The action carriage which operates the hammer is somewhat complicated. When the key is depressed, the left end rises, and pushes up the whole carriage, which is pivoted at one end. The hammer shank is raised by the jack B pressing upon a knob, N, called the notch, attached to the under side of the shank. When the jack has risen to a certain point, its arm, B1, catches against the button C and jerks it from under the notch at the very moment when the hammer strikes, so that it may not be blocked against the string. As it rebounds, the hammer is caught on the repetition lever R, which lifts it to allow of perfect repetition.
The check catches the tail of the hammer head during its descent when the key is raised, and prevents it coming back violently on the carriage and rest. The tail is curved so as to wedge against the check without jamming in any way. The moment the carriage begins to rise, the rear end of the key lifts a lever connected with the damper by a vertical wire, and raises the damper of the string. If the key is held down, the vibrations continue for a long time after the blow; but if released at once, the damper stifles them as the hammer regains its seat. A bar, L, passing along under all the damper lifters, is raised by depressing the loud pedal. The soft pedal slides the whole keyboard along such a distance that the hammers strike two only out of the three strings allotted to all except the bass notes, which have only one string apiece, or two, according to their depth or length. In some pianos the soft pedal presses a special damper against the strings; and a third kind of device moves the hammers nearer the strings so that they deliver a lighter blow. These two methods of damping are confined to upright pianos.
A high-class piano is the result of very careful workmanship. The mechanism of each note must be accurately regulated by its tiny screws to a minute fraction of an inch. It must be ensured that every hammer strikes its blow at exactly the right place on the string, since on this depends the musical value of the note. The adjustment of the dampers requires equal care, and the whole work calls for a sensitive ear combined with skilled mechanical knowledge, so that the instrument may have a light touch, strength, and certainty of action throughout the whole keyboard.
THE QUALITY OF A NOTE.
If two strings, alike in all respects and equally tensioned, are plucked, both will give the same note, but both will not necessarily have the same quality of tone. The quality, or timbre , as musicians call it, is influenced by the presence of overtones , or harmonics , in combination with the fundamental , or deepest, tone of the string. The fact is, that while a vibrating string vibrates as a whole, it also vibrates in parts. There are, as it were, small waves superimposed on the big fundamental waves. Points of least motion, called nodes , form on the string, dividing it into two, three, four, five, etc.,