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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
No Player Action Should Be Designed Which Does Not Allow for the Double
Regulation of Lost Motion and Touch-Depth—Why the Means for Adjusting
Lost Motion Between the Pneumatic and Action Should Be Easily Accessible
It is a matter of trade history that some of
the most exciting controversies have arisen over
the question of the contact between the piano
action and the pneumatic bank of the player
mechanism. Into these controversies or into
their subject-matter it is not the intention of
the present article to enter; for they have been
wholly fruitless, and have advanced technical
knowledge not a jot dt tittle. Moreover, our
own opinions on al! the points at issue are well
known, and there will be no reason whatever
for saying again what has already been said
quite forcibly.
In the present article, per contra, it is pro-
posed only to investigate the mechanical prin-
ciples that underlie the contact of the power
pneumatic with the key, abstract or wippen of
the piano action. In the relation between two
such moving contacted parts, several important
mechanical elements are necessarily involved;
and it is therefore very necessary that the rela-
tion itself should be examined and the elements
thereof investigated and analyzed.
The day is rapidly approaching when some-
thing like standardization of the means for con-
tacting the piano action and for maintaining the
contact relation in due adjustment, must be
worked out and applied. The following re-
marks are an essay towards this:
Theory of the Contact
It is quite obvious that the pneumatic of the
player mechanism, by reason of its shape and the
manner of its closure, is, in effect, the equivalent
of the piano key. Just as the key, by its mo-
tion, elevates the abstract of the piano action,
so the pneumatic performs the same duties in
the same manner and upon the same parts; al-
most, in fact, from the same position. The air
pressure which causes the pneumatic to close is
equivalent to the finger pressure. The parallel
is substantially complete.
This being the case, it becomes clear that the
adjustment in both cases ought likewise to be
substantially the same. This adjustment has
two main elements. The sliding contact be-
tween the immediately adjacent parts of each
element must be maintained in a certain definite
relation, and the height, or length of travel, of
the piano action must be governed by the length
of the arc through which the outer end of the
pneumatic's moving wall is caused to travel. To
put the matter into the common technical Ian-
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guage of the trade, the elements of lost-motion
and touch-depth must be adjustable; and upon
the delicacy and accuracy of the adjustment, as
well as upon its permanency, rest the perfection
or otherwise of the instrument's tonal results.
For the pneumatic is the key of the player, just
as the ordinary ivory or ebony digital is the key
of the ordinary or hand-playing part of the
piano.
Lost-Motion Adjustment
Theoretically, there is nothing especially dif-
ficult in the adjustment of lost motion between
the pneumatic and the piano action. The pre-
cedents that guide us in adjusting the piano key
to the piano action guide us also in the case of
the pneumatic. But there is this difference;
that whereas in the former case there is plenty
of room to get at the regulating buttons or
capstan screws, in the latter case the problem
is far more complex, owing to the necessity for
arranging the pneumatics in banks, one above
the other.
Now in the factory, when the actions are be-
ing assembled and fitted into the pianos for the
first time, there is no difficulty whatever about
fixing the adjustment, for everything can be
done while the regulating buttons connected
with the pneumatics are still in sight. But this
simplicity and convenience by no means con-
tinue to exist when the instrument has been as-
sembled complete, and is in the home of some
purchaser. It is then that the tuner, called on
to establish or re-establish some adjustment,
often finds that the carelessness of the manu-
facturer has left him a job at once wholly in-
convenient and necessarily inaccurate.
The importance of rendering the lost-motion
adjustment accessible is therefore very great
and almost as great is the incidental necessity
for so arranging the pneumatic bank that the
repairer can reach in between the pneumatics
with a bent wire or hook, in order to lift them
so as to test the process of adjustment. When
there is a large amount of lost motion in a
player-piano between pneumatics and piano ac-
tion, owing to the sagging of the key-bed in the
center or from any other cause, it is necessary
that one should be able to test the exact condi-
tion and judge its nature. It is likewise neces-
sary to know when the adjustment has been
properly made, and this can only be done if
some means exist for testing. Therefore it is
wholly necessary and wholly desirable that the
lost motion adjustment should be in sight and
contact of the tuner who wishes to make use
of it, and further that it should be possible to
get at the pneumatics from their moving walls,
easily and accurately, so as to judge by them
when the necessary adjustment has been made.
The Touch Adjustment
Equally important, of course, is the adjust-
ment for what may be called depth of touch.
It is obvious that, as the piano action must be
adjusted so as to repeat and respond at some
definite length of travel of the jack, so also
the travel of the wippen and of the abstract
must be adjusted in parallel order.
In turn
then, and as the determining factor in the cycle
of operations, the depth of fall of the key in
front and its height of rise at the back, must
be carefully adjusted. This is part of the work
of the action regulator and forms one of the
most important operations known to piano mak-
ing. The entire success of the "touch" of the
piano depends upon the accuracy and perma-
nency of this work.
Now it is so plain upon reflection that, as the
action is intended to operate on a given height
and depth of motion of the keys, the same or
similar motion must be imparted to the pneu-
matic. For unless the touch of the pneumatic
on the piano action be productive of the same
height of rise of the piano action's abstract that
the key produces, the effect upon the piano ham-
mer will not be the same, and the touch will be
imperfect.
Therefore, not only should the
pneumatic be provided with some sort of ad-
justment whereby its travel can be limited, but
this should itself be capable of modification. In
short, there should be devised a form of regu-
lation which the regulator can adjust to suit
himself and which can afterwards be readily
altered when necessary.
Accessibility
Equally important here is the matter of ac-
cessibility, for it is just as necessary for the
tuner to be able to get at the regulating button
easily as it is for the button to be there. In
most cases of direct contact between pneumatic
and piano action the regulating buttons for ad-
justing the closure of the pneumatic can be
placed all together on a separate rail, in front
of and above the top row of the pneumatic bank,
coacting with the contact blocks of the piano
action abstracts. Accessibility here is as im-
portant as elsewhere.
No player action should be designed at this
late day which does not allow for the double
regulation of lost motion and touch-depth.
When It Comes
to Fitness
We want you to remember that there
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Write for particulars.
The UDELL WORKS
1204 W. 28th Street
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.