, and at all times most trying to
the finer woods, leathers, and fabrics. To make a piano is now not so
difficult; but to make one that will stand in America,--that is very
difficult. In the rear of the Messrs. Steinway's factory there is a yard
for seasoning timber, which usually contains an amount of material equal
to two hundred and fifty thousand ordinary boards, an inch thick and
twelve feet long; and there it remains from four months to five years,
according to its nature and magnitude. Most of the timber used in an
American piano requires two years' seasoning at least. From this yard it
is transferred to the steam-drying house, where it remains subjected to
a high temperature for three months. The wood has then lost nearly all
the warp there ever was in it, and the temperature may change fifty
degrees in twelve hours (as it does sometimes in New York) without
seriously affecting a fibre. Besides this, the timber is sawed in such a
manner as to neutralize, in some degree, its tendency to warp, or,
rather, so as to make it warp the right way. The reader would be
surprised to hear the great makers converse on this subject of the
warping of timber. They have studied the laws which govern warping; they
know why wood warps, how each variety warps, how long a time each kind
continues to warp, and how to fit one warp against another, so as to
neutralize both. If two or more pieces of wood are to be glued together,
it is never done at random; but they are so adjusted that one will tend
to warp one way, and another another. Even the thin veneers upon the
case act as a restraining force upon the baser wood which they cover,
and in some parts of the instrument the veneer is double for the purpose
of keeping both in order. An astonishing amount of thought and
experiment has been expended upon this matter of warping,--so much,
that now not a piece of wood is employed in a piano, the grain of which
does not run in the precise direction which experience has shown to be
the best.

The forests of the whole earth have been searched for woods adapted to
the different parts of the instrument. Dr. Rimbault, in his learned
"History of the Piano-forte," published recently in London, gives a
catalogue of the various woods, metals, skins, and fabrics used in the
construction of a piano, which forcibly illustrates the delicacy of the
modern instrument and the infinite care taken in its manufacture. We
copy the list, though some of the mate