lift the string from its bearing, to the detriment of the tone. Erard
reversed the direction of the bearing of the front bridge, substituting
for a long, pinned, wooden bridge, as many little brass bridges as there
were notes. The strings passing through holes bored through the little
bridges, called agraffes, or studs, turned upward toward the wrest-pin.
By this the string was forced against its rest instead of off it. It
is obvious that the merit of this invention would in time make its use
general. A variety of it was the long brass bridge, specially used
in the treble on account of the pleasant musical-box like tone its
vibration encouraged. Of late years another upward bearing has found
favor in America and on the Continent, the Capo d'Astro bar of M. Bord,
which exerts a pressure upon the strings at the bearing point.

About the year 1820, great changes and improvements were made in the
grand pianoforte both externally and in the instrument. The harpsichord
boxed up front gave way to the cylinder front, invented by Henry Pape,
a clever German pianoforte-maker who bad settled in Paris. Who put the
pedals upon the familiar lyre I have not been able to learn. It would
be in the Empire time, when a classical taste was predominant. But the
greatest change was from a wooden resisting structure to one in which
iron should play an important part. The invention belongs to this
country, and is due to a tuner named William Allen, a young Scotchman,
who was in Stodart's employ. With the assistance of the foreman, Thom,
the invention was completed, and a patent was taken out, dated the 15th
of January, 1820, in which Thom was a partner. The patent was, however,
at once secured by the Stodarts, their employers. The object of the
patent was a combination of metal tubes with metal plates, the metallic
tubes extending from the plates which were attached to the string-block
to the wrest-plank. The metal plates now held the hitch-pins, to which
the farther ends of the strings were fixed, and the force of the tension