Wood

[J Patrick Draine]

On Saturday, February 15, 2003, at 10:46 PM, Don wrote:

> This should be simple to check. All it would take is someone to measure
> pitchs on a piano in some strategic areas before a Damppchaser is 
> installed
> in a dry time of the year. Then measure the piano a hour, a day, and a 
> week
> after the install. Then unplug and drain the tank, and measure in an 
> hour,
> a day, and a week.
>
> Shall I do this? Vote here! yea or nay?
>
> Can someone suggest a better protocol for such an experiment?

Well, one flaw that I see in this is that temperature remains a 
variable. While you have a full DC system running you have the affect 
of the heating elements (both the long "drying" bar and the shorter bar 
with the wicks) which will have  some affect on the pitch (warmer ---> 
flatter).
So I think you'd need to control for that (perhaps cycle both bars with 
a timer throughout the experiment, with the only variable being the 
presence or absence of water).
I think you also might want to monitor the RH (and temperature) inside 
and outside the piano constantly with the data logger system that Roger 
Wheelock  uses (and has demoed at the Convention's CyberCafe).

Please consider these modifications before you run your experiment.

Patrick Draine