indispensable to adapt this instrument to performers of ordinary abilities:

Firstly, that the motion imparted by the finger to the key shall cause the hammer to strike the string with sufficient force almost instantly, and yet that the damper shall be removed from the strings before the hammer strikes them.

Secondly, that the hammer leave the strings instantly after the impact, for if it did not, it would act as a damper; and that it shall not be liable to return to the string before the blow is required to be repeated.

Thirdly, that the hammer can easily be made to repeat the blow with great rapidity.

Fourthly, that the damping apparatus shall be capable of stopping the vibrations of the strings quickly, and yet not resist the finger of the performer very sensibly.

Fifthly, that the moving parts shall not be much subjected to wear, and, its consequence, becoming noisy.

If the actions of pianofortes in general use be examined with relation to their capabilities of producing the above effects I fear I shall be justified in the opinion that there are none at present known which fulfil all the above conditions; in support of which opinion I will now proceed to describe the actions in common

use.

The common square pianoforte action consists of a hopper attached to the key acting on a lever, technically termed the under hammer, which lifts the hammer that strikes the strings. As the hopper is constructed with an abutment below the level of its top, the lever, or under hammer, falls down upon that abutment after the hopper has "hopped off," and sustains the hammer a little below the level of the strings, which of course affords a complete facility for repeating the blow of the hammer without the key rising to its full height; indeed, the facility of repeating is so great, that after it has been some time in use, the hammer commonly repeats its blows when not required to do so. This evil has been obviated in more modern instruments, by the introduction of the check, such instruments being designated grand square pianofortes, and tainly they are a great improvement on the common square instruments; but,

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from the circumstance of the hopper, under hammer, and even the hammer itself working on leathern hinges, they wear rapidly. Perhaps the greatest improvement which the action of the square piano is susceptible of, would be to take away the under hammer, and make the hopper act directly on the hammer itself, or, in other words, to substitute the action of the grand piano for that of the

square.

The action of the upright or cabinet piano is not very dissimilar to that of the square instrument, but the parts are necessarily disposed in a different manner to suit the altered position of the strings-the motion being communicated from the under hammer to the hammer, by means of a long wooden rod called a sticker, which is suspended from the hammer by a leathern hinge, the lower end being attached to the under hammer. This arrangement is much superior to that in the common square pianoforte, as the sticker and under hammer act as a steadying weight to the hammer, and tend greatly to prevent its returning to the string after striking it; but as the hinges have hitherto been constructed, they must wear more rapidly than bushed centres do. If the expense were not too great for the present rage for lowpriced, miscalled cheap instruments, the hopper might be made to centre in the key, and the sticker attached to the butt of the hammer, by another wire centre, when its durability would be almost equal to that of a common grand action, and, having no check, it would continue to possess the advantage of repeating the blow with facility.

Upright pianofortes have been made with a jack, or lever action, and checkindeed, the first upright instruments constructed, (the upright grand pianofortes,) were so made; nor can I perceive any impossibility in making the lever or jack as high as the present hopper and sticker, so that it might act directly on the butt of the hammer, particularly in the very short instruments improperly termed picolo pianos. Perhaps the increase of expense is the principal objection to such an action being generally used.

The term "picolo" should, properly, be restricted to a peculiarly constructed pianoforte action, which was the invention of Mr. Wornum. but is often used to signify any very short upright instrument, even if made with the common cabinet pianoforte action.

