AN IMPROVEMENT TO PIANOFORTES AND OTHER STRINGED INSTRUMENTS:
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
DEAKIN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Sword Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said Francis Deakin, have invented "AN IMPROVEMENT TO
PIANOFORTES AND OTHER STRINGED INSTRUMENTS:" And whereas His Majesty
King George the Fourth, by Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster, the
Eighteenth day of February, in the fourth year of His reign, after reciting
my said Invention and my petition for the said Letters Patent for it, for the
term of fourteen years, hath given and granted unto me, the said Francis
Deakin, my exors, admors, and assigns, special licence, full power, sole
privilege, and authority, that I, the said Francis Deakin, my exors, adñors,
and assigns, and every of them, by myself or themselves, or by my and their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Francis
Deakin, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years
therein, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend my said Invention
within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also all Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such manner as to me, the said
Francis Deakin, my exors, admors, or assigns, or any of them, should in my
or their discretion think meet and it is by the said Letters Patent provided,
that if J, the said Francis Deakin, should not particularly describe and ascer-

page_text: tain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, then
the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages thereby granted,
should utterly cease, determine, and become void, any thing therein contained
to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters
Patent inrolled in the High Court of Chancery may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Francis Deakin, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention or
improvement, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are par-
ticularly described in the Diagrams annexed, and words following:-
First, the nature of my said Invention or improvement consists in the
appropriation and use of steel wire hardened and tempered, and cast steel wire
hardened and tempered or not, to pianofortes and other stringed instruments,
and in the mode of fastening the wires, which is thus performed:-I insert one
end of the wire in the clamp B (Figure 1), which is made bell-mouthed to
receive it, and fasten it by the screw C, which passing through the upper part
of the box A, presses on the upper side of the clamp B. The box A rests on
the pin D, which is inserted in the socket E, and the latter is let into one end
of the frame of wood or other substance usually destined to receive the pegs or
pins, to which the wires of pianofortes and other stringed instruments are
attached. I likewise insert the other end of the wire in the clamp F
(Figure 2), inclosed in the box I, and fasten it by the screw K, which passes
through the upper part of the box I, and presses on the upper side of the
clamp F. To the clamp F, I connect the pin or piece of metal H, of which
one extremity P is tapped, to allow the nut L to be screwed on it. This pin
or piece of metal H, I pass through a box G, G, so that it may slide and
fasten the whole of the apparatus, described in Figure 2, to the pianofortes or
other stringed instruments by inserting the pin "a" into the socket E, which
is let into the opposite end of the frame of the pianofortes or other stringed
instruments in the usual manner, and I screw up or relax the wires, or tune
the instruments by turning the nut L by a proper key for that purpose, and
it is evident that the degree of tension may be increased or reduced, to the
extent of the tap at the end of the pin or piece of metal H. Figure 8
represents the clamp B by itself.
The above method of fastening the wires is that which I prefer, yet I do
not restrict myself to it, but occasionally use others, such as tapping the ends
of the wires and screwing them into a piece of metal, or flattening the ends

page_text: of the wires and inserting them into holes of proper metals fitted for their
reception.
The clamps and screws above described I have by repeated trials found to
succeed best, but to whatever modifications of them may be made, I lay claim
as within the principle of my Invention. By the mode of fastening the wires
above described, I am enabled to use wire of any degree of temper, which by
the method of winding it round a peg or pin, previously observed, could not be
done.
Hence, I claim the exclusive privilege of using cast steel wire, hardened and
tempered, and not hardened and tempered, and steel wire properly hardened
and tempered, and though I prefer the former wire, yet I do not confine
myself to the use of it alone.
The method of hardening and tempering the wire I need not describe,
because it is the same as that in common use, and well known to workmen.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Deakin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of August, in the
year of our Lord 1823, the aforesaid Francis Deakin came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforc-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-three.