Robert Wornum

Biography

Robert Wornum of London made his first upright piano, with diagonally running strings, in 1811. By 1826 he had developed an improved action for the upright combining precision with durability and permitting repetition, responding easily to a light touch -- a breakthrough Dolge credits with the rise of the upright's popularity in Europe from that date. Ignace Pleyel of Paris adopted this action for his own upright pianos, and it became known on the Continent as the "Pleyel" action. Dolge notes that, apart from moving the dampers from above to below the hammers, Wornum's action remains in practical use in virtually all present-day upright pianos. An illustration of Wornum's upright action from 1826 accompanies the text. Robert Wornum, of London, is credited by Dolge with accomplishing for the upright piano what Sebastian Erard had done, five years earlier, for the grand piano. In 1826 Wornum patented his 'piccolo' upright action, a design that became the prototype for virtually every subsequent upright piano action. Before Wornum's invention, upright pianos relied on unsatisfactory actions -- including the cheap English 'sticker' action -- that contributed to the instrument's early unpopularity. The Wornum action changed this, making the upright piano, for the first time, a genuinely practical instrument, and it spurred other makers, notably Ignace Pleyel and Henri Pape in Paris, to refine it further. From Spillane (1890): Robert Wornum was an English piano action inventor described by Spillane as "a great figure in subsequent years." He received his first patent in March 1811 for an improved upright piano with diagonal strings, a radical departure from Southwell's cabinet design; the instrument became known as Wornum's harmonic pianoforte and reduced cabinet height to about four feet six inches, later evolving into the English cottage piano. In 1826 he produced a further reduced "piccolo" upright standing three feet six inches high, and that same year patented a pizzicato pedal and two check actions. His most significant contribution, the "tape-check" action of 1843, was adopted with modifications by Jonas Chickering in America and became a universally used mechanism, and became the reigning favorite in several European countries, though Britain itself resisted it. Pleyel of Paris also adapted one of Wornum's earlier action schemes, which became known as the "French action."

Highlights

• Made his first upright piano with diagonally running strings in London in 1811.
• Developed by 1826 an upright action combining precision, durability, and repetition with a light touch -- adopted by Ignace Pleyel as the "Pleyel" action and, with only the dampers relocated below the hammers, still used in essentially all present-day upright pianos.
• Patented the 'piccolo' upright action in 1826, which became the prototype for virtually all subsequent upright piano actions
• Made the upright piano a genuinely practical instrument, paralleling what Sebastian Erard had earlier done for the grand piano
• Patented an improved upright with diagonal strings in March 1811, known as Wornum's harmonic pianoforte.
• Produced the reduced 'piccolo' upright in 1826, along with a pizzicato pedal and two check actions.
• Invented the celebrated 'tape-check' action in 1843, later adopted by Jonas Chickering and used almost universally.

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 54, 55, 92.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 37, 38.

Public domain.