Piano NOT Funnies - August

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

At 19:13 08/14/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>It did have an iron plate, but there IS a lot of wood there.
>
>Conrad,
>NO it did not have a plate, in 1830. The Full Plate wasn't developed until
>1835, or so. If it had any cast iron in it, it was in the form of a "Hitch
>Plate" and Maybe, just maybe a support strut. A lot of those were made out
>of brass and not Cast Iron, as it was an easier metal to work with. That's
>it! We really did not see major amounts of Cast Iron, in pianos, until the
>1840's. And, that was more in American made instruments. On this account,
>Europe was a bit behind, at the time.
>Best Regards,
>Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)
>Captain, Tool Police
>Squares Are I


I was just guessing on the vintage.

  - after renting the video and trying to see details, I did see a plate, 
so that would make it newer than 1830. They didn't do us curious types the 
courtesy of showing the serial number, however.

1. it was a square
2. the picture _was_ from the movie
3. it kinda looks like a grand in the picture, but that, IMMHO, is due to 
the fact that the keys are not recessed. The case juts out and there are 
cheeks just like a modern grand.  If you just glance at the picture and 
don't count legs, you can easily be confused.
4. It supposedly did sit on the beach, and somehow didn't sink - truly a 
miracle if you know anything about wave action and sand...
5. it had oblong pins
6. it had individual dampers vs:american style damper tray
7. it was being carried athwartships on the canoe, so was in the most 
unstable condition possible, and did seem as though it was helped a bit in 
it's escape.
8. it miraculously sank down, feet first and landed open and almost 
invitingly playable on the ocean floor.
9. I don't want to make a judgement on the piano's sound as my 12" portable 
TV doesn't exactly have excellent sound reproduction capabilities.

I only rented the video for one night.  I'll leave it to someone else to 
glean any other observations.

c


Conrad Hoffsommer
Designing and testing virtual flamesuits since 1993.