Hi,  Perhaps the problem lies with our preconceived ideas of what
the patent is for.  Notice that the patent is _not_ for a self-tuning
piano.

The patent is entitled "Piano Tuner", and we all know that a 'piano
tuner' is a device which listens to the sound of a piano string and
gives a display of its deviation from some reference frequency (or
it's the person who uses one.)

What the patent describes and what it claims is an improved 'piano
tuner', not a device that automatically tunes the piano.

If it had been filed by the Peterson Company, there wouldn't be any
confusion.  They make a 'piano tuner' that operates by sensing acoustic
vibrations using a microphone held near the piano (or a contact mic).

This improved 'piano tuner' [by Gilmore] activates and senses each
string magnetically and sends the information back to a device which
compares the signal to a reference and displays the difference.  It
automates a couple of the steps in the tuning process: muting adjacent
strings, plucking the selected string, and moving from string to
string.  The last 3 claims in the patent clearly state that the output
of the device can be used manually or by an automatic device to
actually tune the piano.

Regards,
Craig Smith
near Rochester NY USA