Zildjian Cymbals – Factory

ambience: Cymbals

A cymbal starts out as a few raw chunks of tin, copper and silver. How these elements turn into a gleaming, clearly resonating musical instrument is a blend of art, industry and science. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. We’re at the Avedis Zildjian Cymbal Factory near Boston, where more than half of the world’s cymbals are made. Our guide, Colin Schofield, begins our tour where the metal castings come out of the melt room.

“Even at this stage, the sound is in the cymbal. I’m holding two castings and you can hear the ring in the sound of the cymbals even at this point. (Clinks a casting) There’s already a unique sonority and brilliance to the sound of the cymbal. And these are just two little 2 1/2 pound castings.”

Now we move out to the main factory floor, where the castings are repeatedly heated.

“We’re stretching out the alloy, so you’re starting from that pancake of alloy that we just looked at and we’re beginning to stretch it out. It’s almost like pizza dough, you’re stretching it out, but very slowly, so it’s being heated up, you can see them coming out of the oven now, they’re being fed through the rolling mills, and then he’s going to then put them back into the oven again. That’s a cycle that can go on as many as twelve times, depending on what cymbal we’re making.”

A cymbal will then be hammered, shaped and grooved to give it its unique musical sound. But before it can be sold, it has to please the man who’s been testing Zildjian cymbals for decades. We’ll meet him, in our next program. Please visit our website at nationalgeographic.com Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Zildjian Cymbals - Factory

A cymbal starts out as a few raw chunks of tin, copper and silver. What happens next is a mixture of art and science.
Air Date:07/20/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

ambience: Cymbals

A cymbal starts out as a few raw chunks of tin, copper and silver. How these elements turn into a gleaming, clearly resonating musical instrument is a blend of art, industry and science. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. We're at the Avedis Zildjian Cymbal Factory near Boston, where more than half of the world's cymbals are made. Our guide, Colin Schofield, begins our tour where the metal castings come out of the melt room.

"Even at this stage, the sound is in the cymbal. I'm holding two castings and you can hear the ring in the sound of the cymbals even at this point. (Clinks a casting) There's already a unique sonority and brilliance to the sound of the cymbal. And these are just two little 2 1/2 pound castings."

Now we move out to the main factory floor, where the castings are repeatedly heated.

"We're stretching out the alloy, so you're starting from that pancake of alloy that we just looked at and we're beginning to stretch it out. It's almost like pizza dough, you're stretching it out, but very slowly, so it's being heated up, you can see them coming out of the oven now, they're being fed through the rolling mills, and then he's going to then put them back into the oven again. That's a cycle that can go on as many as twelve times, depending on what cymbal we're making."

A cymbal will then be hammered, shaped and grooved to give it its unique musical sound. But before it can be sold, it has to please the man who's been testing Zildjian cymbals for decades. We'll meet him, in our next program. Please visit our website at nationalgeographic.com Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.