Foundry Castings

[Ron Nossaman]

>Just why do we think gray iron is the best of all possible materials to 
>use for piano plates anyway? What is it about gray iron that is so special?

I think we don't think it's better so much as we just don't think about it 
at all. So much of piano design is momentum of entrenched "standards" that 
there's no reason I can see to think plates would be immune from the 
attitude. I'm thinking that gray cast iron was the coin of the realm at the 
time plates were first being put into pianos. At that time, you couldn't 
throw a hat out of a window without hitting something made of cast iron. It 
was about as common then as plastic is now - well, almost. There were more 
than a few foundries around that were equipped to cast something like a 
piano plate, it was cheap, there were lots of experienced pattern makers, 
and it was a relatively quick and easy way to make a frame that would 
handle the tonnage of the new higher tension scales. What else did they 
have at the time that was more cost effective and would still do the job? I 
think cast iron was the first thing they reached for, and it worked well 
enough to satisfy them.

I think these mantras of rigidity and non resonance are just 
rationalizations that developed later as justification for doing it like it 
was always done and not exploring other alternatives. I'm OK, you're OK. 
Don't improve - decorate. Once these mantras are encoded into the gene 
pool, they become TRUTHS, whether they're defensibly logical or not. Who 
wants the responsibility for questioning these truths? They'd have to 
overcome a lot of static weight (belief) to make any headway. Easier to 
just go along.

Ron N