Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 69

(Ehitarjo Tribune Monday, February 11, 1974 Oil pressures Norlin organs to flugel horns i Drive people to train 3 Wym.v'-"'"I'''"''WI',WI 'W k. --Vis titiV By Kenneth Ross Assistant Financial Editor THE ENERGY crisis may be driving people from the eas iff The Chicago area, incidentally, is something of a musical capital with organ makers 1 i Hammond and Warwick Electronics Thomas all headquartered here. There's also Harmony which claims to be the leading manufacturer of station to the train station. liii'H 2d "It's noteworthy that the energy crunch has prompted a number of people to call who are seeking alternatives to i I driving," Richard Boyd, Am- trak regional manager in Chi cago, said in an interview. "A substantial increase in our call volume has been occasioned by that." nationwide are running about 203,000, again nearly 2M times what they were during the peak summer months.

"I think it's more and more evident that railroad passenger service is here to stay. There were doubts about that when Amtrak took over in May, 197U and some people said it was just another step to phase out passenger service. "Now it's evident there is a demand sufficient to justify the service. Just how much subsidizing is needed is open to question." AMTRAK operates about 20 trains into and 20 trains out of Chicago each day. Boyd said patronage is increasing, particularly on weekend trains, but most trains have considerable unused capacity during the week.

1 When it took over responsibility for operating most of the country's passenger trains, Amtrak was able to accomplish in a short time what had been talked about for years-consolidation of all intercity trains into one terminal, Union Station. A footnote to that consolidation is the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad which stayed out of Amtrak and operates its Peoria and Rock Island trains out of La Salle Street Station. THE CONSOLIDATION is not without problems, however, because there is a substantial amount "of commuter traffic in Union Station, particularly in the evening rush hour which coincides with the departure of some of Amtrak's principal trains. Also, the remodeling of the station left limited waiting areas near the gates. A new train, the Blackhawk, is scheduled to start operations on Feb.

14 over the Illinois Central Gulf betweea' Chicago and Dubuque, la. It will restore passenger service to Rockford, Freeport, and Galena. The train will be operated Continued on page 8, col. 5 He noted that, on a national basis, the number of calls to Amtrak is running almost 100 per cent above the peak summer months of July and Au low-cost guitars, and C. G.

Conn, Ltd. organs and band 1 instruments. Norlin, which has an unusu-'al parentage, has been here since April, 1920, when it was incorporated as Martin Band i Instrument Company of Chica-go. It changed its name to i Chicago Musical Instrument three years later. One of the founders, Maurice H.

Berlin, is still honorary chairman and his son, Arnold, is now chairman and chief executive. LAST OCTOBER, however, C.M.I, was merged into Norlin a Panamanian corpora-t i that had previously bought an interest in C. M. I. gust, the previous high.

4 V'Vii. 1 'VrC'' ll If I fit- -Cfr C'Sii V-fCS W' "WE'RE GETTING 60,000 calls a day nationwide and 8,000 to 9,000 of those are in Chicago. I think it's evident that loadings have picked up. It's difficult to say how much of it is because of gasoline shortages, but we're certain it's part of it." Boyd said advance bookings By Leonard Wiener EIGHT HOURS a day, five dayg a week, 21-year-old John Hermanowicz sits in a little cubicle listening to the same sound Hermanowicz is an inspector at the Lowrey organ plant on Chicago's South Side and his Job is to check the automatic rhythm sections that go into organs. It's one job of thousands in a musical empire known as Norlin Music, a Lincoln-wood-headquartered firm that also offers: A trumpet finished in black onyx "A deep dark tone that delivers more soul." A cherry-red electric violin "It's not drowned out by the other instruments in a contemporary group." A $2,500 hand -carved "All-American" banjo with an American eagle design on its back and fingerboard inlays depicting events in American history "It's a work of art." NORLIN, formerly Chicago Musical Instrument obviously feels there's plenty of room to "jazz things up" while still retaining a serious commitment to music 'both amateur and professional.

It sells everything from ac-cordians to flugel horns and its professional customers range from Santana to the Chicago' Symphony Orchestra. With sales last year of more than $120 million, Norlin says it's the No. 1 American seller of musical instruments. The Japanese giant Yamaha probably beats out Norlin for the world title. Norlin, however, is much better known for its brand names than its corporate identity.

IN ADDITION to Lowrey or-gans, the 74-year-old firm either owns or distributes such lines as Gibson and Epiphone guitars, Story Clark pianos, Pearl drums, Reynolds and F. E. Olds trumpets and trombones, William Lewis violins, Buffet clarinets made. in France since 1825, Armstrong flutes and piccolos, and the space-age Moog electronic music synthesizer. Until the early 1960's, Norlin main claim to fame was a brewery and cement plant in Ecuador but by the time it acquired C.M.I, it had branched into small-scale American manufacturing of specialized industrial and sci- waiters entific supplies.

