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APRIL 26,
THE MUSIC TRADE
1919
REVIEW
^
In the Application of the Pneumatic Mechanism to the Grand Piano there Arise
Several Problems of Construction Which Have Not Yet Been Entirely Solved
—Closer Co-operation Between Designers and Manufacturers Is Needed
The application of pneumatic mechanism to
the grand piano has been made the subject of
considerable experiment during the last few
years and at the present time several well-de-
fined types of these actions are on the market,
some intended for general use and some exclu-
sively designed for a certain make of piano. All
of them, however, follow along lines more or
less parallel, while the differences they present
are neither very great nor very striking.
Still there are certain problems concerned with
the application of pneumatic mechanism to the
grand piano which have not yet been solved
and which must be solved before the grand
player can be said to be on the plane of its sis-
ter, the upright. A great deal of investigation
has been done and many patents taken out for
the purpose of producing an adequate, sightly
and efficient player action for the grand piano,
yet there are important points which the de-
signers appear to have slurred over the time be-
ing, but which must in due course be taken up
and set right. A consideration of some of them
will not be inappropriate.
Pneumatics vs. Architecture
It is not unfair to say that the problem of fit-
ting the grand player action to the grand piano
is much less one of pneumatics than of archi-
tecture. In other words, the pneumatic prob-
lems have been solved in most respects so that
the grand player action is pneumatically quite
efficient, while at the same time the housing of
it in the piano has been designed too much
from the standpoint of mere appearance. The
net result has been that good actions have been
very neatly housed, but housed in such a manner
as to render much of their natural pneumatic
efficiency of no account. At the same time the
sacrifice of everything else to appearance has
had the further effect of hurting the acoustic
efficiency of the piano.
Thus we tend to find that grand players are
often below their natural efficiency whether as
pianos or as players.
Two Difficulties
This sacrifice to appearance has, in our opin-
ion, been largely unnecessary. It is mainly
embodied in attempts to avoid putting the spool
box under the keybed and to place the bellows
out of sight. The result of the first attempt is,
of course, to produce an unsightly and inefficient
length of key in the piano, for if the spool box
does not slide under the keybed it must be
placed above it, which means that the keys must
be lengthened some inches at least in order to
make room for the box between the iron plate
of the piano and the fallboard. This again
means (1) that the key touch becomes very deep
and consequently hard to manage in playing by
hand, and (2) that the entire case of the piano
must be lengthened in accordance, with result-
ing inconvenience and expense in the factory as
well as clumsiness of appearance besides.
The Bellows
The second attempt to get rid of the appear-
ance of the bellows has resulted in an equivalent
though not parallel defect. It will not be de-
nied that the bellows system of the player takes
up a good deal of space, nor that the task of
housing it under the piano is difficult if appear-
ances are not to be spoiled altogether. Yet
the alternative of setting it up under the sound
board fastened to the inner rim and beams of
the case is even worse. When this latter course
is adopted the effect upon the piano is neces-
sarily bad. Say what one pleases, the sound
board is blanketed on its under side when the
bellows are fastened close up underneath. The
effect upon tonal quality and volume is notice-
able, but there is still another difficulty of equal
importance. When the bellows are housed in
the manner described there is always a great
loss of efficiency in the transmission of power
between them and the pedals, or between the
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pedals and them rather. The pedals, of course,
must rest on the floor when they are being used.
The bellows are placed some distance behind
the line of the pedals and also considerably
above them. The consequence is that a rather
elaborate and usually clumsy system of levers
and cranks has to be arranged to convey the
motion of the one to the other. The physical
effort is therefore less efficient, the operator has
to pedal harder to get a given result on the
grand player than is necessary with the up-
right, and the certain result is dissatisfaction.
In fact, this very difficulty has a most prac-
tical bearing upon the popularity of the player
grand. The criticism often made that this in-
strument is not thoroughly practical rests large-
ly upon the undoubted fact that the pneumatic
mechanism often does not produce from the
piano the tonal possibilities certainly inherent
in it. This is due as much to the indirect sys-
tem of placing the bellows in operative con-
nection with the pedals as to anything else.
Pumpers and Pedals
Now, in point of fact, there is no good reason
why the bellows should not be housed directly
under the keybed of the piano just as they
would be in an upright player. For one thing
it is not necessary to put the entire system,
equalizers and all, in this position. But the
two pumpers take up very little more space than
the ordinary pedal box of the piano does, and
if the two pumpers alone are placed underneath
the keybed with their pedal and a sightly box
constructed to hold them together with the piano
pedals, the matter of artistic appearance need
not seriously concern us. As for the equalizers,
they can quite easily be placed under the sound
board, for of themselves they will not blanket
the resonating space, especially if they are set
on a rail vertically instead of horizontally. The
various other parts, such as expression boxes,
which are usually to be found in connection with
the bellows system, are, of course, easily placed
in any convenient position under the keybed
well out of sight.
The Spool Box
The question of placing the spool box effec-
tively without changing the case and action 6f
the piano is in some ways complicated by the
fact that several patents have been issued on
different methods for doing this. Kranich &
Bach place their spoolbox immediately under
the keybed, which is deepened and somewhat
hollowed out for this purpose. The Auto Pneu-
matic Action Co. has a sliding spoolbox under
the keybed, with an ingenious arrangement' for
folding up, while the A. B. Chase Co. has per-
haps the sightliest arrangement of all in the
form of a spoolbox containing all the expres-
sion levers and folding away in such a manner
as to open and shut up the player pedals as it is'
pulled into place for playing or folded away
again. These methods are all, of course, pro-
tected, but the field of possibilities is not yet
exhausted by any means.
Co-operation Needed
' :
From what has been said it should by now
be clear that the grand player suffers from*
the fact that its designers have not been suf-
ficiently careful to co-operate with the piano
makers in working out their ideas, while the
piano makers, in their turn, have too meekly
accepted what has been given to them. A little
closer co-operation between the "two, and espe-
cially a better understanding by the player man
of. the tonal ^nd tactual requirements of tkej
piano, wilt Have in. the. future happy effects. •'*