Abstract
WHEN the editor of Popular Mechanics submitted a list of modern inventions to a referendum to select the “seven principal wonders of the modern world,” the piano-player and player-piano were conspicuous by their absence from the long-collection, although they possess quite as many features of scientific interest as many of the inventions actually submitted. These mechanisms have, moreover, failed, for some not very obvious reason, to form the subject of discussion in scientific and technical journals where frequent mention is made of such proprietary inventions as motor cars, gramophones, kinematographs and the like. Yet a number of subjects for scientific discussion may be suggested in connection with piano-players. The psychologist, for example, will notice that after a very little experience the performer does not consciously move his regulator to play faster or slower; but he unconsciously plays the notes at the exact instants that he thinks of them quite as much as if he were striking the keys with his fingers.
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BRYAN, G. Pianoforte Touch . Nature 91, 246–248 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091246a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091246a0