Mystery dust (was baking soda)

[harvey]

Spin-off from Clyde Hollinger's message, and a question I meant to present
a while back.

Over time, I've seen many pianos containing mystery dust. The materials
could often be identified by obvious means (Clyde's example), or deduced by
where they were located in the piano, or by smell, texture, etc. I've seen
baking soda/powder, baby powder, crushed silica gel, sugar, and salt.
Parachlorabenzine is excluded, as I usually find the vessel -- the
substance long gone. I've seen other white substances that defy
identification. 

Recently I serviced an *old* piano with new owners. Below the keys, on and
along the balance rail (only), it contained a liberal application of a
white powder. I did not attempt to remove the substance, but advised the
client, especially since there were children in the household. The owner, a
college professor, was going to take a sample to the school's lab for
analysis. Perhaps I'll find out soon.

I'm reminded that I've seen various "dusting" methods on the West Coast.
I'm also reminded that, most often this was in pianos that were from
Mississippi flood regions, or pianos otherwise imported into California.

In my recent experience, this powder could have been a non-offensive
material, but, based on other experiences in the South, it could just
easily be cotton poison!

Any thoughts on this?

At 07:29 AM 9/6/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Friends:
>
>Ken's story reminded me that this past week I removed the bottom panel
>of a console to find two open boxes of baking soda plus four shallow
>containers of presumably the same stuff.  The owners weren't home, but
>it looked like it had been put there pretty recently.  This was the
>first time I had come across this and was a little mystified.  Is this
>stuff supposed to keep the piano dry, kill moths, or what?  I'm
>curious.  At least it's getting more and more rare to find an empty
>quart jar down there, which was the piano humidifier's predecessor, I
>reckon.
>
>Clyde Hollinger


Jim Harvey, RPT
harvey@greenwood.net