Jean-Henri Pape

He arrived in Paris in 1811 and started working with Austrian composer Pleyel, eventually directing many of his workshops.

Pape's main focus was on defects in square and grand pianos caused by the structural gap between the sounding board and wrest plank that allowed the hammers to strike the strings.

Instead of levers and counterweights, Pape used a Coil spring to raise the hammers quickly and with almost no effect.

[3] Pape’s students included the German piano makers Carl Bechstein and Frederick Mathushek.

Pape, impoverished and unable to cope with the increasing Industrialisation in the production of pianos, died in 1875 in the Paris suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine.