Hitting
right note The
An inexperienced amateur string quartet was the inspiration for an engineering educational outreach
programme involving some 2,500 schoolchildren, more than 50 engineers and one piano
generated.”
By interface, he was referring to a
manifold installed in front of the keyboard
with a separate mechanism for each
key. Each one, when its lever was pulled,
pushed or dropped, would strike the
key beneath it with a
hammer.
of engineers that visited schools, met
children, collected designs, interpreted
them, fabricated mechanisms, practiced
assembly, and delivered the entire
machine for the nal performance.
He recalls: “I never had any doubt
that we would get there. In the end, you
could play a piano with 88 bits of string.
We provide an interface, which to me was
mechanically certain to make it work.
The project was about something
else: being true to the idea
of what the children
The story began with a less-thanrousing
musical number at the
start of the annual conference
of World Process Engineering
Institution held in the UK, which traditionally
features an opening performance,
recalls Cambridge University professor of
engineering and the environment Julian
Allwood (pictured, inset, p8). When this
prestigious gathering of hundreds of top
minds in Europe travelled to Munich, for
example, members of the state opera
sang. Having noticed that the conference
was returning to the UK (Birmingham) in
August 2019, Allwood did not want to
repeat that embarrassment.
The professor has a history of doing
this kind of thing; two years back he
developed a stage show, Forging Identity
about metal forging featuring Sir Tony
Robinson (of Blackadder fame) for the
opening of another conference (video:
www.is.gd/adedun). That was pitched
at the level of secondary school
students. Allwood, who plays the
piano, also wanted to do another
project that appealed to primary
school children.
In any case, the project
became: how to design a way
for children to play every one
of the 88 keys of the piano
in the same song, with the
children designing all the
mechanisms. Over the span
of 18 months, he led a team
6 www.ied.org.uk
Music Graphic: Argus/Stock.adobe.com
/adedun)
/www.ied.org.uk
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