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The only piece cast ferrous frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, combining the casting hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm who patented the first full iron frame for first-rate pianos in 1843. Composite forged deposit frames were preferred by many European makers until the American red tape was fully adopted by the early 20th century.

Other important Grand Piano Covers technical innovations of this era included changes to the custom the piano was strung, such as the use of a "choir" of three strings rather than two for all but the lower notes, and the applicability of different stringing methods. With the over strung scale, also called "cross-stringing", the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridges on the soundboard instead of just one. This permits larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within the case of the piano. Over stringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for call in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway Jr. in 1859.