CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS ON A PIANOFORTE, WHICH IS SO CONSTRUCTED AS TO PREVENT THE POSSIBILITY OF ITS BEING SO FREQUENTLY OUT OF TUNE AS PIANOFORTES HOW GENERALLY ARE, AND WHICH HE DENOMINATES A CABINET PIANOFORTE
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SOUTHWELL, of the City of Dublin, Musical Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS IIis most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of April,
in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Southwell, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Southwell, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS ON A PIANOFORTE, WHICH IS SO CONSTRUCTED AS TO PREVENT THE POSSIBILITY
OF ITS BEING SO FREQUENTLY OUT OF TUNE AS PIANOFORTES HOW GENERALLY ARE, AND
WHICH HE DENOMINATES A CABINET PIANOFORTE;" in which said Letters Patent:
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Southwell, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in wliat manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Southwell, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be carried into effect and practice, are
described as followeth, that is to say:-

page_text: In Fig. 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed, A, B, denotes one of the
wires of a pianoforte standing upright or nearly so; C, E, is a damper, having
its face at E in contact with the wire. by virtue or in consequence of the action
of the small wedge piece D against a projection or protuberance on the back
of the said damper, which would otherwise hang perpendicularly by reason of
the liberty of motion allowed by the hinge or joint at C; F is the head of the
hammer to be applied in striking the said wire; G is a block or stop against
which the hammer bears slightly, when in the state of repose, by the action of
a tender spring R; H is the place of contact between the connecting rod
L, H, and the tail of the hammer; I is a small block or piece glued or fixed
to the connecting rod, and serving to support the wedge piece D by means of
a tail of wire bent to right angle, and screwed or driven in to the side of the
wedge D; K, shews, by a side view, one of a sett of small round wooden
pins, covered with leather, between which the connecting rod plays easily,
while it is prevented from flying out of its place or receding from the string
by the outer end of a central wire, which, being screwed into the center of each
wooden pin, and is bended to a right angle and turned on one side over the
said rod; L, M, is a short lever 'moveable on its hinge or joint at M as to the
block S, and upon which said lever the rod L, H, stands, and is connected
therewith by a facing of leather glued to both, so as to serve as a joint
towards L; N is the grasshopper, constructed as usual, and O, P, is the key,
both which are drawn merely for the purpose of elucidating my prescut
description, since the same do not constitute any part of my said improvements.
In the said Fig. 1 all the parts are shewn in the state of repose.
In Fig. 2, where the same parts are denoted by the same letters, the key is
represented as pressed down, whereby the inner extremity of the same is
raised. The end of the grasshopper hath pressed up the connecting rod 1, h,
which, by its pressure on the tail of the hammer, hath caused it to give the
stroke; and, at the same time, the wedge piece d hath risen and permitted the
damper e, e, to fall into the perpendicular position and leave the string at
liberty to vibrate on receiving the stroke. But on return of the key to its
former position of repose, as in Fig. 1, the hammer moves back to its position
against G, and the wedge piece D descends and presses the damper closely
against the wire.
Fig. 3 shews the same parts a little separated from cach, in order that
the respective forms may be better seen and understood.
And I do properly place, dispose, and secure all the said parts, C, D, E, F,
G, H, I, K, L, M, and S, in a square frame moveable on a joint or hinge at
bottom, so that its upper part shall be capable of advancing or receding with

page_text: respect to the wires or strings; and I do cause the said frame to continue (by
means of a spring) in the position necessary to keep the dampers and hammers
at the due distance for action, as herein-before described, excepting when the
dampers are to be thrown out of action, and in that case I press the said
frame to the due distance by means of a pedal regulated by a stop, and
constructed for that use and purpose.
. And I do further declare, that from the situation or relative position of the
parts and apparatus herein-before described, I have rendered it unnecessary
to make any opening or perforation between the sound board and the pin
block or upper bridge, and that I do accordingly make the sound board of the
instrument entire, and without any longitudinal hole or perforation, as is
usually done, and that, in consequence of the said last-mentioned improve-
ment, the structure of the instrument becomes much more firm and unchange-
able, and the wires, being more effectually supported, are not so frequently out
of tune as happens in instruments of the common constructions.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Southwell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
Inrolled the Fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seven.