Piano

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

pe-a'no, a musical stringed instrument. The strings are steel wires of various lengths and weights, extended over bridges above a sounding board. Additional weight is produced by wrapping the steel wire with a single or double coil of brass wire. In play the wires are struck by small felted hammers operated by means of keys. The sound of the wire may be deadened immediately by the use of soft dampers brought in contact with the string. Pedals operated by the foot are used to produce louder or softer tones. For the sake of stiffness, the frame on which the wires of the piano are strung is made of iron. It requires to withstand a stress without bending of from twelve to thirty tons. There are three kinds of piano. In the grand pianoforte the strings lie parallel to the keys. In the square they lie horizontally at right angles to the keys, and in the upright piano the strings are stretched in a vertical direction, also at right angles to the keys. The name pianoforte is a compound of two Italian words, meaning soft and loud. Historically, the piano is a development of the harpsichord, the notes of which were of uniform intensity. The player of the harpsichord had no control over the loudness or softness of the notes. The credit of inventing the hammer action of the piano is given to Cristofali of the city of Padua, dating about 1711. He was a maker of harpsichords in the employ of the Duke of Tuscany. Primitive pianos were exhibited in Paris and in Germany soon after. The first piano ever brought to the United States was imported by John Jacob Astor in 1784. So far as known the first American piano was built in Philadelphia in 1775. New York is at the present time the leading American center of the piano manufacture. Boston is a rival center, and, of late, Chicago. In 1900 the factory value of the pianos made in the United States was $35,000,000. There were 261 factories. In that year 171,138 instruments were turned out. In the records of the patent office, the names of Babcock, Meyer, Chickering, Mathushek, Decker, Steinway, Hanchett, and Steck are of frequent occurrence. Germany is the great piano manufacturing country of the world. There are nearly half a thousand factories, one-third of which are located in Berlin. Pianos to the value of $6,000,000 or $7,000,000 a year are exported to adjacent nations, and to Great Britain and South America . Russia buys German pianos to the value of $1,000,000 a year.