The common grand action is superior in simplicity and durability to any other, the moving parts, excepting the keys, being all made to work on wire axes or centres; and it appears capable of fulfilling all the required conditions, excepting that of repeating its blow rapidly without requiring the key to rise to its full height. The attempts to overcome this evil have been pretty numerous, but the writer is of opinion it has never been effected, but at the expense of greatly increased complexity, and diminished. durability. One of the earlier attempts, and perhaps the most successful one, is that of Sebastian Errard, in which the check is detached from the hammer by a very slight motion of the key; but this is effected by such complex machinery, that it is to be expected the effects of wear will be to cause the motion of the parts to be accompanied by considerable noise. The practical difficulty is to check the hammer sufficiently high up, without endangering the contact of the hammer with the check during its rising. The writer has a contrivance by which he hopes to overcome this difficulty, and if successful, he will send you, Mr. Editor, a figure and description of the same. But to return to the subject of durability. It is obviously a most important condition in any machine, that it consist of the fewest parts which are capable of effecting its purpose, and that it be so constructed as to be as durable as possible. Now, neither of these conditions usually result from complexity, which is a general character of the modern "patent," and other improvements in the action of grand pianofortes, particularly the attempts to revive" down striking" actions by Kohlman and others, which do not appear to have any advantages of tone which are not better obtained by placing the sound board above the strings as in the construction of Mr. Wornum ; besides gravity resists, instead of favouring the return of the hammer, and the spring which does return it is felt to resist the finger as a spring damper does.

Perhaps no part of a piano wears more rapidly than the mortises of the keys which receive the steady pins by which they are retained in their places; and as any considerable looseness, resulting from wear, is accompanied by much noise, some contrivance which would

347

either diminish wear, or readily compensate for it, would be desirable. I have been informed Messrs. Errard have hung the keys on bushed centres, and employed oval steady pins under the finger end of the keys; these being turned partly round, fill up the space produced by wear. Perhaps, if the mortises, particularly that at the end of the key which wears most, were lined with cloth, the action would not become so noisy as it usually does after being in use for a comparatively short period, to the great annoyance of those who resemble the writer in desiring to hear tone without noise.

If we may judge by the general absence of the means of quickly stopping the vibration of the long bass strings of grand pianofortes, we might infer there is some practical difficulty in effecting this. I think it will be found that rapid damping is best effected by increasing the surface of the damper. Any increase of its weight is very objectionable, as is also the employment of spring dampers, being felt so very sensibly to resist the finger; but if extension of surface should be found incapable of damping with sufficient rapidity, I would suggest the employment of two sets of dampers, one above and one below the strings, for the two lowest octaves of the compass, which I know from experience will effectually damp the most powerful vibrations of very heavy strings of the length of ten feet, which is fully four feet longer than the longest strings of a modern grand piano. In the case of short instruments there is no difficulty in damping, the great difficulty being to continue their vibrations.

On the proportionate lengths and sizes of the strings, depends, to a considerable degree, the obtainment of an equal quality of tone throughout the compass of the instrument; as does also even still more its standing well in tune; and should this meet the observation of pianoforte makers, I would, with all humility, beg to hint that it is a part of their business which many of them are too careless of, copying slavishly each other's scales, without first investigating the goodness of what they copy. But as it is ungracious to point out defects without suggesting remedies, I beg to offer for their adoption the following scale, which stands

Your practical readers can easily discover for themselves the lengths for the intermediate notes, as also where to commence using covered strings in instruments of ordinary length, as from the length of the bass, the above scale requires a case full ten feet long.

It would appear as if a perfect scale were a matter of easy obtainment, for all the sounds in the octave can be produced by stopping the vibrations of one string at different lengths, and those lengths can easily be measured. If wire of uniform size and quality were employed, this would no doubt be the best method, but a pianoforte strung with wire of uniform size is very unequal in different parts of the compass. To avoid this greater evil we must choose the less one of using strings of different size, gradually increasing in thickness from the treble to the bass. As thick wire does not undergo so much manipulation as thin wire, its tenacity is usually less; hence one chief cause of the necessity of making the octave below less than double the length of the strings of a given note; at the same time it must not be too short; no increase of thickness will compensate for want of sufficient tension, which produces a bad tone. This is a very common defect in those notes of the piano which are immediately above the covered strings, and it renders what is termed the break in the tone very obvi

ous.

