Robert Wornum
Robert Wornum ( born October 1, 1780 in London, † September 29, 1852 in London ) was a piano maker, who worked in London during the first half of the 19th century.
Overview
Wornum was known for his spinets and the first high- pianos, upright pianos or " uprights ". He also devised a game mechanics for high pianos, the forerunner of all current game mechanics for upright pianos is and has been used in Europe during the early 20th century. His piano Construction was called Robert Wornum & Sons and was also a half-century after his death yet. The art historian Ralph Nicholson Wornum (1812-1877) was his son.
Life
Robert Wornum was born on October 1, 1780, the son of the local music dealer and violin builder Robert Wornum ( 1742-1815 ), the. In Glasshouse Street, London, and later, after about 1777 in the 42 Wigmore Street, Cavendish Square, close to the working The piano historian Alfred J. Hipkins wrote that the young Wornum should first go to the church service, but in 1810 he had a position as a foreman at the local music sellers Wilkinson & Company in the 3 Great Windmill Street and 13 Haymarket.
Wilkinson & Co. were the successors of Broderip & Wilkinson, a partnership between Francis Broderip and George Wilkinson, which was created in 1798 from the bankruptcy of the famous piano maker Longman & Broderip. Wilkinson & Co. was founded after the death of Broderip 1807: According to the family history, written by the son of Henry Wilkinson Broadhurst Wilkinson, the company was specifically set out to complete high piano case, the company Astor and Leukenfeld in license under patent of William Southwell made . From Southwell is said that he had the first high piano in 1790 built .. He described that the piano " was designed to prevent that it will often out of tune ," and without " any opening or perforation between soundboard and pin block ," although the patent of 1807 merely described a new arrangement of the damper. The Monthly Magazine reported in May 1808 that Wilkinson & Co. of the public " a new patent, a Cabinet Pianoforte " offered, and described that its shape " both unusual and appealing " is, and do not claim more space than the smallest bookcase, meanwhile its sound both brilliant and gentle, and his feeling " very easy and enjoyable " is. He claimed that the strength and simplicity of its construction guarantees bar that " the piano will last longer his mood than most other instruments ." The Quarterly musical register described in the spring of 1812, that such instruments are made with other companies, and commented, " whether these pianos are preferred compared to the previous panel pianos (square pianos ), the time must prove ". Wornum's son Alfred later claimed that these instruments were not very successful for a time, and Broadhurst Wilkinson admitted that the company had been required to make warranty replacement on sold instruments, as people found that they were " not good standing " ( the mood did not last well ). Mid- 1809 in any case, the company advertised in the " Times " that it had been decided in the wake of the large increase in the production of their high Pianos stop production of all other instruments and throw them at half price on the market to reduce the stock, and also favorable rental terms for all pianos offering.
Wilkinson & Wornum and Unique wedding piano
After Broadhurst Wilkinson to Wilkinson borrowed 1810 £ 12,000 ( $ 53,000 ) to form a partnership with Wornum, and rented houses at the 315 Oxford Street and Princes Street, adjacent to the Hanover Square, for sale rooms, production workshops and housing, with a garden was dried past 11 Princes Street in the wood.
1811 was Wornum patented a small double besaitetets high piano, which was only about 99 cm high, and which he called "unique". Its strings were stretched diagonally from the top to the right side of the housing and worked on a small soundboard. The case was divided into two parts for keyboard and action on the one hand, and for the strings and the frame on the other. Wornum triggering looked directly onto a flat nose ( "padded notch" ) on the butt and was able to avoid the intermediate lever which was found in many panel pianos and grand pianos in the high of the competitors Southwell so far. The hammer rest rail is not returned to its own weight, or in addition to the weight of the intermediate lever and the plunger back, but by the force of a spring which was attached to the hammer bar. As Southwell also used Wornum upper dampers expressed on the strings above the hammers: they were suspended on levers which were mounted on a separate block, but the wires which they were operated, disposed on the back of the mechanism. Wornum also applied a "buff stop", a means for reducing the volume, which was operated by the left pedal and abdämpfte half of the strings. Two articles from 1851 show that the company built a few hundred of these instruments.
One of the high pianos by Wornum was featured in the issue of February 1812 issue of The Repository of Arts, under the heading " Fashionable Furniture" (trendy / modern furniture), with a description that this type piano will now be in high demand because of the improvements that " these instruments a very high level of recognition brought in ". The short paragraph describing the sizes 183-218 cm ranged. They are available in mahogany and rosewood with brass parts, we praised its " unmatched " stop and the quality of their sound - especially with the instruments with two strings per note, especially for vocal accompaniment.
