Between 1772 and 1776, Backers produced the
well-known English action, which has remained the most durable and one
of the best up to the present day. It refers in direct leverage to
Cristofori's first action. It is opposite to Stein's contemporary
invention, which has the hopper fixed. In the English action, as in the
Florentine, the hopper rises with the key. To the direct leverage of
Cristofori's first action, Backers combined the check of the second, and
then added an important invention of his own, a regulating screw and
button for the escapement. Backers died in 1776. It is unfortunate we
can refer to no pianoforte made by him. I should regard it as treasure
trove if one were forthcoming in the same way that brought to light the
authentic one of Stein's. As, however, Backers' intimate friends, and
his assistants in carrying out the invention, were John Broadwood and
Robert Stodart, we have, in their early instruments, the principle and
all the leading features of the Backers grand. The increased weight
of stringing was met by steel arches placed at intervals between the
wrest-plank and the belly-rail, but the belly-rail was still free from
the thrust of the wooden bracing, the direction of which was confined to
the sides of the case, as it had been in the harpsichord.
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