Band's Big Drum Really Makes a Noise; Tests Prove Contrary Rumors Untrue

It all started on October 16, when, on the first page of "Notes and Coment," the New Yorker supposedly lost its illusions and declared that "the six-foot base drum in the Harvard band is a phoney." Result of this sudden and undeserved notoriety of the giant precession instrument has been a flood of publicity, news photos and wiaccracks during the last two weeks, including a mammoth burlesque of inanimate maternity by pacudo-obatririenna from Hanover before the deluge at the Dartmouth game.

It Can Take It

Despite repeated definite denials from official sources, namely directors of the band itself, the slanderous rumors that the big drum "couldn't take it" have maliciously persisted in circulating. The interested parties have grown rather tired of it all, and justly so.

The CRIMSON, after a thorough investigation and private tests, would like to announce that it is thoroughly convinced of the drum's virility, or more definitely, of its undisputed ability to make a noise. "But why can't you hear it better?" is likely to be the next question of the skeptical undergraduate. The explanation for this is simple.

Why It's Low

The truth is that the instrument hasn't a broad enough beam for its height. Since the drumheads are approximately six feet in diameter, the surface area of each is about 28 1-4 square feet, if you remember your plane geometry. When the calfskin is hit a good wallop, this makes quite a radius of vibration; unfortunately the sides are so close together that most of it is dissipated inside the drum, producing a low tone that doesn't carry very far. But the tone is there nevertheless, and the claim that the real boom is produced by a smaller instrument is absolutely unfounded.

The Brown game has been the only occasion when the big tom-tom has actually been spared this fall. When it was gotten down from summer storage just before the game, the drummers discovered that the calfskin had torn loose from one side and unfortunately could not be fixed in time for the game. Necessarily, it had to be played rather softly that day, which by mischance happened to be the very one when a New Yorker spy (maybe two) was secreted in the stands. Such is life.

Arrows, Teddy Bears

The huge drum, a gift to the band from the Harvard alumni of Pennsylvania, often plays an integral part in the between-the-halves formations, as for example when it toted a teddy bear in the Brown game and repelled an arrow in the Dartmouth puddle-jumping contest.