692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is, however, the greatest triumph of inventive genius and skill, aided 

 by modern physical science ; and this fact being acknowledged in all 

 parts of the civilized world, foreign trade has been introduced to such 

 an extent as to make the industry one of the largest in the United 

 States. All the makers here daily strive for preeminence, and en- 

 deavor to surpass one another in the superior excellences of the 

 smalle&t details, if not in the novelty and value, of their own re- 

 spective inventions. No pains or expense are spared to obtain im- 

 provements, in the hope that these may, at least, lead to subsequent 

 discoveries in the many untrodden paths of acoustical science. In 

 this respect they resemble the old violin-makers of Italy, who also 

 took a pardonable pride in their productions, which are the result of 

 similar prolonged strivings. 



The violin and the piano-forte, however, although in some respects 

 similar, are in others widely different. The violin is endowed with 

 perpetual youth. It even improves with age. The piano-forte does 

 not. The violin is a mere shell of wood, modeled somcAvhat after a 

 human shape, held together by glue, and strung with catgut ; and 

 although its various parts must be adjusted with great discrimination, 

 and the bow with which it is excited be finely formed (having, for 

 instance, a length of say twenty-nine and a quarter inches; weight 

 of 900 grains ; a diameter gradually decreasing, for twenty-three 

 inches, from one-third to one-tenth of an inch, the curvature mean- 

 while increasing at an accelerating rate, to give a spring to the bow), 

 yet this musical instrument, when compared with a piano-forte, appears 

 as an extremely simple organism. It is" more homogeneous, like all 

 the other members of the numerous family of viols. The piano-forte, 

 on the contrary, with its many kinds of wood, hard and soft, heavy 

 and light; its many kinds of clotlis and felts; of skins; with its 

 masses of wrought and cast iron, steel, copper, brass, silver, lead, etc., 

 is a more highly-complex production. It is heterogeneous, rather 

 than homogeneous; and only by the most perfect coordination of all its 

 parts does it retain an organization capable or worthy of preservation. 



The piano-fortes of Erard, so highly prized for their extreme re- 

 finement and susceptibility to slightest variations of touch, are ex- 

 tremely delicate ; and while other Europeans have succeeded in mak- 

 ing more robust instruments, it has been reserved for the Americans 

 the ability to endow their productions M'ith constitutions capable of 

 resisting, to any remarkable extent, climatal influences. The degree 

 of their success, with reference to longevity, is not yet fully proved ; 

 and the variations in this respect are so great that it would be even 

 rash to form an estimate, as we shall presently see. It is only safe to 

 say that a piano-forte is never better than when it first leaves the 

 hands of its maker. Like a young, impressionable being, it may then 

 be made to suit special tastes and requirements. The readiness and 

 extent of response to touch can then be determined, and the tones 



