4 May: Pianos

Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco was born on this date in 1655. He was a musical instrument maker who is best known for inventing the piano. So here are some facts about pianos.

1. We don't know exactly when Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano, but it's generally thought to have been around 1698. However, it wasn't widely known about until 1711, when a writer called Scipione Maffei wrote an article about pianos, including diagrams. This article was translated into German and the word spread about the new instrument.
2. The word piano is actually short for pianoforte, and this name derives from the fact that unlike its predecessors like the harpsichord, it could be played softly (piano) or loudly (forte).
3. Most pianos have 88 keys, 52 white ones and 36 black ones. There are a few, however, which have 97 or even 108 keys, extending the range of notes which can be played. Sometimes the extra keys are under a hinged lid so those not used to the extra keys don't get confused by them.
4. The first pianos had white keys made from sugar pine, covered with strips of ivory (hence the phrase "tickling the ivories", meaning to play the piano) and the black keys were made from ebony. Today, they are usually made of spruce or basswood and covered with strips of plastic.
5. A piano has somewhere in the region of 12,000 parts, 10,000 which are moving parts.
6. Because a piano's sound is made by a hammer hitting a string, it is technically a percussion instrument. A piano usually has 230 steel strings strung very tight. Each string usually holds around 168 pounds of tension, so the average piano is holding around 18-20 tons of tension.
7. In the the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, a common part of a ceremony to honour a lost pilot is to set a piano alight. No-one really knows how this tradition began, but one likely story is that there was once a pilot who would play the piano as part of the ceremony each time one of his comrades was lost. When he himself was killed, the rest of his company decided that if he couldn't play the piano any more, nobody would, so they dragged it outside and set Fire to it. Another legend says that when pilots began to be recruited from lower class families, they were forced to take piano lessons to improve their culture and dexterity. Burning the piano was a way to avoid the lessons.
8. Piano music has been found to be calming for anxious Dogs. If a solo piano tune at 50-60 bpm was played to dogs during Firework displays, thunderstorms, or when they were separated from their humans, 85% of them calmed down.
9. In 2006, climbers working on a project to clean up Ben Nevis found an old piano buried near the summit. Nobody knows how it got there, or why it was there.
10. The most expensive piano ever was built by Canadian manufacturer Heintzman Pianos for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It is transparent and became known as the "crystal piano". It was sold at auction after the games for $3.22 million.

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two