Clarification on Bl"uthner's brochure (and Junghanns' book)

[ranjacob@umich.edu]

Just a clarification on "wording", and a correction.

1.) The recent brochure from Bl"uthner reproduces one or more drawings that 
show a straight line drawn on top of/parallel to the long bridge of one of 
their grands, a larger one if I recall. Also shown are the ribs, rim/belly 
rail, and beams. There is a cross beam to, or near, what appears to be a 
straight cutoff bar in the front bass corner (panel is shaded-in only up to 
it and not beyond), and the straight line on/along the long bridge is 
actually shown perpendicular to the bottom of the page. This seems to 
emphasize the fact that this line and the straight cutoff bar are more or 
less parallel.
I think this is meant to emphasize that the rib crowning produces
something like a very shallow barrel vault between the cutoff
bar and some corresponding length of the bentside rim, with the
straight line along long bridge being near the top of the vault
--as opposed to producing something more spherical.  This is what
I meant by referring to crown along the bridge in the Bl"uthner;
I didn't mean it in opposition to crown along the ribs (as in, "measuring" 
crown along the ribs with a cord).  I should have added
that the ribs in the diagram were distinctly fanned out (closer
together on the bent side)!

2.) In a post of 3/14/03, I said that "Junghanns et al.
(Piano- und Fl"ugelbau, Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Das Musikinstrument, 
various editions in the 1970's) point out that
it has sometimes been thought -- e.g., by a Feurich designer -- that the 
longitudinal pull, or longitudinal vibration, of the struck or vibrating 
string on the bridge termination is able to
influence tone by causing the bridge momentarily or periodically to "tilt" 
(kippen). For this reason, Feurich was said at one point" [to have 
experimented with making their bridges straighter, to
take better advantage of this claimed tonal difference,especially
in attack tone].

I misremembered; I should have said F"orster, not Feurich.

Thanks,

Randy Jacob
University of Michigan Library