MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 481 



seen, and it has tempted me to engage one for Monticello. His 

 strings are perpendicular, and he contrives within that height to 

 give his strings the same length as in a grand piano-forte, and 

 fixes the three unisons to the same screw. It scarcely gets out of 

 tune at all, and then, for the most part, the three unisons are tuned 

 at once." 



One of these instruments is now in the possession of Broad- 

 wood & Sons, London. Hawkins was certainly the first to antici- 

 pate the modern upright, in its characteristics of portableness, 

 but musically his instrument had no value, and the action prin- 

 ciple originated by him was 

 a complete failure. He after- ^ 

 ward returned to London, 

 where he achieved an hon- 

 orable place in his profession. 

 I am indebted to Mr. A. J. 

 Hipkins, the celebrated Eng- 

 lish writer on musical instru- 

 ments, and member of Broad- 

 wood & Sons, London, for 

 facts given in this connec- 

 tion. 



The future of the piano 

 about the beginning of the 

 century depended on the suc- 

 cessful introduction of iron ; 

 for a point of development 

 had been reached where 

 wooden cases were found in- 

 adequate to withstand the 

 tension imposed by heavier 

 stringing and an increased 

 key-board compass. Meanwhile the first notable attempt to in- 

 troduce iron into the structure of the piano occurred in this 

 country in 1800, when J. Isaac Hawkins, already spoken of, manu- 

 factured uprights with iron backs, on which the sounding- 

 board was adjusted. Several rude attempts to employ iron 

 were made subsequently in Europe, but without any degree of 

 success, until Allen and Thoms, two practical workmen in the 

 shop of Stodart in London, originated and patented a system of 

 metal tube and plate bracing in 1820. This attempt was in itself 

 very successful. It became the property of Stodart and proved a 

 fortune to him, but, although an improvement on the old methods, 

 it was far from being adequate to the demands of musical progress. 

 Pleyel, of Paris, and Broadwood, of London, followed with more 

 improvements of the same order, and with partial success, from the 



VOL. xr,. — 34 



Fig. 10. — First American Upright Piano, made 

 BY Hawkins in Philadelphia, 1800. In the 

 possessioa of Broadwood & Sons, London. 



