Piano wire

The oldest record of wire being made for musical instruments is from Augsburg in 1351.Dolge (1911, 124)

Starting around 1800, the piano began to be built ever more ambitiously, with sturdier (eventually, iron) framing and greater string tension. This led to innovations in making tougher piano wire. In 1834, the Webster & Horsfal firm of Birmingham, United Kingdom brought out a form of piano wire made from cast steel; according to Dolge it was "so superior to the iron wire that the English firm soon had a monopoly." But a better steel wire was soon created in 1840 by the Viennese firm of Martin Miller, and a period of innovation and intense competition ensued, with rival brands of piano wire being tested against one another at international competitions, leading ultimately to the modern form of piano wire.Dolge (1911, 125-126)

The ASTM standard [https://store.astm.org/a0228_a0228m-14.html A228] covers the manufacture of steel wire for use in musical instruments, including pianos and guitars. This standard specifies a Young's modulus of 207 GPa.

The tensile strength of one popular brand of piano wire is listed as 2620{{ndash}}2930 MPa (380{{ndash}}425 ksi).{{cite web |title=Mapes Piano Wire |url=http://www.fortepiano.com/wire/MapesPiano/mapespiano.htm |website=Fortepiano.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226233902/http://www.fortepiano.com/wire/MapesPiano/mapespiano.htm |archive-date=2013-12-26}}

Arthur Reblitz, Piano Servicing Tuning & Rebuilding, 1993

Piano wire is also used in the fabrication of springs, fishing lures, special effects in the movie industry,Fielding, Raymond, Techniques of Special Effects of Cinematography, {{ISBN|978-0-240-51234-1}}, pp. 330,384 scaffold cross-bracing, orthodontic and pharyngeal surgery, and for the cutting of cheese and soap. It is also commonly used in hobby applications such as model railroading, both control line and radio-controlled aircraft, and knitting.{{cite web|website=Knittingdaily.com|url=http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/howto/archive/2009/05/06/using-blocking-wires-to-block-a-lace-shawl.aspx|title=Using blocking wires to block a lace shawl|access-date=28 July 2013|date=6 May 2009}} It has also been employed by assassins as a garrote.Newquist, H.P. and Maloof, Rich, This Will Kill You: A Guide to the Ways in Which We Go, New York: St. Martin's Press, {{ISBN|978-0-312-54062-3}} (2009), pp. 133-6Whittaker, Wayne, Tough Guys, Popular Mechanics, February 1943, Vol. 79 No. 2, pp. 44Steele, David E., Silent Sentry Removal, Black Belt Magazine, August 1986, Vol. 24 No. 8, pp. 48-49

• Piano acoustics
• Wire wheel another application of high tensile strength wire

{{reflist}}

• Dolge, Alfred (1911) Pianos and Their Makers: A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano from the Monochord to the Concert Grand Player Piano. Covina Publishing Company.
• Louchet, Jean (2013) The Keyboard Stringing Guide — for the restoration of pianos, harpsichords and clavichords. Published by Lulu.com.

• Jean Louchet, [https://web.archive.org/web/20051017215117/http://fractales.inria.fr/~louchet/perso/cord.html Stringing gauge table and equivalents]
• Edward Swenson, [http://www.mozartpiano.com/en/articles/wiretests.php Chronologically arranged wire tests].
• Stephen Birkett & Paul Poletti, [https://web.archive.org/web/20060428090513/http://real.uwaterloo.ca/~sbirkett/iron%20wire.pdf Reproduction of Authentic Historical Soft Iron Wire for Musical Instruments]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=dVQOAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA7-PA319 "Steel Music Wire"]. Report of the Tests of Metals and Other Materials for Industrial Purposes, made with the United States Testing Machine at Watertown Arsenal, Massachusetts, during the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1894. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1895

{{Musical keyboards}}

{{Strings (music)}}

Category:Piano

Category:wire