Robert Wornum - Double Action Grands and Downstriking Actions

Double Action Grands and Downstriking Actions

In 1830 Wornum leased buildings at 15 and 17 Store street, Bedford Square, for a new factory. By 1832 he opened a music hall adjoining the factory at number 16, "built expressly for Morning and Evening Concerts," with a capacity of between 800 and 1000.

According to Loudon's Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture Wornum exhibited a piano in 1833 "that could hardly be distinguished from a library table" and by 1838 he offered patent double action piccolo uprights from 30 to 50 guineas, and cottage and cabinet uprights from 42 to 75 guineas ($350), which the encyclopedia described were handsomely finished in the back and had "the same degree of tone and excellence...as the horizontal pianos"—the smallest and largest models being those "most frequently used"— as well as 5 foot 4 inch long (163 cm) pocket and 7 foot 10 inch (237 cm) imperial grands for up to 75 and 90 guineas ($420) respectively. He advertised that these reduced prices were in response to the success of his piccolo piano which had "induced certain manufacturers to announce and sell instruments of a different character under the same name, by which the public deceived", but by the following year offered more expensive versions of the larger models. The new 6-octave pocket and 6½ octave imperial grands followed the ordinary practice of positioning the strings above the hammers but were constructed with an entirely separate structure hinged at the spine from the lower part of the case so that the wrestplank, wood frame, sounding board and bridges were all placed above the strings, forming a rigid uninterrupted construction similar to his uprights as well as what he would later use in downstriking pianos. These grands were furnished with tied double actions arranged like those of the uprights.

By 1840 Wornum had improved his grand actions by adding a sustaining spring tying the hammer butt and the short end of the crank lever, intended to improve repetition and "assist in the forte," but eventually abandoned the inverted construction due to its inconvenient form and turned his attention instead to manufacturing "overstruck" or downstriking horizontal pianos, where the hammers are located above the strings. In 1842 he patented the application of mobile hammer return springs to downstriking actions for grands and squares, and included claims for a new disposition of the crank lever and escapement, as well as a method of operating the damper in uprights with a leather strip attached either to the hammer butt or to a wire fixed in the key.

• Wornum's new Grand Action, ca. 1840

• Downstriking double action, 1842 patent

• Upright actions, 1842 patent