Charles Stent Charles Stent Charles Stent (1807–1885) was a 19th-century English dentist notable for his advances in the field of denture making. In 1847, Edwin Truman introduced gutta-percha as a material for making dental impressions; however, this was unsatisfactory for several reasons, including its tendency to distort upon removal from the patient's mouth, and to shrink upon cooling. In 1856, Stent added several other materials to the gutta-percha, notably stearine, which markedly improved the plasticity of the material as well as its stability. He also added talc as an inert filler to give more body to the material, and red colouring. The
Piano extended technique Piano extended technique Piano extended techniques are those in which unorthodox or unconventional techniques are used to create the sound. Though some of these techniques had been explored by earlier composers—Robert Schumann introduces the silent pressing technique into his "Carnaval" (at the end of "Paganini")—the use of these techniques was not widely practised until the 20th century. Composers such as Béla Bartók started to look at the piano as a more percussive instrument and explored various techniques to achieve percussive effects. His "Bagatelles" and "Mikrokosmos" (the series of works for the instruction of young pianists) both contain unusual instructions to