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TECHNICAL^SUPPLY DEPARTMENT
William Braid White, Technical Editor
Design and Construction of a Miniature
Piano of But Five and One-Half Octaves
Some of the Problems Met With in Developing the Scale of an Instrument of This
Size—Scale, String Lengths, Bars, Bridge, Etc.
HAVE been carrying out a very interesting
experiment in the design of a very novel
miniature piano, which may interest those
readers who are looking out for novelties in the
piano industry.
For a number of years Joseph N. Vasey, for-
merly of Chicago and now of Los Angeles, has
been working upon miniature pianos. These he
has made in some cases of no more than three
octaves compass, light enough to be carried
about by a child.
Some of his smaller and
earlier instruments appear to have partaken of
the nature of what might be called large-keyed
hammer-struck zithers. But in his later work
he has been steadily approaching the piano
proper, with, however, the ideal of portability
always in his mind.
Some months ago the opportunity came to
lay out a scale for a five and one-half octave
piano, to follow Mr. Vasey's general ideas. As
the thing turned out to present a very inter-
esting problem, I shall give some technical ac-
count of it here. What follows has nothing to
do with the commercial aspect of the case, or
the question of merchandising such an instru-
ment. I am concerned here solely with the tech-
nical problems involved in the design.
1
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Mr. Vasey's construction is based upon his
invention of a simple down-striking action,
which rests immediately above the strings of the
scale. The action itself is extremely simple, con-
sisting merely of a spring, a hammer, a
knuckle and the usual stem, the latter being
horizontally placed on the key. The spring
bears against the knuckle of the hammer which
is curved so as to provide for escapement and
retraction at the end of the stroke.
Possessing this very individual type of action,
the piano can be built so as to take advantage
of its overall length for the strings. As every
one knows, a length of something like ten
inches must normally be given over to the keys
(if the piano, which project from the front of the
case. Speaking now of pianos in horizontal form
only, it is easy to see that, when coming down
to small lengths, this key space assumes con-
siderable importance. On the other hand, of
course, the scale which I am about to describe
has a compass only of five and one-half octaves,
which puts it in quite a class of its own, so
that no fair comparison can be made between
it and an ordinary small grand piano. With
this understanding, however, we can appreciate
the interesting nature of the technical problems
involved in the design of the scale.
Range of Scale
The scale of five and one-half octaves involves
a range from a point nine unisons above the
usual lowest note to a point an octave above
the usual highest note. That is to say, from F
above the usual lowest C to C below the usual
highest C or sixty-eight notes altogether. In
laying out the scale it was possible to place all
the strings quite straight, that is to say, all of
them at right angles to the hammer-line. In
fact, on account of the peculiar action used, this
was necessary. It was also necessary that the
upper striking surfaces of all strings should be
in the same plane, in order that the hammers
might each have the same length of stroke. This
meant that the thick bass strings must be fas-
tened on their bearing bars at levels slightly
lower than the level of the bearing bar for the
plain wire strings.
Place of Tuning Pins
In order to tune a piano equipped with a
down striking action, the tuning pins, as may
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be understood, have to be placed at the end of
the case remote from the action, that is to say,
at the back of the case, as in the square piano.
This is satisfactory so long as the piano is not
too long, and with a compass of only five and
one-half octaves the length need not be too
great. Whether the idea could be extended to a
piano of full compass is, of course, quite an-
other matter.
Mr. Vasey wished to have his instrument built
in the simplest manner possible and among
other things had worked out a soundboard of
peculiar design with resonance boxes under it.
This he desired merely to lay upon the frame-
work, so that it should be held in place by the
pressure of the strings. In order to carry out
this idea it was determined to have the iron
plate cast in a shape which would make it also
the equivalent of the ordinary inside and out-
side rim of a grand piano. The soundboard
could be arranged in place inside this casting
and the outer cabinet or cover could then be
placed over the whole thing.
String Lengths
To lay out the scale was very simple, as I
have said, the only need being to run the string
lines at right angles to the hammer line
throughout. Normally a string of unison 76
would be about three and three-quarter inches
long. I made this first string three and one-
half inches long and then carried out the lengths
as far as they would go on the plain strings.
This gave me thirty-five unisons on the treble
stringing and thirty-three bass strings, the last
five of which were singles. I began with No.
13 wire and ran down with an average tension
of 120 pounds per wire, or thirty-six pounds per
unison.
The last bass string, F, came out at thirty-
six inches long. This brought the wire very
close to the edges of the plate at either end, but
we got over the possible difficulties very simply.
The plate was designed, as I have said, with an
iron rim running all round in just the shape of
a very small grand piano. The wrest plank at
the further end of the plate was enclosed be-
tween this rim and another iron bar cast in
with and as deep as the outer rim. The strings
coming to the tuning pins passed over this first
or inside iron bar, which was made just high
enough to give a bearing. At their nearer ends
(Continued on page 30)
William Braid White
Associate, American Society of Mechanical
Engineers; Chairman, Wood Industries
Division, A. S. M. E.; Member, American
Physical Society; Member, National Piano
Technicians' Association.
Consulting Engineer to
the Piano Industry
Tonally and Mechanically Correct Scales
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