and raise the pitch. Thus the harp became a complete transposing instrument without adding strings or disturbing the fingering. His work was continued by Pierre Érard (see above), who published an account of the improvements made (1821).
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Fig. 107.—Modern Harp.
The guitar was extensively studied from about
1800, several varieties being used, such as the
'English' (really the Italian 'cetera,' see fig. 68)
and the Spanish, the former showing its kinship
with the lute by its wire strings (partly in unison
pairs) and its pear-shaped body, and the latter
having gut and silk (overspun) strings and a
body shaped like an '8.' The Spanish gradually
became the general favorite. In 1828 M. Salomon
(d 1821), a French guitarist, invented the 'harpo-*lyre,'
having 21 strings in three sets, the middle
six susceptible of 'stopping' against a fretted
neck (as in the guitar), the rest giving only
'open' tones.
The essential principle of the 'orgue expressif,' 'harmonium' or 'reed-organ' is that of the Chinese cheng (see sec. 11), the tones being produced from small metal tongues ('reeds') that play freely in openings which they do not quite cover. This principle of the 'free reed' seems to have reached Europe by way of St. Petersburg, where experiments were made with it about 1780. In 1788 these efforts became known to the organist Vogler, who in 1790 induced one of the Russian mechanicians, Rackwitz, to join him in Holland and develop free-reed stops for the pipe-organ (see secs. 149, 163). Though this plan had some result, the more important historic fact is that soon free reeds were utilized for many much smaller instruments. They were specially useful because their tones could be made loud or soft without change of pitch.
Just before 1800, free reeds were carefully studied by the piano-maker Érard (see above) and by Gabriel Joseph Grenié (d. 1837). The former introduced them in various combinations with the piano and the pipe-organ. In 1810 the latter brought out his 'orgue expressif,' in which the tone-intensity was governed by valves. This Érard in turn greatly improved. Meanwhile analogous inventions were appearing in Germany and England. From about 1820, instruments multiplied under an amusing variety of names. Not only was the wind-supply regulated, but much ingenuity was put upon improving the tone-quality by modifying the reeds or the 'channels' in which they were set. The ablest summary of these experiments was made by Alexandre François Debain (d. 1877), whose 'harmonium' was patented in 1840. The 'percussion' (little hammers to put the reeds into quick action) was first
