https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Isaac_Hawkins. A lot of patents and inventions he made, some of which related to piano building. Excerpt:
Pianino
Hawkins was the first to see the importance of using iron in pianoforte framing. He was living in Philadelphia when he invented and first produced the pianino or cottage pianoforte – the "portable grand" as he then called it – which he patented in 1800.[25] Thomas Jefferson bought one, of 5½ octaves, for $264.[26]
There had been upright grand pianos as well as upright harpsichords, the horizontal instrument being turned up on its wider end and a keyboard and action adapted to it. William Southwell, an Irish piano-maker, had in 1798 tried a similar experiment with a square piano, to be repeated in later years by William Frederick Collard of London; but Hawkins was the first to make a piano, or pianino, with the strings descending to the floor, the keyboard being raised. His instrument was in a complete iron frame, independent of the case; and in this frame, strengthened by a system of iron resistance rods combined with an iron upper bridge, his sound-board was entirely suspended. An apparatus for tuning by mechanical screws regulated the tension of the strings, which were of equal length throughout. The action, in metal supports, anticipated Robert Wornum's in the checking, and later ideas in a contrivance for repetition. This bundle of inventions was brought to London and exhibited by Hawkins himself; but the instrument was poor in tone.[25]
And this:
Spinets as pianos
Spinet piano made by
Baldwin and sold under the brand name Acrosonic. Date of manufacture unknown.
A spinet piano manufactured by Gulbransen
Detail of the interior structure of the Gulbransen spinet shown above. The drop action, lying below the level of the keyboard, can be seen, as well as the extreme angling of the strings needed to provide sufficient length of strings within the limited case height. Click on image for expanded view.
The spinet piano, manufactured from the 1930s until recent times, was the culmination of a trend among manufacturers to make pianos smaller and cheaper. It served the purpose of making pianos available for a low price, for owners who had little space for a piano. Many spinet pianos still exist today, left over from their period of manufacture.
The defining characteristic of the spinet was its drop action (sometimes called indirect blow action). In this device, the keys did not engage the action directly; rather they pulled upward on rods called "stickers," which in turn pulled upward on levers located below the level of the keyboard, which in turn engaged the action. The stickers were sufficiently long that the hammer heads (the highest part of the action) ended up at roughly the same vertical level as the keyboard.
Thanks to the drop action, spinet pianos could be made very small; the top of a spinet rose only a few inches above the level of the keyboard itself (see image above). However, according to piano author Larry Fine,[5] the cost in quality was considerable. The stickers were "often noisy and troublesome." Moreover, to make room for them, the keys had to be made shorter, resulting in "very poor leverage" and thus a poor sense of touch and control for the player. Lastly, the very short strings of the spinet resulted in a narrow range of harmonics and thus in poor tone quality.
The spinet was also the bane of piano technicians. Concerning the difficulty of servicing them, Fine writes
Spinets ... are very difficult to service because even the smallest repair requiring removal of the action becomes a major ordeal. Each of the connecting stickers has to be disconnected and tied up to the action and all the keys have to be removed from the piano before the action can be lifted out.[6]
Piano spinet history
According to piano historian Arthur Loesser (1954), the first spinet piano was offered to the public in May 1935, by an American manufacturer Loesser does not identify. However, according to the Blue Book of Pianos, this manufacturer was Winter and Company (which eventually became part of the Aeolian-American Corporation)[7] who sold this piano as the Winter "Musette".[8][9] The Musette, along with its spinet cousins, were initially a success, being the only kind of piano that many people could afford in the depths of the Great Depression. (According to Loesser, the price could be less than $300, "about twenty-five percent lower than ... a small upright of 1924.") Loesser notes that the spinet was not entirely new, as very small pianos had been manufactured at various times in the 19th century.[10]
After the 1930s, many people still continued to purchase spinets; a 1947 study showed that about 50 percent of all pianos sold during that production year were pianos strung vertically of 37 inches in height or less.[11] The spinet enjoyed decades of popularity after the 1930s, but production was halted in the early 1990s.
Most of which we already know. FWIW.
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Paul McCloud, RPT
Accutone Piano Service
www.AccutonePianoService.compavadasa@gmail.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 02-27-2022 13:38
From: Loren Kelley
Subject: Spinet pianos
Oh my god, that is perfect. Whether or not "spinae" is in fact the origin of the word "spinet," we should officially proclaim that it is. I know a lot of customers are attached to their spinets and they can be adequate, sort of, but when it comes to repairs, they are definitely thorns in our sides.
Original Message:
Sent: 2/26/2022 11:06:00 AM
From: Mary Kavan
Subject: Spinet pianos
It seems that the designer of the spinet piano was not thinking of the poor soul that had to repair them. Was it the plan that after 40-50 years, you just bought something else? In searching for websites that showed how to remove the hammer on a spinet to repin the flange, a few sites came up but on a console piano. I'm assuming you would have to take the action out? If not, How do you get the flange screw out and back in the flange hole with the long stickers in front of you? I have a screw grabber but don't think it would fit between the stickers.
On a side note, I was curious to know what the word spinet meant. Spinae is latin for thorn. Are spinet pianos not like thorns to work on??
Looking forward to thoughts, comments, experiences gained by those that have worked on spinets.
Thank you!!