PT Journal Index

John Baird jbaird@fgi.net
Sun, 03 May 1998 16:39:36 -0500


Dear List,

I'm sorry I didn't see the discussion of this topic a few days ago and
jump in.

The Frank Emerson Index that I will be demonstrating at the Cybercafe in
Providence is a - huge - resource! This a periodical index of 13,675
articles of interest to piano technicians from 31 journals. All but
about 300 of those are from either our former journal, The Piano
Technician (May 1946 to Dec 1957), or our current journal, Piano
Technicians Journal (Jan 1958 to the current issue). As a note of
interest, the earliest three listings are from the "Proceedings of the
Royal Music Association" in 1917, 1938 and 1939.

This index is the result of many years of effort by Frank Emerson, RPT,
formerly a research engineer with Baldwin, now with Mason & Hamlin.
(Frank will also be at the Cybercafe showing piano design with AutoCAD.)

Frank used his index for his own research purposes, and he gave it to a
handful of others. Eventually he wrote software for searching the index
with the intention of marketing it. However, he advertised only once in
the Journal before he realized he that he didn't want to get into the
software support business. 

Sometime later Frank graciously turned his index over to the Electronic
Communications Committee (ECC) for PTG use--zero cost to PTG for several
thousand dollars worth of Frank's effort and time! 

(I'll resend this later with a little more background added).

John Baird, Member
PTG Electronic Communications Committee


This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC