Peculiar Bechstein dampers

[Bill Kibby]

David Boyce raised an interesting question about some very strange underdampers used on the monochords in the bottom octave of Bechstein uprights of the 1880s. Each damper head has what appears to be a spring attached, but there seems to be no purpose to it, and the coil on its outer end doesn't attach to anything.

It doesn't look like a fly damper, and we have toyed with the idea that perhaps it adds mass, or increases inertia. Any suggestions?

[Gill the Piano]

I always assumed they were for fly dampers...news to me that they weren't!

[dboyce]

I've seen these wires on the actions of two old Bechsteins. There is no evidence that either of them ever had anything attached to the wires. (They are not, incidentally, the Langer action with the Jack Assist Spring with loop through the jack, found in some Bechsteins).

John Delacour suggested to me a few years ago that they might have been called Counterbalance Wires. I wondered if anyone knew anything more about their function.