The manufacturing facility of Wilkinson & Wornum on Oxford Street was destroyed in a fire in October 1812. The owner advertised a few days later in the " Times " that the greater part of their finished inventory are saved to pianos, partly from neighbors, partly of volunteers, and that these pianos continues for sale stood at 11 Princes Street, but you started a collection to about seventy workers to replace their lost tools, without which they could not continue their work: In those years, the tools were private property of the piano maker. At a meeting of the creditors of the company in November Wilkinson's father, Charles Wilkinson agreed that he would rise against them, no claims and guaranteed payments to other lenders, and in the spring of 1813 he renounced claims to its partners. Wilkinson & Wornum was dissolved on March 3, 1813. Wilkinson established his own piano factory behind his new house at 32 Howland street, and Wornum, who may share his patent to the music seller John Watlen at Leicester Place moved to 42 Wigmore Street ..
Harmonic high pianos and the Uniform voltage
1813 led Wornum a second high piano construction with vertical stringing one that measured more than 137 cm, which he called " harmonic " called, and generally considered the first successful high Pianos ( cottage upright ) apply. Low, vertically strung pianos with similar properties had been introduced in 1800 by Matthias Müller in Vienna and John Isaac Hawkins in Philadelphia and London. Hawkins instruments in particular contained a similar mechanism as that in the Wornum Patent shown from 1809. The three highest octaves were performed in a single string thickness, in the same voltage and according to the same design as in Wornum's patent of 1820, but both instruments were unusual in comparison to the "cottage uprights " in sound and construction. Miller piano was in the 1810 published Oekonomische Encyklopadie describe it have a sound similar to the basset horn, and he offered a tandem model, which he called " Ditanaklasis " called, in contrast, Hawkins ' piano had a complete iron frame with open back, a large, independent soundboard and bass strings in the form of coil springs ( braided strings ), it contained mechanical tuner, a retractable keyboard and a metal upper bridge. Hipkins report of Hawkins ' instrument in the 1890 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica describes that the instrument is " poor in sound " is.
1820 patented Wornum a system of equal tension ( same voltage) for piano ( and " certain other stringed instruments "), which he described, which can be achieved with " a single string thickness about everything" and in the condensed bass strings, by the turn spacing or diameter of the wound alters. According to the patent report in the Quarterly Musical Magazine was intended to prevent failure of the middle and upper octaves, which are a result of usually different voltages and wire dimensions in the fields of a piano, and the author wrote that it was Wornum succeeded in developing a sound to produce 'firm, is sonorous and brilliant, and his vocal stance justified the highest opinions on this design principle ". A report in the London Journal of Arts and Sciences predicted in any case that " if it ever were possible to bring it into use ," it would be " a bad sound from the top of the instrument result ", and claims along with other objections raised by the Rapporteur that it would be difficult to determine the string lengths according to the Methode Wornum, and it is also difficult to generate strings of a single diameter and procure ".
Alfred Savage, who published some letters about the piano construction in the early 1840s in The Mechanics ' magazine, noted that this system offers the possibility of tuning stability better hinzubekommen than any other, but the sound character of the tone scale will be nonuniform. He described that thicker wire desired oscillations in the treble -producing, but thinner wire will deliver better results in strength and fullness in the bass, and he added that the differences in stiffness in relation to the length of the strings stood. Another correspondent for pianos, who signed as " The Harmonious Blacksmith ", wrote in a letter in 1871 in the magazine English Mechanic and World of Science that his " late friend " Wornum have used the gauge wire No.15 over the entire scale which was four times higher in the 1820s and 1830s, at least as the wire normally used at that time for the top notes and a few sizes larger as in much larger and longer wings of the time, and he described that it was " a very good treble but did result in a very poor tenor and bass. " Wornum this scale used (string interpretation ), at least over the full period of his patent, but it never came to a general application.
Repetitions ("Double actions" ) and Piccolo Pianos
1826 was Wornum patented improvements he foresaw in the patent application for professional piano. He named a " pizzicato pedal ", which is positioned between the two normal pedals and operated compounds that suppressed the damper against the strings to continue a donated single action in which the damper lever have been lifted from a button on an additional fixing of the plunger and two double actions with additional levers that were mounted on a second bar that operated both the damper and the hammer catch. The first of them was arranged like the mechanics of 1811, with a back trigger on the button that operated the trap ( wire ) lever; in the second of the catcher (wire) lever has been actuated by the plunger. The ram was attached to the bottom of another lever which is suspended from the hammer rail and trugt tripping. The trigger worked on the principle of the English mechanics for wings, the regulation against the hammer bar, but with his pen on the plunger mounted in place of the lower part of the trip. A fixed Hammerrückholfeder was not shown. Obviously, instead, a spring was installed, which worked on the butt to prevent the hammer from " dancing when the button was released ."
