. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. cO:=. Figure 4.—Cross section of polygonal virginal, a, side: b, bottom; c, knee; d, liner; e, soundboard; f, rilD; c, bridge; ii string; i, jack rail. Scale, 1:2. section of one of the bridges appears in figure 4. The jack rail, also shown in figure 4, over the jacks Us" above the soundboard. It serves not only to prevent the jacks from flying out during play but also to terminate the downward fall of the fronts of the keys. The keys do not drop far enough to touch the key frame, but instead are stojjped by the jacks striking
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. cO:=. Figure 4.—Cross section of polygonal virginal, a, side: b, bottom; c, knee; d, liner; e, soundboard; f, rilD; c, bridge; ii string; i, jack rail. Scale, 1:2. section of one of the bridges appears in figure 4. The jack rail, also shown in figure 4, over the jacks Us" above the soundboard. It serves not only to prevent the jacks from flying out during play but also to terminate the downward fall of the fronts of the keys. The keys do not drop far enough to touch the key frame, but instead are stojjped by the jacks striking the jack rail. The keyboard has an apparent compass of four octaxes and one note from E to f ' ' '. Short octave tuning would have extended the compass down a major third to C in the bass, with the E key sounding C, the Fin key sounding /), the Gfi key sounding E, and the remaining keys sounding their proper ])itches. These three keys will hereafter be referred to as C/E, DjF^ and £/G#. The lowest eight keys have small wire eyes attached tu their undersides near the front. A corresponding slot is cut through the inner and outer cases, allowing the eyes to be connected to a short pedal keyboard which has not survived. The keys themselves vary in length from 10" in the bass to 18!i" in the treble; they are mounted on a trapezoidal key frame which is removable from the instrument. The balance rail and balance rail pins are on a diagonal, resulting in a gradual but noticeable change in the touch from one end of the keyboard to the other. The rack, W" thick and X'i" high, is fastened along the back of the key frame and has one vertical saw cut for each key. Projecting from the back of each key is a small sliver of wood which rides in its proper saw' cut and ser\'es to guide the key. The natural keys are \-eneered with boxwood and have arcaded boxwood fronts. The sharps are small blocks of hardwood stained black. The sides, soundboard, ribs, jacks, guide, jackr
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Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
