Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/506

 for an application of this method of stringing in 1851, but it never became popular. Steinway & Sons, however, took up the idea in its crude stages a few years later, and applied it successfully. They not only developed overstringing, but it is to them we owe the improved disposition of the strings below. They were the first to exhibit a square piano containing a practical and successful development of the overstringing principle, which has since been accepted everywhere. An instrument made on these improved lines was exhibited at the American Institute Fair in 1855. It was awarded a gold medal, and was practically the parent instrument of that order, not only as regards the arrangement of the strings, but in the structure of the plate and most other general features. Bass overstringing, passing over three bridges, was a noticeable feature in that piano. A full metal plate, covering the wrest-plank, having a solid bar, was also used, with improvements which insured greater resistance against the pull of the strings. Another feature embodied in this instrument was the arrangement of the bridges. These were placed farther in on the sounding-board, so as to bring into sympathy hitherto dormant sections of its surface.

Passing over the numerous inventions brought out by Steinway & Sons, following the success of their squares made on the system referred to, their patent for stringing in grands claims a brief notice. This is illustrated in Fig. 16. They were granted a patent for this invention in 1859. In the instruments made on the new lines the strings were spread out in fan-shape, in