Jim, Almost! Actually, the rise of the upright came almost immediately following Wornum's finalized upright action, which included the tape. In fact, so many French manufacturers started making upright clones with Herrburger-Schwandner (then of Paris) actions that his upright action became known as the French action. However, the let-off was different, letting off on the "shoulder" instead of the "elbow" of the jack but the tape certainly would help in transport. Note that the action was called the _Tape check_ action. The tape was one of the central features which improved the performance of actions, in turn which allowed for much broader acceptance of the vertical piano. So those @#$%^ tapes really did save the day. Wornum's notion of small grands seems to have gained acceptance - imagine if some of his other ideas had caught on... Clark
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