History of Piano

1700 First documented evidence of Bartolomeo Cristofori's piano experiments, in the inventory of musical instrumnets belonging to Prince Ferdinand. The pianoforte uses a hammer mechanism rather than plucked string action of the harpsichord.

1708 Cuisinie exhibits the 'clavecin', based on an earlier design by Hans Haiden, at L'Academie Royale des Sciences in Paris.

1709 Cristofori reveals his pianoforte for the first time publicly.

1714 The keyboard teacher Gottlieb Schroter produces two piano actions (one up-striking, the other down-striking) for adapting a traditional harpsichord to hammers.

1716 Jean Marius develops the clavecin a maillets (harpsichord with hammers) in Paris.

1720 Cristofori's earliest surviving piano is produced.

1722 Cristofori develops 'una corda' mechanism which enables the player to move the action so that the hammer strikes only one string for each note.

1725 The Maffei account of Cristofori's piano is translated and published by Mattheson in German resulting in a boom of interest in piano design and construction.

1726 Cristofori produces his last piano.

1728 Gottfried Silbermann, a clavichord maker, produces two refinements on the 'harpsichord with hammers' theme without commercial success.

1731 Cristofori dies.

1732 Giustini's 12 Sonatas "for soft and loud harpsichord", the first composition written specifically for piano, is published.

1735 First known upright grand piano is made.

1736 Silbermann shows JS Bach his two pianos and receives Bach's criticism.

1736 First spinet made in America by Johann Clemm.

1739 Schroter (Dresden) develops tangent action which uses a sprung jack.

1742 First square piano probably made.

1745 Christian Ernst Friederici builds the first pyramid piano with oblique stringing.

1747 JS Bach plays a Silbermann piano and is more impressed.

1752 First piano imported in England by Samuel Crisp, built in Rome by Father Wood, an English monk, to Cristofori's desings.

1753 CPE Bach publishes "An Essay On The True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments" in Berlin, his first work to include reference to piano technique.

1753 Silbermann dies.

1760 German and Dutch piano makers (known as the "Twelve Apostles") including Johannes Zumpe, flee the German Seven Years War and arrive in England.

1762 Oldest surviving Zumpe square piano is produced.

1767 Piano first used for accompaniment in London at Covent Garden Theatre.

1768 First solo piano performances in England when JC Bach uses a Zumpe instrument at the Thatched Cottage in London.

1771 John Broadwood launches his first square pianoforte.

1771 Square pianos begin production in Russia.

1772 Americus Backers joins Broadwood and with Robert Stodart perfects what would develop into the English grand action.

1773 First piano concert in New York.

1775 Johann Behrent of Philadelphia, a German immigrant, builds the first piano in America, a square.

1777 Stodart obtains the patent for the "English Grand Action" which will be used by American and English manufacturers. This is the first use of the word "grand".

1781 Stein (Augsburg) introduces his escapement action.

1781 Broadwood repositions pin block along the back of the case to increase volume and enhance tone.

1781 Broadwood builds his first grand.

1783 Broadwood produces a vastly improved square piano with efficient underdampers and a sustain pedal in place of the standard knee lever.

1786 Geib patents his double action, based on Zumpe's second action, introducing an intermediate lever to facilitate escapement.

1787 John Landreth patents primitive "sticker" action for an upright piano but no piano is recorded as having been built.

1788 Broadwood discovers, with Signor Cavallo and Dr. Gray, that the string should be hit 1/9th of the way along its length to produce the tone he requires.

1789 Charles Albrecht opens piano factory in Philadelphia.

1792 Sebastien Erard flees the French Revolution and creates a piano factory in London.

1794 Broadwood introduces pianos with a compass of six octaves.

1795 William Stodart of London designs a new type of upright grand piano (the "bookcase" piano).

1797 Pianoforte, the first magazine devoted to the piano, begins publication in London

1797 William Rolfe and Samuel Davis file patent for a janissary drum mechanism.

1798 William Southwell develops the upright square piano.

1800 Matthias Muller and John Isaac Hawkins develop the first upright pianos with strings running down to floor level.

1800 Jacquard develops a loom controlled by punched cards.

1802 Thomas Loud files a patent for a diagonally strung upright.

1803 Return of new generation of pyramid and giraffe pianos. AT the forefront are Wachtl, Bleyer, and Seuffert in Vienna.

1807 William Southwell develops the "cabinet" piano.

1808 Sebastien Erard develops the agraffe, which helps clamp piano strings into position, stabilizes tuning, and forms one terminal of the speaking length of the string.

