bestowing a favor upon the general public, the man who has
the originality to produce something new, places himself beyond want.

The inevitable inference is that the piano is an evolution of the harp
principle. This instrument was known centuries previous to the
Christian era. From the best history obtainable, we learn that about
three hundred years ago, the first effort was made to interpose a
mechanical contrivance between the performer and the strings whereby
it would only be necessary to strike the keys to produce tone from the
strings, thereby decreasing the difficulty in finding the strings and
picking them with the fingers, and greatly increasing the
possibilities in musical rendition.

History gives credit to Italy for the first productions of this kind,
about 1600 A.D., when the faculty of music was beginning to manifest
itself more boldly. Scientists saw that wonderful developments were
possible, and we have reason to believe that experiments were made in
England, France, Germany and all civilized countries about this time,
for the production of the instrument which we call, in this day, a
Pianoforte. (_Piano e forte_: soft and loud.)

At this time communication between the different countries was, of
course, slow and uncertain, and experiments of this kind were probably
unknown outside of the immediate neighborhood in which they were
tried; therefore, much valuable and interesting history has not come
to light. However, from the specimens which we have had the pleasure
of seeing, and some of which we have had the opportunity to work on,
we infer that about the same line of difficulties presented themselves
to all of these early experimenters, most of which were not
efficiently overcome until in the last century, and the most important
of which it fell to the lot of American inventors to overcome.

Some of these early instruments were not even provided with dampers
for stopping the tone when the key was released; consequently, when a
number of keys were struck in succession, the tone continued from
all, so long as the strings would vibrate. The strings and sound-board
being very light, the sustaining qualities were meager compared to
those of the modern piano; consequently the dampers were not so much
missed as they would be if removed from a modern upright or grand,
which would surely render them unfit for use.

In the first attempts at piano building, the difficulties to be
overcome may be enumerated a