1743) Ivan Bajde (1855-1920), Slovenia: Inventor of the Piano Harp and other musical instruments: Centenary of the granting of a patent for Bajde's Piano Harp: A 0.69 Euro Postage Stamp issued by "Posta Slovenije" (The Post of Slovenia): Date of Stamp issue: 12.03.2021:

1743) Ivan Bajde (1855-1920), Slovenia: Inventor of the Piano Harp and other musical instruments: Centenary of the granting of a patent for Bajde's Piano Harp: A 0.69 Euro Postage Stamp issued by "Posta Slovenije" (The Post of Slovenia): Date of Stamp issue: 12.03.2021:

About First Slovene Inventors - Ivan Bajde: Inventor of the Piano Harp and other musical instruments:

Slovenia's Intellectual Property Office combines its core mission of protecting intellectual property rights with efforts to preserve and disseminate knowledge of Slovenia's technical heritage. 

Creativity, like innovation, is an important driver of economic and social development. 

This Stamp Series highlights the achievements of a number of Slovene inventors who obtained patents for their inventions and left a profound mark on Slovene science, helping to create Slovenia's technical heritage with inventions that are known around the world.

The first among them is Ivan Bajde (1855–1920), born in the village of Hotič, near Litija. He invented, improved and manufactured new types of musical instruments, among them the "piano harp", which imitated the sounds of the zither, the harp and strings. 

The instrument had the appearance of a narrow harmonium, with two keyboards and a pedalboard. Bajde set himself the task of inventing a way to achieve the natural string sounds of the violin, viola, cello and double bass on a keyboard instrument.

 Others had tried this before him, without success, since it is difficult to achieve with the press of a key the sound created by a bow on a string. 

A piano works by striking the strings with hammers, while the pipes of an organ produce a steady sound. Using such mechanics to combine an elastic horsehair bow with a sound that could be maintained for as long as desired was a difficult task. 

Bajde spent more than 20 years perfecting his instrument and even performed with it at the Civic Hall (Mestni dom) in Ljubljana (today's Šentjakob Theatre). 

His inventions were known in Austria and Germany and mentioned in newspapers as far afield as France and the USA. 

This year marks the centenary of the granting of a patent for Bajde's piano harp.

The Stamp:

A Miniature Sheet (MS) containing a Postage stamp of 0.69 Euro.

At top right is Bajde'e portrait extending into the MS, while an image of the intricate mechanism of the Piano Harp is seen below.

A First Day Cover (FDC) at left is titled - "PATENTSCHRIFT No. 84009" and shows the intricate mechanism/diagram of the Piano Harp.

At top right is affixed the Miniature Sheet described above. The special Cancellation HandStamp/Postmark is of Ljubljana Post Office and the cancellation is dated - "12.03.2021".

Technical details:

Issue Date: 12.03.2021

Designer: Villa Creativa

Printer: Agencija za komercijalnu djelatnost d.o.o., Zagreb, Croatia

Process: Offset

Colours: 4-colour

Links:

1) Republic of Slovenia (meaning -"The Land of the Slavs"):A 500 Tolarjev Banknote from Slovenia before the introduction of the Euro on 15.01.2007

2) "Contemporary Lacemaking", Slovenia: A Postage Stamp of 1.37 Euro released by Posta Slovenije (The Post of Slovenia) commemorating local Contemporary Lacemaking: Date of Stamp issue: 29.01.2021