CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON HARPS;
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
GROLL, of Leicester Place, Leicester Square, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-
the-Fields, & County of Middlesex, & FREDERICK DIZI, of Park Place, Baker
Street North, in the Parish of Marylebone, & County of Middlesex, do send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain & Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of
January, in the fifty-third year of His reign, did give & grant unto us, the
said Charles Groll and Frederick Dizi, our executors, administrators, &
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole priviledge & authority, that we,
the said Charles Groll & Frederick Dizi, our executors, administrators, &
assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON HARPS;" in which
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging us, the said Charles
Groll & Frederick Dizi, under our hands & seals, to cause a particular
description or explanation or communication of the said discovery or Invention,
& in what manner the same is to be used, to be enrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six months next & immediately after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in & by the same (relation being
thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Charles Groll & Frederick Dizi, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, & manner in which the same is to be performed, are particu-
larly described & ascertained in manner following, that is to say :-
We do attach one of the ends (by preference the upper end) of each or any
of the strings of an harp to a lever or slider, or other moveable piece, by
means of which the said end shall become moveable at pleasure backwards &
forwards in a direction at right angles to the length of the said string, or nearly
so, & the said string or strings shall be brought into contact or firm bearing,
with or against one or successively two obstacles, studs, or bridge pins; whether
the said obstacles, studs, or bridge pins, or either of them be also moved at the
same time as the strings, or do remain motionless, & shall or may be discharged
from such contact or firm bearing, whereby & in consequence of the fit
placing and fixing of the said obstacles, studs, or bridge pins, & of the due
quantity of the said motion or motions, we are enabled to produce from the
said string or strings one or two half tones, next ascending above & in
addition to the note or tone afforded by the same string or strings when open,
or of its or their full length. And we do farther declare that, altho' the con-
struction & adaption of the parts or pieces of machinery needful for effecting
the purposes set forth & described as aforesaid are sufficiently manifest & may
be made & effected in a variety of ways by any competent workman, we
have nevertheless thought it expedient to illustrate the same by the Sketches
hereunto annexed, in all which the same letters of the alphabet denote the
same things. G, E, Fig. 1, &c., represents a piece, moveable on the arbor or
axis A by means of the arm B, & the pulls C, C, constructed as usual in the
neck of the harp; F, F, Fig. 3 & 4, represent the side plates, between which
we do by preference place the said pieces upon the arbor; D, N, represents a
spring affixed to the sliding piece I, & turned by the screw O, H, turned by
the head K, & L is the bridge pin for the open string; M is an obstacle,
stud, or bridge pin, against which the string is brought into contact or firm
bearing whenever, by means of the pulls, the piece G, E, is moved so as to
bring L nearer to the perpendicular situation with regard to A, & of course
M also nearer to & in contact with the string; & in this second situation the
stopped string will give the half note above the open string; Fig. 5, 6, & 7,
'represent a piece similar to G, E, & moveable on the arbor A, & having also
its points L & M, & the extremity A of the arbor likewise prominent &
serving the purpose of a pin of the like description; or, otherwise, a middle pin
may be duly fixed independent of the said arbor, but in the piece here shewn
the part carrying M is bended, or so formed that the string bears against A

page_text: before it can touch M, so that the position Fig. 5, affords the open note;
Fig. 6 affords the next half tone ascending; & Fig. 7 the second half tone
ascending above the note of the open string, and in the actual construction the
distances respectively between L & A and A & M must be fixed experi-
mentally, so as that the stopped notes be in tune; & if it be desired, in order
to allow for change of figure in the instrument, or for other reasons of con-
venience, the pins or bearing parts L, A, & M, or any of them, may be made
adjustable by any of the usual means or well-known constructions; and, lastly,
Fig. 8 shews the construction of a simple instrument or table to be affixed upon
the harp, which, by means of slides attached to the ends of the arbors or other
suitable part of the apparatus of motion belonging to each note, indicates at
sight the state or condition of each series or sett of the same note, whether
flat, sharp, or natural, without requiring any examination of the strings or
pedals. For harps with the single movement, which affords one half tone
only, the signs 6 of the flats are left out in this table; and in all other parts of
the harps to which our said Invention shall or may be applied, we do follow
the usual & well-known constructions according to the best & most approved
methods, & as we do not claim any exclusive right or priviledge by these Pre-
sents with regard to the said construction, it is needless for us to describe or
explain the same.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Groll & Frederick Dizi, have
hereunto set our hands & seals this 22 day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred & thirteen.
5
FREDERICK DIZI. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-second day of July,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Charles Groll and Frederick Dizi
came before our Lord the King in His Chancery and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.