Lowell Gauge

[Bill Ballard]

At 10:06 PM -0500 2/25/04, David Skolnik wrote:
>It's doubtful that Lowell was able to retire on all the profits he 
>made off the gauge.  The investment is surely sizable, and you know 
>right off that the Journal illustrator isn't buying one.

A surgeon specializing in organ transplants normally isn't interested 
in the pathology of the organs he's replacing. Then again, there 
would be no better way of confirming the existence of rolled bridges.

>You'd have to make it better and / or cheaper, otherwise, why not 
>buy the original?

I wasn't interested myself. But it seemed as though if Tom had really 
abandoned this tool, its production should be picked up by someone 
else. Considering that Baldwin apparently never exercised a claim on 
this invention, it wouldn't be hard for them to jump in. One of their 
factories has to have a tool room, where the patterns for the 
blow-molds could be made. Bob Marinelli at PianoTek has years of 
experience in bringing new tools from concept to catalog. Heck, even 
if Pianotek negotiated a production/marketing licence with Tom, the 
original blow-molds (or at least the drawings for them) have to 
around somewhere. If the small hardware was available 15 years ago, 
it probably still is now.

But I'm glad to here that Tom Lowell is back on the case.

>He explained that his personal life had been in significant turmoil 
>over the last couple of years, preventing him from attending to this 
>aspect of his professional life.

Hey, I can relate to that.

>Just sharing what I know,

Thanks, David

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"No one builds the *perfect* piano, you can only remove the obstacles 
to that perfection during the building."
     ...........LaRoy Edwards, Yamaha International Corp
+++++++++++++++++++++