MEMBERS

The room.

Four doors. One is open to anyone; a key opens the rest.

OWNERSWHO HOLDS THE KEYS
CHATROOMFOR KEY HOLDERS
BOOKINGFOR KEY HOLDERS
PROFILEFOR KEY HOLDERS

How a Steinway is made.

By hand, for the most part, and slowly. The piano in 30 parts. Scroll, and it goes together a part at a time, in the order the factory builds it.

01 ×1
Rim

Sixteen layers of hard rock maple, bent in one piece.
02 ×2
Arms

The cheeks at either end of the keyboard.
03 ×1
Inner rim

The ledge inside the case that the soundboard rests on.
04 ×1
Braces

Spruce beneath, tying the rim together.
05 ×1
Keybed

The shelf the keys and the action stand on.
06 ×1
Soundboard

Sitka spruce, thinner at the edge so it moves freely.
07 ×1
Plate

Grey iron, cast in sand, to carry the pull of the strings.
08 ×1
Pinblock

Grips every tuning pin, so the piano stays in tune.
09 ×1
Capo bar

Bears down on the treble strings where their sound begins.
10 ×4
Struts

Iron bars that brace the plate against seventeen tonnes.
11 ×1
Felt strip

Red wool, so the ends of the strings stay silent.
12 ×236
Tuning pins

One for each string, driven into the pinblock.
13 ×32
Bass strings

Steel wound in copper, crossing over the rest.
14 ×204
Treble strings

Steel wire, three to a note.
15 ×88
Hammers

Wool felt on a wooden shank: one strikes each note.
16 ×69
Dampers

Felt that stills a string when its key is let go.
17 ×52
White keys

Bavarian spruce, each one balanced by hand with lead.
18 ×36
Black keys

The sharps, lacquered violet in the bass to green in the treble.
19 ×1
Keyslip

The rail that closes the case below the keys.
20 ×1
Fallboard

Folds down over the keys, and carries the name.
21 ×3
Desk rails

The music desk slides on these.
22 ×1
Music desk

Holds the music.
23 ×2
Hinges

Brass, along the bass side.
24 ×1
Lid

Throws the sound out into the room.
25 ×1
Lid prop

Holds the lid open.
26 ×3
Legs

Three, tapered.
27 ×3
Casters

Brass, so the piano can be moved.
28 ×1
Lyre

Hangs beneath, and carries the pedals.
29 ×3
Pedals

Soft, sostenuto, sustain.
30 ×1
Bench

And somewhere to sit.

SINCE 1853

A family of piano makers.

Heinrich Steinweg left Germany for New York in 1850 with most of his family, and took the name Steinway. He and his sons, C. F. Theodore, Charles, Henry Jr., William and Albert, made the modern piano: most of what is in a grand today is in their patents.

1836: Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg builds his first grand piano, in Seesen, Germany.
1853: Steinway & Sons is founded on 5 March in a loft on Varick Street, Manhattan.
1859: Henry Steinway Jr. patents the overstrung grand.
1866: The first Steinway Hall opens on East 14th Street, New York.
1870: William Steinway buys land in Astoria, Queens, for the factory that still builds there.
1880: The Hamburg factory opens.
1903: Piano number 100,000 is given to the White House.
1988: Piano number 500,000.
2015: Piano number 600,000.