1810 Sebastien Erard designs what was to become the modern pedal mechanism.

1810 Production of harpsichords declines.

1811 Collard, Southwell, and Wornum build "cottage" pianos.

1812 Production of clavichords declines.

1820 Allen & Thom of London patent grand piano having a frame braced with iron tubes, their compensating frame, and sell the rights to Stodart.

1821 Sebastien Erard introduces double escapement (repetition) action, allowing fast note repetition.

1821 Broadwood builds first square piano with iron hitch pin plate.

1823 Erard patents grand piano with six resistance iron bars placed over the soundboard.

1823 Jonas Chickering starts in business with James Stewart.

1825 Loud Brothers of Philadelphia build 7-1/2 octave piano.

1825 Babcock produces the first square piano with an iron frame, designed to support greater string tensions.

1826 Wornum patents his developed upright action, which forms the basis of current upright actions. It was incorrectly known as the French action, likely because France was the major exporters of actions at the time.

1826 Henri Pape uses tempered steel piano strings and felt-covered hammers.

1827 Broadwood patents a combination of a metal hitch-pin plate with resitance iron bars (virtually a full iron frame).

1827 First "pianinos" appear in France, developed by Blanchet and Roller.

1827 James Stewart (partner of Chickering) develops the method, still in use today, of employing one length of wire to serve as two adjacent strings.

1828 Pape introduces over-strung upright pianos, enabling strings to be longer, and thus produced his "piano console".

1828 Ignaz Bosendorfer takes over management of the Brodmann instrument workshop in Vienna.

1831 Herman Lichtenthal of Brussels invents first form of upright tape-check action, which prevents the hammers bouncing back onto the strings. Lichtenthal used a piece of leather. Wornum was actually the first to use tape.

1835 First example of automation in the piano manufacturing process with the introduction in Germany of a device for automatically covering hammers.

1837 Chickering improves frame.

1838 Pierre Erard patents the pressure bar, which is designed to provide a force to prevent the hammers from lifting the strings away from the bridge.

1840 Henri Herz prduces the simplified Erard action, which is still used in today's instruments.

1842 The first workshop to specialize solely in the production of piano actions is opened by JCL Ishermann in Hamburg.

1842 Wornum patents improved tape-check action for upright pianos.

1843 Chickering patents a one-piece iron frame for the grand piano.

1844 Pape becomes the first known company to produce an eight-octave grand piano.

1846 Patent granted for the use of perforated cardboard to produce mechanized music.

1855 Steinway introduces overstrung square piano.

1859 H Steinway Jr. patents overstrung grand piano.

1863 Fourneaux develops the Pianista, the first pneumatic piano player mechanism.

1874 Steinway perfects the sostenuto pedal for square pianos.

1880s Manufacture of square pianos end.

1880 William Tremaine sets up the Mechanical Orguinette Co. (later the Aeolian Co.) to manufacture automated reed organs.

1880 First automatic piano unveiled by Needham and Sons, New York. It was built by R.W. Paine and was an adaptiation of the orguinette mechanism.

1886 Electorphonisches Klavier, Richard Eisenmann (Berlin). Early attempts to use electricity with the acoustic piano consisted of using current to activate the strings. By positioning electromagnets close to the strings of the piano, Eisenmann could produce an infinite sustain when a note was played. The system was perfected by 1913.

1887 Edwin Welte (Germany) introduces the use of the perforated paper roll.

1890s Domestic electricity first becomes available.

1891 Sostenente Piano, Eugene Singer (Paris). Singer introduced an alternating current with a frequency akin to the sting it was to activate, achieving a more controlled effect.

1897 Edwin Votey develops "push up" player for the Aeolian company.

1900 Votey mechanism refined and called the Pianola.

1903 Society of American Piano Manufacturers ceremonially burns a massive pile of square pianos at Atlantic City convention.

1904 Welte Red reproducing system introduced.

1912 Aeolian Duo-Art reproducing system introduced.

1915 Audion Piano, Lee De Forest (New York). De Forest, inventor of the amplifier, developed this instrument and patented it in 1915. It was the first electronic (as opposed to electric) instrument. It was never put into commercial production.

1923 Reproducing mechanisms incorporated in 10 per cent of total piano sales.

1925 US piano production: 137,000 conventional instruments, 169,000 player pianos.

1926 Pianorad, Hugo Gernsback (New York). An early electronic instrument utilizing audio frequency oscillators. It had a two octave keyboard, each note of which controlled its own oscillator.

1928 Piano Electrique, Joseph Bethenod (Paris).

1929 Ampico introduce Model B reproducing system.

1938 Manufacture effectively ends.