ELECTRICITY AND THE PIANO PLAGUE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7549, 20 August 1886, Page 3

ELECTRICITY AND THE PIANO PLAGUE.

It is no secret, says a Continental contemporary, that a private scholar is' a ruined nian if next door to his residence on the same Jioor a maiden practises on the piano from eight o'clock to twelve in the morning, and in the_ afternoon again from three to seven, besides giving performances to friends in the course of the evening. Knocking against the wall, whistling.lioinbarding the wall with boots, are all ,of no. avail, against pianomahia, There lias,; indeed* .hitherto, been no reincdy, and we are still waiting for a piano .tax. Lately, however, a Berlin electrician helped a tortured friend by means of a piano-killer. Miss Else fled to her loved piano' on a recent lovely spring day j her delight at touchin™ the keys could be felt through the wall, when suddenly — oh', heavens ! — the whole piano went Out of tune, and not a single sonnd was correct. ■Tho girl trembled with fear, and the operators next door heard through the wall how sho becan ito wee.p, which softened the heart of the eiectiiciari, who was, however, furiously' attacked by his friend when attempting to restore its music 'to the instrument, the enraged savant swearing that the tortures' which ho had endured from the piano were not to.be atoned for easily. The case of Miss Else's piano became widely known, chiefly because now and then the old clear music returnfcd to tho keys. The greatest musicians ami piauist doctors came in Hocks to examine the strange case j but no one could solve tho riddle, , which was finally explained as follows : — A large electro-magnet was put into the room of ' the tortured savant, and its poles were put close to the wall, against which stood the piano in the next house. An electric battery was connected with the electro-magnet. Whenever a strong stream of electricity was turned on, its effect could easily bo felt through tho wall by the horizontal steel rings in the piano, and although the electricity was not very powerfully felt, it was quite powerful enough to put the piano out of tune. Whenever the electric stream was stopped, which occurred as often as he of the piano plagued went ou,t, the mystical influence stopped, and Miss Else could play.