<HTML xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><HEAD> <META charset=UTF-8 http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1505" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"> <DIV> <DIV>Hi Dave,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for the note on the URL...it's <A href="http://www.periodpianos.org">www.periodpianos.org</A> - add the "s" to what I posted....too late at night after doing some NAMM work til almost midnight!  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The web site is temporarily ugly....but the text should be fine.  I'll fix the titles later in the day.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The advantage of researching Steinway is that the records are intact and it happens to be the company driving the technology and the market during the period of 1860 to 1880.  However, the complete picture is very important, so I'm very interested in documenting other brands as well, especially Chickering, Knabe, Weber, Hallet Davis....and a host of other instruments whose names aren't recognized but who were innovative and deserve attention.  My study focuses on Steinway but it would be useless without the context.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>At the present time I'm interested in finding out if any other manufacturer built an instrument in 1869 or before in which the plate fully extended over the pinblock (at least past the pin field).  Steinway seems to have been the first, in 1869, but I would like to know if another company did.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Bill Shull</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 1/18/2007 5:27:18 AM Pacific Standard Time, dporritt@mail.smu.edu writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Bill:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Thanks for the research you are doing on the history of our instrument.  History is not my thing so I’m really glad someone is doing it!  <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Two things:  <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1> <LI class=MsoNormal style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Are you also looking at the same things from other factories – Mason & Hamlin, Knabe, Chickering, McPhail. Baldwin etc.??<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT> <LI class=MsoNormal style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">If you find – in your study of scale evolution – why that evolution stopped after the turn of the century I’d really love to know.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT> </LI></OL> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Somehow I couldn’t get the link below to work</SPAN></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>