<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.494118); "><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; ">"Fenton Murray" <<a href="mailto:fmurray@cruzio.com" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">fmurray@cruzio.com</a>></span></div><blockquote dir="ltr" style="padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid; margin-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Also, recently someone pointed out that changing wire sizes (plain wire) did not change the breaking point % of a note. After a few sample problems in P-Scale I confirmed this. This was really a forehead slapper for me. If this is true, bridge re-scaling is the only option for changing BP %.</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Fenton</font></div></blockquote><br><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.494118); "><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; ">Ron Nossaman <<a href="mailto:rnossaman@cox.net" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">rnossaman@cox.net</a>></span></div><br><blockquote type="cite" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "> Also, recently someone pointed out that changing wire sizes (plain<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "> wire) did not change the breaking point % of a note. After a few<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "> sample problems in P-Scale I confirmed this. This was really a<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "> forehead slapper for me. If this is true, bridge re-scaling is the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "> only option for changing BP %.<br></blockquote><br>On plain wires, yup. You can change tension, but to change break%, you gotta change speaking length.<br><br>Ron N<br></span></blockquote><br></div><div>Hi Fenton,</div><div><br></div><div>I pointed out the "constant BP problem" a week or so ago only after slapping my own forehead repeatedly. Unfortunately, slapping my forehead repeatedly still left the problem intact and my cognitive abilities less so.</div><div><br></div><div>Ron is 99.99% right in his reply. I don't think it will help you much, if at all, but for logical completeness, I'll add that there is another way to change break% instead of changing the speaking length: change the wire composition. Stainless steel wire, or phosphor bronze, or yellow brass, or anything else will have a different modulus of elasticity, density, and the like, and these physical properties will change the break% when a given speaking length is tensioned to the given pitch. Unfortunately, I know of nothing available that will have a lower break% (meaning a stronger wire) than modern steel piano wire. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm only mentioning this for two reasons. One is that, in working through scaling formulae there is usually a constant that relates to the wire composition. If using a different type of wire, It is this constant that would be changed. It is pretty common to take constants for granted, and I always remind myself to take a hard look at the "taken for granted" parts of any problem when trying to arrive at creative solutions.</div><div><br></div><div>The other reason is that I'm hoping against all odds that one of the engineers/physicists out there on the list might know about any modern materials that might be investigated for higher strength/lower break%. If there are any out there that might realistically be tried (carbon nanotubes are about a million times too expensive at the moment), I'd sure like to know about them…. </div><div><br></div><div>Joe DeFazio</div><div>Pittsburgh</div><div><br></div><div>P. S. - Personally, I'm guessing that breakthroughs in material science will be the next big thing in piano design and rebuilding (though CNC routing and machining is pretty exciting, too, as is 3D printing).</div><div><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div bgcolor="#ffffff" lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.498039); "><b></b></span></div></div></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>