AN IMPROVEMENT OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Jonn
TROTTER, of Soho Square, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His 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 Fourth day of
March, in the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
John Trotter, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Trotter, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OF MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said John Trotter, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months 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
John Trotter, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say:-
In all keyed instruments, such as organs, pianofortes, harpsichords, celes-
tinas, and the like, in which the notes or individual tones are produced or
afforded by a series of keys, I do not follow the usual construction and
arrangement of the said keys, by which a certain range or number thereof
similarly fashioned and disposed are made to produce or afford the tones or
notes called natural notes with relation to some one particular fundamental
or key note usually denoted by letters, as in the line or range denoted by the
letter I of the Table annexed, and the remaining number thereof dissimilar to
the last-mentioned; and in another range are also similarly fashioned and
disposed as to each other, and are made to produce or afford the remaining
tones or notes called sharps or flats, also usually denoted by letters, and by the
additional marks or b, as in the line or range denoted by the letter K of
the said Table. But whereas the number of musical tones commonly admitted
and used to constitute the whole series, from one fundamental note inclusive to
the octave next above the same, doth consist of twelve in the whole in regular
succession (exclusive of temperament) at the distance or interval of one semi-
tone from each other, as is shewn in the line or range denoted by the letter H
of the said Table; now, I do construct and arrange the keys of the said
musical instruments in such manner that the extremities or parts thereof
before the name board, and to which the fingers are to be applied, shall be
similar, or nearly similar, to each other in form and disposition in those keys
which are made to produce or afford any one certain tone or noté, and the
other five tones or Botes which stand regularly and successively at the distance
or interval of two simitones from the said certain tone or note and from each
other, and the octaves to all the said tones or notes; and that the extremities
or parts as aforesaid shall also be similar or nearly similar to each other in
form and disposition, but dissimilar to those of the last-mentioned keys in
those keys which are made to produce or afford that tone or note which stands
at the distance or interval of one simitone from the one certain tone or note
aforesaid, and the other five tones or notes which stand regularly and succes-
sively at the distance or interval of two simitones from the said tone or note
last mentioned to be produced and afforded and front each other and the
octaves to all the said tones or notes; and the said construction and arrange-
ment compared with the construction and arrangement commonly in use, may
be more clearly apprehended and understood from the lines or ranges denoted
by the letters I, K, and L, M, of the said Table, where I and K shew the
order and succession of the keys in the old instrument, and L and M the order

page_text: and succession of the same according to my said Invention, as distinguished
by the parts before the name board. By this disposition of uniformity, alter-
nate keys in two distinct ranges, fingering and transposition, (whatever may be
the fundamental note,) are rendered more uniform and easy.
And I do further declare that my before-described construction and arrange-
ment of the keys of the said musical instruments may be effected with several
variations not essential to the nature of my said Invention, and which may be
adopted without farther instruction by any competent workman; but that I do
prefer the construction and arrangement set forth in the Sketches hereunto
annexed.
In Figure 1 the range of keys N, N, N, &c. belong to the notes C, D, E,
F sharp, G sharp, and A sharp, and the range of the W, W, W, &c.
belong to the notes C sharp, D sharp, F, G, A, B, which lie intermediate
between the former. The first-mentioned range N, N, N, &c. may be raised
above the plane of the former, and may be differently coloured for the sake
of distinction, as in other instruments; and I do continue the keys N, N, N,
&c. so as to project at n, n, n, the common surface of which projection is or
may be, when at rest, below the plane of the keys W, W, W, so that the same
effect will be produced whether the part N or n of any individual key be
touched; but the performance of fingering will be rendered more easy by the
advantage given to the player of touching either of these parts of the key at
pleasure, according to the nature of the passage required to be executed.
Fig. 2 represents a section of the said keys.
And lastly, I do declare that I do adopt and use my said improvement as
to the parts thereof separately and apart from each other when the same shall
be required; and in particular, that I do apply the key N, n, with the two faces
for fingering to the said instruments, when the keys thereof are or may be
arranged according to the old method or system commonly used, or according
to any other method or system, with regard to natural notes, sharps and flats,
and that the extremities or parts of the keys of any of the said musical instru-
ments of the constructions heretofore used, or of any other construction
different from that of my said Invention, which lie before the name board,
may be rendered alternately similar to each other as hereinfore described;
and with regard to the effect thereof by temporary or permanent appendages
or riders or other pieces fixed upon or applied to such keys, or by a sett or
system of such appendages, riders, or other pieces in one or more frame or
frames, or otherwise to be put on or taken off at pleasure, or to remain fixed,
or by other contrivance or contrivances clearly and obviously deducible from
the nature and condition of my alternation of keys in two distinct ranges as

page_text: aforesaid, and as exemplified in lines or ranges denoted by the letters L and M
in the Table aforesaid, and in the Figures or Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Trotter, have hercunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eleven.

page_text: or key note together with the two succeeding Notes ascending in the same range of Leys and the four succeeding Notes
ascending in the other range and the Octaves to all the said notes comprize all the notes of that key in the
Major mode. And the same certain Key note together with the one suarading note ascending in the same range.
of Keys and the five succeeding notes ascending in the other range and the Octaves to all the said notes comprize
all the ascending notes of that key in the Minor mode; by which constant uniformity it may be said that
There are but one key Major and one Key Miner to be learnt instead of 12 Keys Major and 12 Keys Minor as
heretofore so very perplexing to the pupil.