Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/714

694 led them to face the difficulties resolutely, and devise "new internal relations" to meet "new external relations;" to bring about, as it were, a closer "correspondence between the organization and its environment." They learned that the "degree of life varied with the degree of correspondence;" that along with complexity of organization there goes an increase in the number, in the range, in the specialty, in the complexity of "adjustments of inner relations to outer relations," in what may perhaps be termed "the evolution of the piano-forte."

Their first, rather uncouth-looking instruments, with enormously large, solid wooden frames, appeared as an "unmixed breed," and therefore so far stable. They did not succumb so readily to the climate, and even presented peculiarities that attracted attention in Europe. The native woods of which they were made were found to be better adapted to the climate; polish was used even for the sound-boards, in preference to varnish, which evaporated, and other slight changes were adopted with great benefit. Yet still the requisite degree of strength could not be obtained from wood alone, and the comfortable classes using pile carpets, heavy curtains, soft cushions, and other warmth-retaining substances in their drawing-rooms, demanded a piano-forte that could make itself heard in the presence of so many deadeners of sound. Iron was then employed in combination with wood, but, the action of the two materials being by no means uniform under constantly-changing conditions, the desired equilibrium was not gained. In some instances the transverse swelling of the wood fractured the iron plates. Although this "mixed constitution" failed to meet the requirements then, the combination is now better understood.

The first intention of the application of iron—of the harp-shaped metallic ring—was not to enable the instrument to endure the constant strain of the strings. It was supposed that the metal would expand and contract uniformly with them, in the severe changes of this climate, and that in this manner the instrument would remain longer in tune, although the actual pitch might vary.

In 1837 the highly-skillful American maker, Mr. Jonas Chickering, conceived the bold idea of constructing a frame entirely of iron, and in the same year made his first square piano-forte in this way. In 1840 he produced the first grand piano-forte with an entire iron frame all in one casting. By this remarkable invention the piano-forte gained in truth an "iron constitution," competent to bear the atmospheric changes of this climate, and to it all subsequent successes are referred.

It was a great achievement to obtain a frame capable of resisting the enormous strain of the strings, but this advance imperatively led to innumerable variations being made in various details, for the attainment of an equilibrium, without which the promised gain could