
according to Ruth.  I am sure that she provides much of interest to
you and Gerald.

Sincerely,

Clarence