The Piano Of The Future

No more harnmers in pianos. The oíd fashioned niethod of pounding music out of wires by the aid of a wonderfully complicated system of levers and keys, which all the world thought to be the ultimate perfeotion for the production of that sort of tone, has been branded as a back number. Dr. Richard Eisemann of Berlin, for years a pupil of Professor Von Helmboltz, has patented a systeru ich does away with the levers entirely. He calis this new appliance the electrophonic piano, its distinctive principie consisting in the fact that the vibrations of the chords are not produced by hammers, but by an electric currtint and by means of microphones acting as interrupters of currents. All the delicate and complex mechanism of the old piano is done away with. The little electric devices are arranged on the crosspiece extending over the strings. Upou this electric magnets are placed so as to be only a hair's breadth 'rom the strings. Pressing down the key sends the electric cnrrent into the corresponding electromagnet. This attracts the metallic string below, but the ruicrophone interrupts the current and therewith the attraction. The string returns to its former place, and this continued attraction and interruption of the current are carj ried on, the number of vibrations being regulated by the pitch of the string. The high sounds produced by this metbod have a decided harp tone, and ;he lower and middle registers suggest he 'cello or the organ. In reality, the nstallation of this"new system createa a new instrument, so different are the [ualities of sound prodnced by the ïiew