But it was his electric piano which he considered his greatest achievement. His brother
Otto had suggested that Benjamin designed a portable piano suitable for teaching. It
should be acoustically pleasing, but affordable. The outcome of Benjamin Miessner’s
endeavours was essentially an acoustic piano, lacking a soundboard and having a
separate electrostatic pickup for each string group. In February 1932 Miessner took part
in a lecture demonstration and session in New York City on the topic ‘The new
music of electrical oscillation’. At this event, organised by the New York section
of the ‘American Institute of Electrical Engineers’, they were all there: Lev
Termen with his ether-wave instrument, Miessner, of course, with his electric
piano, and Richard H. Ranger, of whom I will speak later, with his electronic
organ. Similar to his radio patents of the 1920s Miessner now began to license
a major part of the piano industry. His patents were the basis of numerous
electronic instruments including the ‘Electrone’, manufactured by the Kracauer
Brothers, or the ‘Dynatone’ of the Ansley company. At the end of the 1930s his
electric piano and other instruments proved particularly popular in dance bands.
In spite of all his promotional activities Miessner had to realise that not
everything was right with his electric piano. True, it did have its admirers, but there
were still a number of deficiencies to be eliminated. The long sustain time,
due to