Two years later, let Wornum patented an improvement to the tappets, which consisted of a button on the lever end, the extension of the lower lever betätitgte to prevent unwanted movements hammer after the string stopper.
François -Joseph Fétis wrote in 1851 that he had played in 1829 on two of Wornum Uprights and that they would have had a significant (but not detailed named ) advantages over products from other manufacturers.
According Hipkins Wornum had perfected the curved or " bound " double action in that year. He led them into a "Cabinet " piano, which was 112 cm high, and then in 1830 in the Piccolo Uprights. In that a mechanism mounted on the hammer butt and a wire mounted on a lever axis ribbon caused the same function as in the 1826er mechanical spring. The axis lever operated also a catcher who worked against an extension of the butt and the damper wire lifted. This arrangement is known as tape check action, the same name, which also carries the modern Klavermechanik, which is designed in the shape of the ram and the position and operation of the damper different. Hipkins argues that the " lightness of touch that has been achieved with the new mechanics, immediately attracted the musical public ," but this mechanism was not in wide use, as the patent expired in 1826. He wrote in 1880 that his life "has made it a preferred model in this country and abroad," and predicted that this mechanism will probably replace the "Sticker Action " in England after they already generally come in France and Germany in use be.
This mechanism was " mapped in the 1840s. The Penny Cyclopaedia ( R. Wornum named as contributors for the articles on pianos and organs ) in which she was described as" as Wornum 's double or piccolo action " in an article in the magazine " Piano Forte The invention patented by Mr. Wornum, for him about ten or twelve years ago. " A similar claim was for the instructions for the regulation of "double actions" in Wornum Piccolo, Harmonic and Cabinet pianos.
This is not the only published article on the origin of mechanical, and particularly to the flexible ribbon or bridle tape at which it is known today. Harding described explicitly in the journal The Pianoforte that Wornum the band " neither invented nor patented " I wrote the invention, the piano maker Hermann light Thal from Brussels (and later St. Petersburg ) to, in 1832 a patent for the improvement was that mechanics a is deviated from the drawing of 1840 mainly in the shape and position of the damper lever, and its mechanism. 1836 described by French piano tuner and later piano maker Claude Montal in the journal L'art d' soi - même son accorder piano that Camille Pleyel improvements of the design of Wornum small pianos performed when he introduced the upright piano in France 1830. But although Montal describes the mechanism and the flexible ribbon in detail, he did not name, if included these details on the changes Pleyel. Both examples of the use of a leather ribbon instead of woven cloth - the Harding explicitly ascribes Wornum - can thus be distinguished. Hipkins notes that the commercial success of Pleyel's pianos caused the " double action " was referred to in England as "French action.
The mechanism has also been implicated in connection with the patent Wornum of 1842, although it is often so dated that they had already been rather introduced by him five years, obviously in terms of its description as a " tape check action" in the attached list the English patents for the pianos in the 1879er edition of the piano maker and Klavierbauhistoriker Edgar Brinsmead 1879 published edition of the History of the Piano Forte. In the 1870 edition it was a bit more accurate than "tape action" named worden.ref > Edgar Brinsmead History of the Piano Forte Cassell, Petter, Galpin and London p. 77 < / ref >
Wing with double triggering mechanisms and oberschlägige
1830 Wornum rented building at 15 and 17 Store Street, Bedford Square, for a new factory at. In 1832 he opened a concert hall in the house No. 16, " built expressly for morning and evening concerts, " with a capacity of 800 to 1,000 seats.
According to the Loudon 's Encyclopædia of Cottage issued, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture presented Wornum a piano from 1833, " that could not be distinguished from a library table almost ". In 1838 he offered to patented "double action" Piccolo pianos at prices from 30 to 50 guineas, and " cottage and cabinet uprights " 42-75 guineas ($ 350), which made the encyclopedia as clean on the bottom and " with the same degree of tone and excellence ... as for the Horizontal Pianos ( panel pianos ) "- the smallest and largest models are the " most frequently used " - as well as 163 cm long pocket and 237 cm long Imperial Grands for 75 and 90 guineas ( $ 420 ). He advertised that these reduced prices in response to the success of his Piccolo pianos were the " certain manufacturers have moved to build similar instruments of another character with the same name and offering, through which the public will deceived ". The following year, he offered more expensive versions of the larger models. The new sechsoktavigen "pocket" - and the 6 ½ - octave " Imperial" wing followed the usual practice, above the hammers to arrange the strings, but it was a completely self- supporting structure for the sound post, the wooden frame, the soundboard and the ribs, the were all located above the strings by similarly showed a rigid and continuous construction of the high pianos, just as they were later built in overshot wings. These wings were equipped with "tied double actions", similar to those of high pianos.
