Books › The Instruments of the Modern Orchestra and Early Records of the Precursors of the Violin Family, in Two Volumes, Vol. I- Modern Orchestral Instruments, 1910 › scan 163
Scan 163
The Instruments of the Modern Orchestra and Early Records of the Precursors of the Violin Family, in Two Volumes, Vol. I- Modern Orchestral Instruments, 1910
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1may be observed to have strong iron or steel bars (the number of these bars varies with different makers, see Barless Grand) across the strings, but not touching them, from side to side of the frame; the holes of irregular shape are made in the metal frame for the sake of lightness. (See fig. 3).
3(2) The strings are now made of the strongest, and at the same time, the most elastic of metal, tempered, cast-steel wire, is able to meet a tension of at least 200 lbs. for each string in recent grands. The pitch of the strings depends on their diameter as well as their length. In order to reduce the latter for the bass strings, the expedient of covering them with copper or white metal wire has been resorted to here, as in the G string on the violin, for example. The earliest stringed instruments with keyboards, of which we have any knowledge, seem to have made their appearance in Europe about the middle of the 14th century, contemporaneously with the first manufacturers of drawn iron wire at Nuremberg (see "History of the Pianoforte," by A. J. Hipkins, F.S.A., Novello, 1896.)
5(3) The wrest plank (see fig. 3), corresponding to the peg-box of violins, will be found in grand pianos at the keyboard end under the music rest. Into it are inserted the wrest or tuning pins. In order to bear the strain of the enormous tension, the wrest plank is made of layers of the hardest woods—oak, beech, etc., in each of which the grain runs at right angles to that of the others to prevent splitting; the whole is further strengthened with a metal plate, to assist in insuring the rigidity of the tuning pins.
7(4) The soundboard (see figs. 2 and 3) consists of lengths of spruce fir glued together like that used for the best violin bellies, chosen on account of its elasticity and
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