Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/508

 492 PIANOFORTE is produced by the seolian attachment invented by Mr. Obed Ooleman of Barnstable, Mass., about 1843. In " transposing pianofortes, "the keyboard and action, or the strings and fra- ming, can be shifted laterally, so as to cause the hammers to strike a different set of strings, thua transposing the music, according to the arrangement, a half or whole note, or several notes, upward or downward. Melographic pianos, or those which, by added mechanism, shall register and preserve the improvisations of a composer, have been attempted by many, dating from the time of Hohlfeld, who, at the suggestion of Euler, essayed this in 1752. Prob- ably the most successful attempt of this kind is that of Debain of Paris, exhibited in 1851. 4. Case, and Halting. It is unnecessary here to detail particulars concerning the case of the piano, or concerning the various woods, met- als, and other materials found to be best fitted to enter into its construction. The manufac- ture of the instrument gives employment to a great variety of artisans, among whom the work of the several parts is minutely divided ; these are the key makers, hammer makers, hammer leatherers, string makers, stringers, case makers, finishers, &c. The construction is a slow process, and cannot well be hurried, the making of a grand piano usually requi- ring six months. American Manufacture and Improvements. Until the beginning of the present century the attempts at pianoforte making in the United States were few, and the results of no practical importance. Jonas Ohickering, the founder of the house of Ohick- ering and sons, of Boston and New York, has been properly called the. father of the busi- ness in the United States. He was a cabinet ma- ker, began to manufacture pianos in 1822, and exposed his first instrument for sale in Boston on April 15, 1823. At the time of his death, in December, 1853, his business had increased to 15 pianos a week, and since, in the hands of his sons, it has become still more widely ex- tended. The two most prominent features in the recent wonderful development of the piano manufacture in America are the invention and gradual perfection of the iron frame and the introduction of the overstrung scale. A patent was granted in 1825 to Alpheus Babcock of Philadelphia for the invention of a cast-iron frame, made oblong to increase the power of resistance to the pull of the strings. In this the principle was first practically introduced of casting the hitch-pin plate and that part which supports the wrest plank in one piece. In 1833 Conrad Meyer of Philadelphia exhib- ited, at the fair of the Franklin institute in that city, a square piano with a full cast-iron frame, substantially like that now used by all Ameri- can makers. Jonas Ohickering was the first (1837) to use the entire iron frame cast with the parallel bars in one piece; and about 1840 he applied the same principle to the construction of grand pianos, while John Buttikofer of New York, who began the manufacture of grand pianos at the same time, imitated in every respect the instruments of Sebastien Erard. Instead of using the agraffes of Erard and other European makers, Ohickering cast the iron frames of his grand pianos with an up- ward ledge or projection, through which holes were bored for the passage of the strings. In 1845 he adopted the circular scale for square pianos, in which the strings were less crowded and the tone was strengthened and improved. At that time upright pianos were not manu- factured in America, and the wooden imported uprights having failed to stand the climate, a prejudice arose against them which for many years prevented American makers from adopt- ing that form. Although pianos with the iron frame stand in tune better than those con- structed wholly of wood, their thin sharp tone prevented their general adoption, and up to 1855 their manufacture was confined chiefly to Boston. The New York makers used in their square pianos only a small hitch-pin plate, securing the capacity of standing in tune by solidity of construction, heavy bracing of the case, and the use of a solid bottom or bed, about 5 in. thick, which made the instruments heavy in weight and appearance. When the compass gradually extended to seven octaves and more, it was found impossible to obtain the necessary power of resistance against the pull of the strings when the case was made of wood only. The adoption of the iron frame then became necessary. In 1855 Steinway and sons of New York constructed a piano with a solid front bar and full iron frame, the latter covering the wrest plank, the bridge of which was made of wood. The brace in the treble connecting the hitch-pin plate with the wrest- plank plate was slightly elevated above the strings, and ran in a different direction from the latter, exactly to the angle at which the wrest plank had to sustain the pull of the strings. The bridges of the sounding board were so grouped that they came considerably nearer to its middle, and their lineal length was increased by placing the bass strings over the others (overstringing them) across three nearly parallel bridges, the length of which over the sounding board was increased from 40 to 64 in., while their position was changed to nearer the middle of the sounding board. The first instrument made on this plan received the first prize, a gold medal, at the exhibition of the American institute in the crystal pal- ace, New York, in 1855, and the new mode of construction soon became the standard for all manufacturers in this country. In 1856 Stein- way and sons began the manufacture of grand pianos, and several other New York houses soon followed. The grand pianos made in America at that time were constructed on the same general principles as those made in Eu- rope, but with a cast-iron frame. On Nov. 29, 1859, Steinway and sons received a patent for an improvement, consisting of a complete cast-iron frame, in which the projection for