Helmholtz and Steinway

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Delacour" <JD@Pianomaker.co.uk>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: November 17, 2001 3:48 PM
Subject: Helmholtz and Steinway


>
> However, there is no doubt that Theodore Steinway was an intimate
> friend of Helmholtz, if we are to believe Dolge, a mutual friend
> ("...who has often discussed problems of piano building with him ...
> until the early morning hours"), who writes: ".... [T. Steinway]
> returned to Germany to be near Helmholtz and benefit from that great
> savant's epoch-making discoveries.  It was but natural that in time
> he became an intimate friend of Helmholtz....etc".  [Pianos and Their
> Makers p. 304]
> --------------------------------

On the other hand...

"It is sometimes stated (as in the first edition of this book) that Theodore
Steinway studied Helmholtz's book, corresponded with him, provided him on
occasion with pianos to use in his experiments, and sought to apply his
findings tot he advantage of the piano. Theodore may have read Helmholtz,
but no correspondence has survived. Steinway & Sons presented more than one
grand to Helmoltz, the first in 1871, another several decades after his book
was written, when he was doing experiments on other matters. Nevertheless,
Helmholtz used the 1871 grand in checking out some details of upper partials
in the fourth edition. Helmholtz approved after the fact of some of
Theodore's innovations, some of which might have been based on Helmholtz's
acoustical work. His research had made much of the fact that the pattern of
partials is what establishes the quality of tone in a vibrating string.
Steinway designed the "duplex" scale.... The idea here had occasionally been
tried before, unscientifically. ...Helmholtz himself, being presented with a
grand embodying the duplex scale, wrote to William that the innovation had
improved the tone in terms of his theory and supposed that the design,
"being based upon scientific principles, [was] capable of still greater
improvement." (Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos, Second Edition,
Edwin M Good, 2001)

There is a lot of mythology that has developed about and around Steinway &
Sons. It is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction. Especially
when the fiction goes a long way toward furthering the success of the
company. Given that Mr Dolge was some given to hyperbole I suspect that this
is just one more of those legends that has grown and prospered over the
years.


>
> Well Steinway, whose patent I had not read until today, seems to be
> saying something very similar to what I said and to discount your
> contention that transverse vibration is conveyed to the back length
> by the movement of the bridge etc.

Innovative as he may have been as a pianobuilder, Mr Steinway was not
infallable. I've yet to see it demonstrated that any mechanical wave motion,
whether transverse or longitudinal, can be made to travel through or across
a reasonably functional offset bridge pin system.

It might be good to remember, while discussing this topic, that when
Steinway was doing this work it was still being actively debated just how
piano sound was produced. One of the prevailing theories -- still prevelent
several decades into the 20th century -- was that the sound was generated
within the soundboard as a result of millions of tiny little diaphragms
resonating in sympothy with the strings.

I rather suspect that Mr Steinway's perception of longitudinal vibrations
and our own (as clarified by Harold Conklin's work on the subject) are not
the same.

Del