In order to save space, some English makers toward the end of the eighteenth century con ceived the idea of building pianos in an upright form. The first attempts consisted in nothing mole than turning a grand or square instrument on one side. The first genuine upright was pat ented (1800) in England and the 'United States by John Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman living in the latter country. It is remarkable for contain ing most of the features which distinguish the modern upright. In the direct line of piano de velopment. however, we owe a greater debt of gratitude to Southwell. who after fourteen years of experimenting exhibited the first upright piano that yielded practical results in 1807. This lie called the 'Cabinet.' In I811 he built another in strument which shows many decided improve ments. Wornum still further improved this son-in-law, Streicher, in 1794 further improved this action and established a great reputation for his instruments. France was supplied chiefly with English pianos until Erard (a German whose name originally was Erhardt I settled in Paris in 1777. The Revolution drove him to Lon don, where he made himself thoroughly familiar with English methods. Even after his return to Paris Erard continued to use the English action, but meanwhile he was seeking some improvement. His experiments resulted in 1821 in the double model by the introduction of diagonal stringing. The increased length of the strings yielded a more powerful tone. Ile also invented a new ac tion principle (the so-called lever-check action), which was taken up and further improved by I'levcl of Paris, in which form it became known as the French action.
It mnst not he imagined that the pianoforte im mediately upon its appearance at the beginning of the eighteenth century superseded the harpsi chord or davicembalo. These instruments con tinued to be made; especially the clavicendialo kept. its position in the orchestra throughout the century. Composers still wrote for the harpsi chord. The earliest known composition written especially for pianoforte appeared in 1771. The a certain Mfithel, it "Duetto fiir zwey Claviere, zwey Fortepiano oder v But the technique is not ferent that. of the harpsichord. The first compositions written especially for the pianoforte and showing a technique characteristic of the new instrument are three sonatas (op. 2) by Muzio Clementi, published in 1773. From that time on composers began to study the peculiarities of the pianoforte and to employ the proper technique. The colossal pianoforte works of Beethoven were destined to revolutionize the manufacture of piannforles. Many of his pianoforte works were beyond the capabilities of the instrument at that time. Thus he gave a powerful stimulus to piano-builders to increase both the compass and power of the pianoforte. In order to obtain power of tone the thickness of the strings had to be increased; to extend the scale the number of strings had to he increased. Manufacturers had to devise some frame capable of withstandIng this enormous increase of tension. This led to the use of metal. In 1820 Allen and Thom pat ented a frame consisting of hollow metal tubes with brass and iron plates supported by heavy wooden crossbars. This was soon adopted by the leading manufacturers. Babcock of Boston in 1S25 tried a east-iron frame, and in 1832 Allen produced a frame that eombined the string-plate, tension bars, and wrest-plank in one casting. This was still further improved by Chickering in 1337. In 1859 Steinway & Sons of New York ambled to the metal frame in one casting an agraffe, which is a small metallic support for the string, inserted between the bridge and the string for the purpose of preventing vibration in that part of the string.
The same firm introduced also a double over strung scale, which is obtained by dividing the strings into two sets, so that one set lies diag onally across the other.
Besides the improvements mentioned innumer able others have been and are still being made. From the four-octave instrument of Cristofori with a moderade tension, supported by a wooden sounding board, the modern pianoforte has de into an instrument of tremendous tone power with a compass of over seven octaves and a tension amounting to several tons. A modern pianoforte consists of the following parts: (1) The frame, now almost universally 111:111e of iron cast in a single piece. At the rear end is attached the string-plate, into which the strings are fast ened. In the front there is the wrest-plank. into which the tuning-pins are set. Around these is wound the other end of the strings. and by turn ing these pins the tension of the strings is regu lated. (2) The sounding-board, a thin piece of wood placed under the strings for the purpose of reinforcing the tone by means of sympathetic vi bration. (3) The strings, made of steel wire. in creasing in length and thickness from the treble to the bass. The lower ones are made heavier by being overspun, i.e. wound around with a coil of thin copper wire. For the very lowest tones only one wire is used ( Then two strings for each tone ; above twit three strings. (4) The action, the entire mechanism required for propelling the hammers against the strings. This includes the keyboard, a row of keys manipulated by the fingers. The keys cor responding to the natural tones are made of ivory, those corresponding to the chromatically altered tones, of ebony. When a key is pressed clown the rear end rises and lifts a rod, called jack, which, in turn, throws the hammer against the string or strings. At the same time a damper is raised. The hammer, having struck the string, falls back immediately and is caught by a check, preventing a rebound. But as long as the key is pressed down the damper remains raised and thus allows the string to vibrate freely. (5) The pedals, levers pressed down by the feet. (a) The forte or loud pedal raises all the dampers, so that all the strings struck continue to vibrate even after the keys are released. (b) The soft pedal, which either throws all the hammers nearer to the strings, so that the striking distance is diminished by one-half, or shifts the hammers a little to one side, so that only a single string instead of the two or three is struck. (c) Sonic pianos have a third or sustaining pedal which does not raise all the dampers, but keeps raised only such as are raised by the keys at the moment this pedal is applied. (d) Recently many up right pianos have been built in which the appli cation of a pedal interposes a strip of felt be tween the hammers and strings, so that only a very faint sound is produced. This is a great convenience while practicing. (6) The case. Ac cording to the shape of the case, pianos are classi fied as grand, square, and upright. The square form is no longer built, although many instru ments of that shape are still in use. For use in private homes they have been entirely super seded by the uprights, which latter take up far less room. The grand pianos are built in various sizes, from the full concert grand, S feet 10 inches long, to the parlor or baby grand. 6 feet long. The cases are often very elaborately carved or even inlaid. There have been special instruments made that cost $50,000.