In 1840 Wornum improved its wings, by attaching a retaining spring on the butt and the short end of the lever, which he wanted to improve the repetition and " strengthen Forte game", but the inverse design his attention instead disappeared applied due to their unsatisfactory shape .. Wornum in the production of overshot ( "over struck" or downstriking ) Horizontal Pianos ( wings and panel pianos ) in which the hammers are arranged above the strings. In 1842 he made the application more flexible Hämmerrückholfedern for oberschlägige wings and square pianos patented. Wornum closed claims to actuate a for a new arrangement of the hinged bar and the trigger, and also a method in which high pianos the damper by means of a leather strip which is either attached to the butt or to a wire on the button.
Robert Wornum & Sons
At the World Exhibition in 1851, Robert Wornum & Sons pianos ( " cottage uprights " ) and double -strung oberschlägige wings and Tafelkaviere out that one described as " invented and patented in 1842 ." Your Albion Wing ( semi -grand ) was known as a good example of how a simpler and more economical construction without metal braces could be achieved with the overshot mechanics. Wornum 's got a price for the improved " Piccolo Piano" - behind Sébastien Erard, Paris and London, who won a medal for piano, and on the same level as 22 other piano manufacturers as well, including John Broadwood & Sons, London, Schiedmayer & Sons, Stuttgart, Pape, Paris, and Jonas Chickering, Boston.
Robert Wornum died on September 29, 1852 after a short illness. SeinSohn Alfred Nicholson Wornum followed him in the line of the piano factory.
The company exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855, but failed to win a prize.
1856 was AN Wornum patented improvements to the overshot mechanics that existed in a spring that provided a constant contact of the key lever to the pivot lever. Wornum also received a patent for a new arrangement of the adjusting screw, which allowed an easier setting, and a method for improving the repetition by a spring. 1862 were further improvements for Wornum patented, whose aim was to a significant compaction of the mechanics of the arrangement of the damper under the hammers. The dampers are actuated by a ram on the long end of the release lever. He also designed a Klappeineinrichtung for square pianos, to bring them out of the way if they have not been used.
Robert Wornum & Sons presented upright and grand pianos 1862 at the International Exhibition in London, as well as her " retractable " square piano. They received a medal for " innovations in the invention of pianos " - one of nearly 70 prices, which also received piano manufacturers such as Broadwood, Bösendorfer in Vienna, Pleyel, Wolff & Cie., Paris, and Steinway & Sons, New York. They introduced in 1867 at the Paris "Exposition Universelle" a " Piccolo Upright ", and also various moderate costed oberschlägige wing without metal braces, where she received a bronze medal in the same class as J. Brinsmead from London, J. Pramberger, Vienna, and Hornung & Moeller, Copenhagen, among others, but below the level at which they were valued at shows before.
1866 was AN Wornum patented methods that enabled the expansion of the soundboards on the reed block bridge in pianos and overshot wings out of which he claims that they improved the upper register, and he patented 187 further improvements to wings. Earlier in the same year Robert Wornum & Sons had advertised that their " new patented design " a price reduction of more than 100 guineas by the wings allowed, as well as an assurance that these pianos " possess full, sweet tone and an elastic stop " one. 1871, the company offered four sizes of 168 cm and 259 cm on the new production plan at prices 56-96 guineas ($ 260 to $ 450 ). A reporter from the Journal of the Society of Arts in the Second Annual International Exhibition in London in 1872 in any case described the sound of the pianos with wood frame as "sweet, but hardly full or forcible enough. " (sweet, but hardly full enough or strong).
AN Wornum was patented further improvements to wings in 1875 by introducing hammers with reverse orientation to accommodate longer strings in relation to housing length can and the company was short ( "under six foot" ) and long ( " 8 feet" ) "Iron Grand pianoforte " ( " cast iron wings " ) on its production plan, along with a Piccolo Upright 1878 at the world exhibition " Exposition Universelle " in Paris, for which they received a silver medal. This she again placed on the same level as Brinsmead ( though its corporate reasons was awarded on the same occasion with a medal of the Legion of Honour ), just as Kriegelstein, Paris and Charles Stieff, Baltimore.
Hipkins wrote in an article about Wornum in 1889 published edition of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the current owner of the company by Robert Wornum & Sons was Mr. AN Wornum subsequent to the inventiveness of his grandfather. "
According to Frank Kidson was in the early 1900s Wornum " continues to be a major player in the piano trade," but according to Harding, the company was 1900, the last time reported in the London address as a piano manufacturer.