At 08:54 AM 09/30/1999 -0200, you wrote: >My post about Robert Wornum activated my down-striking receptors today; >I already knew that drop-action spinets (in this case, WurliTzer) would >play upside-down, but today I discovered that with stronger >hammer-springs and a spring on the rest-rail they will play and even >repeat on their backs. The progeny of the inventor of the cut-down >upright could reposition keybeds and sell left-handed, square 36" grands >with the bass in the right hand... > >Clark This implies that spinets in outer space will still play. Ruinously expensive to lift out of the gravity well, of course, so the heavy parts like the plates should be cast on the moon, and the parts assembled in microgravity. Wooden cases might not make as much sense as plastic and metal, out there. In outer space, the soundboard might be the most costly part, and hammer shanks would be carefully hoarded, recycled, and mended, since they would have to be brought from Earth. It would be better to avoid small brass parts, since if they were disarranged and flew about they would be hard to recapture, while ferrous parts could be netted with magnets. In fact, they could be laid out on magnetized strips awaiting assembly. (I'm not sure if all this could be described as non-technical, but it surely is non-PRACTICAL!) Susan P.S. Clark -- there's never any need to apologize for telling us about piano history.
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