Hello all,  One of the things at the forefront of my mind lately has
been the picture on page 303 in Ron Bopp's "American Carousel Organ"
book of the abandoned (?) Artizan factory building, sitting in the
middle of the weed-strewn land in North Tonawanda.  I would like to know
who owns this building?  Is there anything in it?  Has it been used for
anything since Artizan folded in 1929?  I understand that offices
occupy part of the Wurlitzer complex, and an auto parts store is in
the former North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works (NTMIW) factory.

Regarding that, I was surprised to learn of the one-time existence of
most of the paperwork, blueprints, plans, drawings, etc., of NTMIW,
which was removed from a trap door in a platform located in what was
the chief engineer's office during the Remington Rand years.  Willard
Dittmar, who was the one who actually discovered and removed the
paperwork from its hiding place, tells the sad story of leaving the
paperwork on the platform intending to get permission from the boss to
have it the very next day, and finding out that the night watchman had
mistook the papers for scrap and burned them all up in the fire hole(!)

When I first read this, I pictured myself strangling the night watchman
for being so thoughtless, but then I figured that _he_ didn't know any
better.  Actually, now I feel sorry for the poor guy; now he knows that
his well-meaning but mistaken action has lost us an important chunk of
history.  And, he has to live with that for the rest of his life.  As
a matter of fact, I peg this loss on about the same level as the loss
of the Hupfeld Helios V orchestrions.  However, I suppose there is an
outside chance that a second copy of these papers may exist, perhaps
on deposit at the Library of Congress?  Could someone look into this?

Getting back to Artizan, I understand that they were formed partly by
former members of NTMIW who didn't like the way Rand was running things.
Since there seem to be some similarities between the products of both
firms (similar/same musical scales, as well as a similarity in the
design of both factories), could the Artizan building have a similar
platform with a trapdoor, and still have paperwork relating to the
firm?  This is another thing I would like to find out.

The last of several staggering requests is for some biographical
information on employees and directors of these two companies,
especially John Birnie, Stillman C. Woodruff, and Frank Morganti.
I am not really looking for the dry facts (birth, death, education,
etc.) so much as anecdotes about these people.

What were they like?  Were they outspoken, quiet, in-between?  Did they
have any unusual and interesting habits?  What did they like to do in
their spare time?  How did they get along with their family?  What did
they do before and after their work with the company?

It is these type of personal things that I think are important, and
are being lost.  It is all well and good to know the dry facts about
companies and their products, but historians sometimes fail to realize
that companies are made up of _people_, and people all have their own
stories.  All of which makes it that much more interesting, enjoyable
and empathetic to own an instrument and have it play and realize it
wasn't just stamped out of a mold, but was carefully designed and built
by _people._

Thank you,
Andrew Barrett

P.S. Thanks to a certain person who has provided me with info on the
primary musical arranger for North Tonawanda, John William Tussing.
P.P.S. If people didn't ask questions, nothing would be learned.