IMPROVEMENTS IN UPRIGHT PIANOFORTES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Jennings Potter, of No. 3, New Bridge,
Dover, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN UPRIGHT PIANOFORTES."
Sealed the 20th February 1863, and dated the 27th August 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Jennings Potter,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th August 1862.
I, JOHN JENNINGS POTTER, of No. 3, New Bridge, Dover, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN UPRIGHT PIANO-
FORTES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in upright pianofortes. In
the action of upright pianofortes it is common to employ a fixed rail placed in
front of the fly to check it after it has escaped from the incline of the lever or
instrument on which it acts. Now, according to my Invention, I employ this
rail not only to check the fly, as heretofore, but also both to regulate the distance
it enters under the incline of the lever or instrument, and also to ensure its
escape up this incline at the proper instant. This I do by forming an incline
on the under side of the check rail and rising from back to front thereof, and
I mount an adjustable button on the fly, this being on the incline of the check
rail and so regulates, according as the button is set, the distance the end of
the fly enters under the incline of the lever or instrument on which it acts, and
further when the finger key is depressed, if the end of the fly does not of itself

page_text: escape up the incline on the lever or instrument at the time it should, it will
immediately be drawn off by its button rising up the incline on the check rail,
and thus blocking is effectually prevented.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Jennings Potter in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th February 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
JENNINGS POTTER, of No. 3, New Bridge, Dover, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of August in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Jennings Potter, Her special licence that I, the said John Jennings
Potter, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Jennings Potter, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN UPRIGHT PIANOFORTES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Jennings Potter, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Jennings Potter, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in upright pianofortes.
In the action of upright pianofortes it is common to employ a fixed rail
placed in front of the fly to check it after it has escaped from the incline of
the lever or instrument on which it acts.
employ this rail not only to check the
regulate the distance it enters under the
Now, according to my Invention, I
fly, as heretofore, but also both to
incline of the lever or instrument

page_text: and also to ensure its escape up this incline at the proper instant. This I do
by forming an incline on the under side of the check rail and rising from back
to front thereof, and I mount an adjustable button on the fly, this bears on
the incline of the check rail, and so regulates, according as the button is set, the
distance the end of the fly enters under the incline of the lever or instrument
on which it acts. And further when the finger key is depressed, if the end of
the fly does not of itself escape up the incline on the lever or instrument at
the time it should, it will immediately be drawn off by the incline on the check
rail and thus blocking is effectually prevented.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
JOHN JENNINGS POTTER. (L.S.)