The bracing of pianofortes is a very important consideration in their construction, although were mere capability of resistance the only consideration involved, it would not be difficult to design such an arrangement of its parts as would at once combine the least possible weight of material with the greatest strength; but this would require either that the bracing should be on both sides of the acting force, or that force on both sides of the bracing, as in Mr. John

Isaac Hawkins's construction. Now, both these conditions are attended by some practical inconveniences; the former requiring so much space as to necessitate the employment of crooked keys, and the latter rendering it needful to have one of the attachments of the strings moveable, or a most inconvenient length of wire beyond the bridge, if the strings are attached to the other side of the bracing. Perhaps these evils might be avoided in upright instruments, by employing a straining force, equal to that of the strings applied at the back of the wrest plank, and to that part of the frame in front of which the strings are attached; both these parts of the instrument remaining fixed as at present, it would be needful to have a convenient means of determining the amount of the compensating force, as it might otherwise exceed or fall short of the force of tension.

In grand pianofortes it is usual to employ bracing beneath the sound board, and other bracing, technically termed bars, above the strings; consequently, the instruments so constructed fulfil the former condition, and are open to the same objection, viz., the necessity of using crooked keys. I think, however, when the circumstance of the different distances of the upper and lower bracings from the strings is considered, it will be obvious that the total strain is very unequally distributed on each set, for the upper bracings or bars are so much nearer the strings that they sustain from two-thirds to five-sixths of the whole force, which fact would suggest the desirableness of making the bars strong enough to bear the entire strain. As the bars are of iron, this might easily be done, and the inconvenience of the bracing beneath the strings, or rather a continuation of it, termed the arches, which connect the belly rail with the wrest plank be thereby avoided; for they are in the way of the hammers, and involve the consequent necessity of employing crooked keys, a disadvantage which is avoided in Mr. Wornum's construction before mentioned. Mr., Wornum's instrument has the further advantage of striking towards the sound board, though this is obtained at the expense of the bracing being as distant from the strings, and consequently from the straining force, as in cabinet pianofortes.

ABSTRACTS OF SPECIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH

PATENTS RECENTLY ENROlled.

JUNIUS SMITH, OF FEN-COURT, FENCHURCH-STREET, GENT., for improvements in machinery for manufacturing cloths of wool and other fibrous substances (communicated by a foreigner residing abroad).— Enrolment Office, April 20, 1842.

The improvements described in this specification have particular reference to the recently introduced manufacture of cloth by felting, without weaving (though as much is not stated by the patentee himself) and seem to have for their main object to obviate the objection generally made to the felted cloths of wanting firmness of texture, by giving them a warp and woof the same as woven fabrics. Mr. Smith's invention may be described in brief as consisting in weaving sheets or layers of carded wool into cloth, whereas ordinarily the carded wool is first spun into thread, and then woven.

Four different sets of machinery are described.

1. Two carding machines (of the ordinary sort) working together at right angles: one furnishing the material to form the warp, in a thin continuous layer, and the other supplying (by means of a grooved doffer) the material to form the web or woof in successive but intermittent portions.

2. The warp and web so furnished by the carding machines passes into what is called "a receiving machine," where the materials are consolidated, interlaced, and formed into a cloth-like fabric.

3. From the receiving machine the clothlike fabric is transferred to a hardening or jiggering machine with a perforated steamchamber, in which machine the material is so much further consolidated and interlaced that it is made fit to undergo the ordinary process of fulling or milling.

4. With the ordinary fulling or milling

349

machinery there is combined an overhauling machine, by which a large portion of the manual labour now required in the fulling or milling of cloth is said to be saved. By these combined machines the fabric is equal

ized, and stretched clear of folds and wrinkles, and made fit for finishing.

The claim is, 1. To the use of the two carding machines, so placed, and working together, that they furnish the material for the fabric with the fibres of each successive layer across the fibres beneath.