Tribune Photos by William Kelly It isn't until the final production stages that wire, speakers and other electronic gadgetry take shape as a Lowrey organ. By Alvin Nagelberg Assistant Financial Editor THERE'S A lot of waiters around town just waiting. But the customers are staying home, saving gas. Business has dropped 30 to 50 per cent in some restaurant and fast food operations and owners are cutting back on hours of employment. Some owners are considering closing Sundays when business is worst because service stations are closed and drivers are saving gas for the week days.

Not all restaurants are suffering. Those with strong local trade may even have an increase in business because they are attracting diners who once preferred to drive to distant restaurants, said Larry Buckmaster, executive direc tor of the Chicago and Illinois Restaurant Association. "Those off the beaten path are hurt the worst," he said. THE TOWER Garden and Restaurant, 9925 Gross Point Skokie, is opening Sundays for the first time to take advantage of the local residents who may not want to travel far for dinner Business is still slumping early in the week. Chef Karl's Edelweiss Inn, 411 E.

Park Ubertyville, sends a bus to Old Orchard Shopping Center, Skokie and Edens Plaza, Wilmette, twice a night on Saturdays to pick up customers. The patron gets free hors d'oeuvres and champagne on the bus and immediate seating at the restaurant, said spokes man Herbert Feusi. That, plus a dinner-of-the-month promotion, is keeping business about normal, he said. BUT FOR some owners, the gasoline problem is taking a deep toll. "After 27 years of being open seven days a week, we may have to start closing Mondays and Tuesdays," said Mrs.

Helen Mangam, owner of Mangam's Chateau, 7850 Og-den Lyons. "Business always falls off a little after New Years', but I've never seen it this bad, said Al Dudycha, manager of the Jack-In-The-Box food operation, 10501 S. Western Av. His business is down 35 to 50 per cent on Sundays. BILL ZASSENHAUS, man-Continued on page 8, col.

7 C.M.I, whose name was changed to Norlin Music after the merger, now accounts for more than two-thirds of the total sales of Norlin Corp. The diversity of Norlin Music's manufactured lines results in a diversity of techniquesfrom the largely handcrafted woodworking at the Gibson guitar plant in Kalamazoo, to the metal work at the F. E. Olds and Sons band instrument plant in Fullerton, to the advanced solid-state electronic assembly done at the Lowrey organ plant, 4400 W. 45th KEYBOARD instruments-, mostly organs account for almost half of Norlin Music's sales and the marketing and design emphasis is geared to the organ being easy to play "If you can point a finger you can play a Lowrey." Lowrey's lowest priced "Teenie-Genie" about $800 allows a beginner -to play multiple-note cords with only one finger while the organ itself automatically takes care of such things as rhythm Latin? and accompaniment the sound of a plucked banjo? a So many musical sounds can be set up automatically on some models that a casual observer may wonder whether anyone has to play the organ at all.

The "Symphonic Theater "Console" atout $8,000 can provide a complete orchestral string section" at the touch of a switch. THE CHICAGO plant is turning out about 180 to 200 organs a day in an operation that more readily brings to mind the assembly of color television sets than musical instruments. Complex electronic chasis are assembled by rows of women with soldering irons and wire connecting devices while inspectors check the units on flickering oscilloscopes. Brightly colored electrical wire, meanwhile, is spun off stacks of spools and twisted together in predetermined lengths by women who might be working in a textile mill. It's only at the final assembly of chasis into console that an organ takes shape and any music can be heard the constant repetition of rhythms and cords being played during final testing.

push coal conversion Silver-heady fodder for bulls Month to month cash market prices for silver in New York City Dollars per ounce 5.00' Commodities By Edward Lee SIX OR seven -dollar-an-ounce silver? Only the staunchest of bulls would have made such a prediction one year ago when prices hovered at the $2 level. Now, the precious metal is selling for almost $5 an ounce and few analysts will even guess how high it may climb before topping out. Prime Minister Edward Heath to wait until after the Feb. 28 national elections. West German railroad and police employes said they may join the postal employes in striking if a 15 per cent wage oil, 9,000 cubic feet of medium-heat gas, and a half ton of char, a power-plant fuel, from each ton of coal.

THE RAW synthetic crude can be used for boiler fuel or refined into high-octane gasoline, diesel oil, and home heating oils. Late last year, a U. S. Navy destroyer, the U. S.

S. Johnson, steamed for 30 hours in the Atlantic using the synthetic crude for fuel. Jones said the major stumbling block until recently was removing sulfur from the solid that's left after the oil has been taken out. "We know how to do that now," he said. "The process involves it coming off as hydrogen sulfide which is then swept' out of the oil and gas.

