#22 Metal Hand
Mechanism #22, named the “metal hand”, was invented by the children of Robert Mellors Primary Academy in Nottingham, with assistance from the 88 Pianists team at the University of Nottingham.
This striking design of a large metal hand was chosen to play note 22. We wanted to make it pivot and wave at the audience when played to make it really stand out.
The original sketch features balls dropping from the hand to play the piano keys. We adapted the design to allow the large hand to pivot and be attached to a string, to pull the lever, to minimise the latency in mechanism. Our engineers felt that this mechanism would be able to play very gentle notes and with only a short dely due to the action of the ball dropping onto the piano.