2. To the construction and use of the receiving machine.

3. The combining of the two carding machines with the receiving machine, so as to produce thereby collectively a set of machinery to form materials into cloth.

4. To the hardening or jiggering machine with the perforated steam chamber.

5. To the use of overhauling machines for stretching, flatting, and smoothing any kind or description of cloth, during the process of fulling or milling.

MARCUS DAVIS, OF NEW Bond-street, OPTICIAN, for improvements in the means of ascertaining the distances vehicles travel. Petty Bag Office, April 7, 1842.

Mr. Davis's improvements (in the ordinary odometers) consist in using a roller, which revolves by contact with the circumference of the wheel, and causing the counting part of the instrument to register the revolutions of the roller and not of the wheel; so that, as the revolutions of the roller are always the same in number for any distance gone over, whatever may be the diameter of the wheel the inconveniences arising from variations in the size of wheels are got rid of. The odometer, when thus improved, may, the patentee thinks, be more properly called a "Terrameter."

The claim is to the adaptation and application of a wheel or roller to the periphery of one of the running wheels of a carriage, or of a wheel or roller connected therewith, whereby the number of revolutions made by the wheel or roller can be ascertained, and consequently the distance travelled by the carriage.

The idea of employing such an intermediate wheel or roller is not new, but it has never before been carried into practical effect, for want of a convenient and durable method of affixing the roller, and connecting it with the registering wheelwork. Neither can we flatter the present patentee with having succeeded better than others in this respect. An apparatus such as he describes his Terrameter" to be, would be in the "hospital" at least ten times as often as the wheels themselves, and that is oftener than would be consistent with the sound economy of any conveying or carrying establishment.

Registered Proprietors' Names.

Carpet

Subject of Design.

Time for which protection is granted.

1 years.

tion.

Ditto

Ditto

Chadburn, Brothers..........

Joint for shortening the handles of parasols 3 Button

Compound disc of circular plates

Umbrella stand....

Hat, coat, and umbrella stand

Fender

Syringe

3

3

Knife

1174

Ditto

Bottom of kettles, pots, &c...................... Portable letter and coin balance............... 3 Letter clip.......

Shirt (double breasted)............................................................ Lamp burner

Water valve.....

3

3

3

3

3

John Hynam

1180

S. Richards

Henry J. Dixon

Ditto

Robert Rettie

H. and J. Dixon

1

Skate................................................... 3

46 1210

Ridgway and Co. ...... Ditto

1

3

3

3

Machine for sweeping chimneys............... 3

Joseph Clisild Daniell, of Tiverton Mills, near Bath, for improvements in making and preparing food for cattle. March 31; six months.

Julius Seybel, of Golden-square, Middlesex, chemist, for improvements in the manufacture of sulphate of soda and chlorine. March 31; six months.

William Liversidge Trippett, of Charlton-uponMedlock, Lancaster, agent, for improvements in looms for weaving by hand, or by power. March 31; six months.

John Bevard, of Whitehead's Grove, Chelsea, gentleman, for an improved mode of expelling the air from certain cases or vessels used for the preservation of various articles of food. April 6; six months.

James Smith, of Deanston Works, Kilmadock, Perth, cotton-spinner; and James Buchanan, of the

city of Glasgow, merchant, for certain improvements applicable to the preparing and spinning of cotton wool, flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances. April 6; six months.

John Read, of Regent's Circus, mechanist; Henry Pirtland, of Hurst-green, Sussex, farmer; and Charles Woods, of Fore-street, Cripplegate, commercial traveller, for improvements in the construction and make of driving reins, harness, bridles, and reins, and in bridles and reins for riding. April 6; six months.

Jean George Sue Clarke, of Euston-grove, engineer, for improvements in supplying and regulating air to the furnaces of locomotive engines. (Being a communication.) April 6; six months.

Thomas Clive, of Birmingham, iron founder, for certain improvements in the construction of candlesticks. April 7; six months.