or SPINET, a musical instrument ranked in the second or third place among harmonious instruments. It consists of a chest or belly made of the most porous and resinous wood to be found, and a table of fir glued on slips of wood called summers, which bear on the sides. On the table is raised two little prominences or bridges, wherein are placed so many pins as there are chords or strings to the instrument. It is played on by two ranges of continued keys, the former range being the order of the diatonic scale, and that behind the order of the artificial notes or semitones. The keys are so many flat pieces of wood, which, touched and pressed down at the end, make the other raise a jack which strike and sound the strings by means of the end of a crow's quill, wherewith it is armed. The 30 first strings are of brass, the other more delicate ones of steel or iron-wire; they are all stretched over the two bridges already mentioned. The figure of the spinet is a long square or parallelogram; some call it an harp touched, and the harp an inverted spinet. See the article HARP.

This instrument is generally tuned by the ear, which method of the practical musicians is founded on a supposition that the ear is a perfect judge of an octave and a fifth. The general rule is to begin at a certain note, as C, taken towards the middle of the instrument, and tuning all the octaves up and down, and also the fifths, reckoning seven semitones to each fifth, by which means the whole is tuned. Sometimes to the common or fundamental play of the spinet is added another similar one in unison, and a third in octave to the first, to make the harmony fuller; they are either played separately or together by means of a stop: these are called double or triple spinets; sometimes a play of violins is added, by means of a bow, or a few wheels parallel to the keys, which press the strings and make the sound last as long as the musician pleases, and heighten and soften them more or less, as they are more or less pressed. The harpsichord is a kind of spinet, only with another disposition of the keys (see the article HARPSICHORD). The instrument takes its name from the small quill ends which touch the strings, resembling spine or thorns.