It could be sold as elemental 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 By Alan Merridew A CHICAGO-BASED con-glomerate says it's developed a way of turning coal into oil at a cost which can compete with crude oil prices. "High-sulfur Illinois coal has been the coal of our choice," said Dr. John F. Jones, head of the FMC COED research project at the company's chemical research and development center in Princeton, N. J.

FMC Corp. makes chemicals and machinery and had sales in 1972 totaling $1.5 billion. The acronym COED stands for the Char -Oil-Development process, which Jones' team developed under contract to the U. S. Department of Interior's Office of Coal Research.

Jones said in a telephone in terview that about 7,000 tons of Illinois No. 6 coal from the Peabody No. 10 mine in Southern Illinois has now been put thru the firm's COED pilot plant in Princeton. FMC IS looking to power companies for support in developing the program. "At this stage, we're looking for about $9 million to complete development work and carry this to a preliminary design of a commercial plant," Jones said.

A full-scale commercial plant would cost about $200 million and probably could not be operational until 1979, he said. It would handle about 25,000 tons of coal a day. Jones said the process would produce oil costing $7 to $10 a barrel. At this stage, the COED process produces one barrel of supplies from foreign countries, coins, and sales of speculative and industrial holdings. WHILE THESE points alone could attract even higher prices, it is worthy to note that dark clouds without silver linings hang, casting shadows on the price spiral.

The U. S. government is toying with releasing more than 100 million ounces of reclaimed silver from its warehouses. The move would depress prices, at least temporarily. Large stocks of silver may become available in India, Pakistan, Mexico, and Western Europe.

If, and when, these hoards are released, they, too, would strike a blow at world market prices. increase is not granted. I a Except for a couple of brief profit-taking sessions, the sil-! UCt'n de" ver contract for February de-1 01 fgf Inst hvery on the Chicago Board of Trade has surged Readily i tion la amounts. from $2.80 an ounce Decern- ber to $4.89 Friday. The con- Part of the deflclt has trarr wMrh rfaiiv et by salvaged silver while Friday FMAMJJASONDJF 1973 I 1974 Otta: Handy Harmon 75 1 the remaining portion has come from ever dwindling trading limits, advanced cents an ounce last week.

Chicagoans worry less but still unsure: survey Prospect offers this Texas Instruments calculator to savers for only ATLANTA LASALLE CORPORATION through its wholly owned subsidiary SPORTS has reached an agreement to acquire PAUL BUNYON COMPANY, INC. i distributors of sporting goods CHICAGOANS' attitudes about their personal finances are not as pessimistic as they were three months ago, but they still are worried about the future. These were some of the findings of a survey of 500 families by the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago. Forty-nine per cent responding said their personal financial condition was the same as in January, 1973. The report showed that 32 per cent believed their condition was worse than a year earlier, while in October, 1973, the survey showed 43 per cent said they were in worse, financial FOR A TRADER holding one contract to buy 5,000 troy ounces, the increase since December would have meant a $10,450 profit on an initial margin of $1,200 less commission fees of $35.

Because of increased trading volume and higher contract values, C. B. O. T. last week increased initial margin to $2,000 a contract.

Several worldwide factors have supported silver prices to their daily, record-breaking levels: Speculators' flight from "paper currencies" United States citizens, forbidden by law to own gold bullion, turned to silver, seeking shelter from mounting inflation. Also, questions have surfaced concerning the effect of Mideast oil production cutbacks and higher oil costs on industrialized countries' economies. Labor problems in Great Britain and West Germany British miners decided to strike despite an appeal by ly not expect their own employer would have a slowdown, 22 per cent expected their firm to have a moderate slowdown, and 21 per cent didn't know. Of those who expected a slowdown by their employer, 46 per cent didn't believe their job security was threatened. ON THE ENERGY crisis: 73 per cent said the problem was not one of nature, but a crisis of economic and political machinery.

40 per cent prefer 10 gallon weekly gas limits and 41 per cent prefer higher prices to gas rationing. 71 per cent said the temperature had been lowered in their homes or apartments and 64 per cent said, it was lowered at 64 per cent have curtailed week-end travel and 48 per cent have made greater use of public transportation. This hifcl quality, i-digit Texas Instruments Calculator with full floating decimal, adds, substracts, multiplies and divides. Also performs credit chain 'multiplication, and division, constant multiplication and division. Calculator contains rechargeable batteries.

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LOOKING TO the' 47 per cent of the families believed that business conditions in the Chicago area would become" worse. Seventy per cent believed wage and price controls were ineffective in fighting inflation. In commenting on the national economy, 84 per cent of families expected a slowdown this year. Of those, half expected a moderate slowdown and 29 per cent believed there would be a severe dip. -t Twenty-eight per cent did CALCULATOR TO THE AMOUNT OF YOUR CHECK.

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