William Allen

Biography

William Allen, a Scotsman employed as a tuner at the London firm of Stodart's, was the theoretical originator of the metal tube-and-plate bracing system patented jointly with James Thom in 1820; Thom, the foreman at Stodart's, worked out the practical construction. The invention used metal tubes seated in metal sockets cast into plates attached to the wrest-plank and hitch-pin block, and proved significant enough that the Stodarts secured it, with Broadwood and Erard following with related improvements between 1820 and 1823. In 1832 Allen patented a one-piece cast metal plate with tension-resistance and compensating features, the first such plate introduced in Europe; Spillane characterizes it as plainly derivative of Alpheus Babcock's American one-piece metal plate patent of December 1825, suggesting Allen may have learned of Babcock's work through James Stewart, though he allows Allen could also have conceived it independently.

Highlights

• Theoretical inventor, with James Thom, of a metal tube-and-plate bracing system patented in 1820, later adopted by the Stodarts, Broadwood, and Erard.
• Worked as a tuner at Stodart's.
• Patented a one-piece tension-resistance and compensating metal plate in 1832, described by Spillane as essentially a copy of Alpheus Babcock's 1825 American patent.

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 41, 42, 43.

Public domain.