Chickering Brass Flanges

[Horace Greeley]

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Michael,

At 04:06 PM 1/2/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Horace,
>
>I don't quite get the second paragraph.  These shanks end with a
>birdseye that fits into the fork of the brass flanges. I appreciate more
>help. Thanks.

Sorry, I am not sure I understand what you mean.

In your pictures, these are quite ordinary looking shanks
- except that they _appear_ to have the more narrow (width)
of many brass-action Chickerings I have seen.  The Renner
shanks are/were (somewhat) too wide (in terms of OD).  (This
would be measured across the width, just at the point where
the milling for the tongue starts.)  Thus, the any necessary
narrowing would be done from that point forward (inclusive
of milling the knuckle, which is why Newton's solution sounds
good to me).  Does that help any?  Sorry for any confusion.

Hmm - I think I also may be thinking of something that Renner
had available for (I think it was) older Bechstein.  That part
had a fairly largish birdseye area, with a notch on the underside
roughly adjacent to the knuckle to accomodate the different
action.  (...which was rather like a square, or English "Backers"
action.)  The flange/shank combination in your pictures was not
in production very long, and was replaced (in some iterations)
by the type I referred to - which had a tongue of brass machined
as part of the flange, and then bent (more or less, depending on
the type of "clip" or plate used to hold it in place on the
center pin, which was, in turn, simply run between the forks of
the yoke on the shank).  (One, much earlier - ca 1850 "wing spinet"
Chickering I used to work on in LA, had the kind of shank as
in your pictures, with a machined rail in part as well as
separate flanges as you show, in part, throughout its 53
note range.)

Also, while the shanks themselves are not too thick, I seem
to remember that the drop screws were just long enough to
cause problems.

Hmmm (again, sorry) - Pleyel used a similar system as late
as WWI, with a much more modern style action than the Bechstein
one I was thinking of.  Maybe Herkshers (in England, Barrie
would know) would have a line on some kind of replacement;
or, one of our friends on the Continent.

Idle ramblings, I fear.  Still, I'll see if I cannot find something
more helpful.


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Horace Greeley,                         email:  hgreeley@stanford.edu
CNA, MCP, RPT
Systems Analyst/Engineer                voice:  650.725.9062
Controller's Office                     fax:    650.725.8014
Stanford University
651 Serra St., RM 100, MC 6215
Stanford, CA 94305-6215

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