Action
The action of these small instruments is known as the "English single" and is unusually simple (for instance, it is far simpler than the original piano action as invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori.) It consists of a small "sticker" simply pushing up on a hammer, while a rod passing through the hitch pin plank lifted up a damper lever hinged from a rail attached to the spine. The action is illustrated below.
Action parts:
- key; the portion pressed by the player is on the far right
- jack; a wire with leather stud on top, known by the workmen as the "old man's head"
- whalebone rear guide, projects from the end of the key, works in a groove to keep the key steady
- hammer; strikes the string to produce sound
- whalebone jack, called the mopstick
- damper; when in lowered position stops the sound of the string
- whalebone damper spring
Read more about this topic: Johannes Zumpe
Famous quotes containing the word action:
“Do you suppose that sacrifice is the hallmark of moral action?—Just stop to consider whether sacrifice is not involved in every action that is done with deliberation, the worst as well as the best.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Acts themselves alone are history.... Tell me the acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your rubbish! All that is not action is not worth reading.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“For the child whose impulsiveness is indulged, who retains his primitive-discharge mechanisms, is not only an ill-behaved child but a child whose intellectual development is slowed down. No matter how well he is endowed intellectually, if direct action and immediate gratification are the guiding principles of his behavior, there will be less incentive to develop the higher mental processes, to reason, to employ the imagination creatively. . . .”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)