[pianotech] What is the Steinway term for 'whippen'

[tnrwim at aol.com]

The American term, however spelt, is a corruption of the German word 
or see-saw, Wippe and/or the German verb Wippen, which means, among 
ther interesting meanings, to balance.  In the old days some 
echnicians called them wipps.  In any case there is no h in the 
ord.  There is no law that says piano technicians must be illiterate.For what it's worth, 

For what it's worth, in Dutch, wippe means see saw.




-----Original Message-----
From: John Delacour <JD at Pianomaker.co.uk>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Tue, Nov 16, 2010 9:04 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] What is the Steinway term for 'whippen'


At 03:36 -0500 16/11/2010, tnrwim at aol.com wrote:
>I don't know what the Steinway word for whippen is, since I believe 
corporal punishment of factory workers is now against the law, but I 
believe the part most piano technicians call a wippen*, is called a 
repetition lever at Steinway.

* While some technicians call a repetition lever a whippen, it is 
not the correct spelling of this part of the a piano. This, 
according to Jim Ellis, RPT.
The American term, however spelt, is a corruption of the German word 
or see-saw, Wippe and/or the German verb Wippen, which means, among 
ther interesting meanings, to balance.  In the old days some 
echnicians called them wipps.  In any case there is no h in the 
ord.  There is no law that says piano technicians must be illiterate.
Steinway's terms are a joke.  They even cast one of their famous 
lliterate inventions into their plate : the "Capo d'Astro", which 
as no meaning at all.
Herrburger, the great action-maker, refers to the main body of the 
ever as the "rider" and to the sprung lever as the "repeating-lever"
In England we generally call the whole thing just the "lever", short 
or "intermediate lever", and the repeating-lever the 
repetition-lever" or "cradle".
JD


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101116/0891adbd/attachment.htm>