Music Trade Review

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358
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A Sketch of British Pianoforte Inventions,
how. In the later year one Lidel introduced a
scheme for adjusting the upright sounding-
board—leaving one end free—also an anticipa-
CURIOUS AND CRAZY INVENTIONS.
tion of the soft pedal action used in American
; but he evidently put his ideas to little
A Study of Some Old British Pianoforte Patents. uprights
account. Wheatley Kirk's " double sounding-
THE FIRST ENGLISH MUSICAL PATENT—TUMPE'S board and complete metal framing " is next
ENHARMONIC PIANO—PARCHMENT INSTEAD . entitled to mention, according to the chronologi-
cal process followed in this article. Kirk's in-
OP SOUNDING BOARDS—RYLEV 'S TRANS-
vention was patented in 1836. It involved such
POSING PIANO—LOESCHM ANN'S
a radical departure in piano structure that it
KEYBOARD — GUNTHER 'S
was received with considerable dubiousness and
DOUBLE SOUNDING-
curiosity by experts. However, a practical
BO ARU.
ROLFE'S SELF-ACTING PIANO—WOLF'S CURIOUS demonstration of its character proved it to be of
no value, whatever, as a stable future in the
SOUNDING-BOARD—FISCHER'S CROSS-STRUNG
piano. Moreover it turned out to be an inven-
PIANO—WHEATSTONE'S STRINGING SYS-
tion based upon erroneous ideas concerning the
TEM—DANIEL HEWITT'S ABSURDI-
acoustics of the sounding-board, but notwith-
TIES—NICKEL'S COMBINATION
standing this and a number of subsequent ex-
INSTRUMENT — BAIN'S
periments in a similar direction, there are in-
INTRODUCTION OF
ventors of intelligence both here and in Europe
ELECTRICITY,
still working to perfect the double sounding-
. ETC.
board idea.
{Continued front last week.)
The year 1836 was further rendered significant
months prior to the issue of Wolf's through the experiments of Sir Charles Wheat-
stone, the celebrated scientist, who produced a
patent, P. Fischer was granted one for a piano in which " continuous sounds were pro-
" cross-strung piano, " and an extract from his duced from pianoforte strings or springs, by
claim reads thus: " I n order to increase the means of currents of air which pass through
length, I place the strings diagonally, and they apertures slightly wider than the body the air
then pass under the other strings." The fore- vibrates."
going was not by any means a senseless patent.
Pape, of Paris, an expert piano maker, though
It concerned the great principle of " over string- an impatient seeker after novelties, brought out
ing," which, despite the presence of the draw- what he termed a "console-shaped piano" in
ings in the British Patent Office, was generally 1839, in which he reversed the sounding-board.
credited to J. Goodwin by English authorities. This he patented in all countries with result
Meantime Goodwin's patent was not granted easy of calculation at this period.
until the following year, 1836. I have inspected
I have noticed all along that patentees of ec-
Fischer's patent closely, and there can be no centric principles always crop up several times
doubt about its relation to overstringing. Mr. in the same relation to the piano ; thus it
A. J. Hipkins and Mr. Edgar Brimsmead, of is that Dodd the inventor, pointed out elsewhere,
London, seem to have overlooked Fischer some-
t
Established 1808.
turns up again in 1843, thirteen years later, with
a yet more eccentric patent. In that year he
attempted to introduce a " double pianoforte "
of a far-fetched and extravagant character in
point of construction. It contained two sets of
strings, '' one on the back as well as the front
of the frame, acting as a counterbalance.'' How
Dodd could conceive this to be a counterbalance
cannot be easily imagined. Yet it can be better
imagined than accounted for.
Coming to 1844, Charles Sautter's revolving
cylinder for producing continous sounds is
entitled to passing mention. Satitter's idea is
now employed in the " curb stone piano."
Chief among similar efforts to improve the
piano in its action, sounding-board or acoustic
features, which followed, were Daniel Hewitt's
scheme of " striking simultaneously in different
parts of the string." patented 1844, Mercier's
transposing piano (1844), and Cromwell's elastic
harmonic stop (1845). In the latter year B.
Nickels attempted to introduce a combination
upright and horizontal piano, employing "two
actions and sounding-boards and two sets of
strings and keys " for the purpose. Two years
subsequently Alexander Bains experimented
with what has since been developed and ren-
dered a most important auxiliary to performance
on keyboard (especially in the organ) musical
instruments. Bains' patent, Oct. 7, 1847, w a s
granted for the employment of electricity for
playing several musical instruments at once. It
need scarcely be remarked that Bain's idea was
one of considerable value. Mention of it here
has no relevance to the absurd experiments in-
dicated throughout.
(Continued next week.)
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