AN IMPROVED UPRIGHT PIANOFORTE
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WORNUM the Younger, of Princes Street, Hanover Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Pianoforte. Maker, 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 Twenty-sixth day of
March, in the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant. unto me, the said
Robert Wornum, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert. Wornum, my
exors, adiñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
years therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
UPRIGHT PIANOFORTE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a..
proviso obliging me, the said Robert Wornum, 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 two 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
Robert Wornum, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which it is to be performed, to, be particularly described as
follows:-

page_text: The case is divided into two parts, a fore part and a back part. I
have two modes of so dividing it; the first mode (Fig. a) is as follows:
The height of the ends (Fig. a), No. 1, or sides, is three feet four inches
inside, the width nine and a quarter, ten inches on the outside; to these is
added a bottom of the same width, and long in proportion to the number of
keys to be introduced into the instrument; for a common sixty-eight it is
three feet ten inches inside. The tops of the sides are united to the tuning-
pin clock (Fig. d, No. 1,) which is fixed flush with the top and the back,
and comes forward four inches and a half, and extends downwards five and a
quarter to the rabbit for the belly. Against the right side is glued the hitch-
pin clock (Fig d, No. 2,) two inches thick, from which is taken the rabbit
for the belly, three eighths of an inch. To this part of the case I fix what
I term the fore part on the first mode of division, Fig. a, No. 2, and it is so
formed there is a bottom framed or glued up the length of the tuning-pin
clock, two inches thick and fourteen and a half wide. To the ends of this
bottom in front are fixed checks, ten inches and a half long and five inches
deep; the overplus width is projected into the back part between the sides, on
which are fixed pieces between which it slides. This is fixed to the back part
by means of long brass hinges with moveable pins, ten inches and a half from
the top. Within this front part are two clocks, which fill up the space not
employed by the keys. The name board is situated as usual, and has a small
tray affixed behind it inclosing the case; the top is half an inch thick, is
hinged to the back, and locks down upon the upper part Fig. c, No. 1, or front
above the keys. This upper front is a framing of three pannels mitred at
the ends to the back part, and finished with silk in the pannel part. The
lower top, or top above the keys, is half an inch thick, and has the small
front part before the keys hinged to it (Fig. c, No. 2). To this lower top
the bottom of the upper front is glued, after which the lower top is cut. One
.inch from the front of the upper front is jointed, and has a small bead and
grove in the joint to steady it, and here the lower top takes away in using
the instrument. The lower front Fig. c, No. 3, or front below the keys, is
also a framing of three pannels, all wood, fits in at bottom with steady pins,
and shuts against small clocks on the sides of the back part of the case.
The second mode of division, Fig. 6, has this difference, instead of hinging as.
above, the cheeks and bottom are glued to the back part, and a back part is
cut off five inches and a quarter from the back, Fig. 6, No. 1. These two
parts are jointed and hinged together with large butt hinges top and bottom,
fixed on the right side, and with moveable pins on the left, by which the case
is opened. The bracing, Fig. d, No. 3, must be strong, and in the number

page_text: and distribution exhibited in the Example. The belly, Fig. e, No. 1, is not
carried all over, but broken off on a line with the right-hand pedal wherever
that may happen to be, it varying according to the size of the instrument.
The strings, Fig. e, No. 2, take the diagonal direction from the top of the
left hand to the bottom of the right, in other respects they are done as usual.
The keys are fourteen inches and a half long, and centred seven inches from
the front. The action frame consists of the hammer beam and two upright
pieces fixed into two horizontal pieces forming checks to the action, which
are screwed down to the key frame to the horizontal pieces, having the
hammer beam fixed into them, as marked out by the dots in the section of
the hammer beam exhibited in Drawing No. 2. The hammer beam is a
piece the length of the keys, three inches wide and half an inch thick, with
an iron bar at the bottom edge (see a section in Fig. 9); the action consists
of a grasshopper, a hammer, and a damper; the grasshopper moves the
hammer and the damper at the same time, and is given in full size in Fig. i.
The hammer consists of a butt, a shank, and a head, which are also given in
full size in Figs. f and h. The heads of the hammers take the same rake as the
strings, except the upper octave, which may be square. The damper consists
of a bent wire, a hinge part, and a clothed part (see it also in full size in
Fig. ). The hammer beam receives the hammers at the upper edge (sec
Figs. f and g), and against the binges are screwed small slips, three quarters
of an inch wide, nearly an edge at top, and an eighth of an inch at bottom;
the grasshoppers are fitted under these. The dampers are hung to an inch
rail above the hammers, the front part of the grasshoppers touching the
bottoms of the wires. The back touch is formed by a piece screwed against
the front of the hammer beam. Below the square grove the damper ruler is
clothed with baize, and screwed against the front part of the action frame at
the lower part of the wires. The hammer ruler is hung upon centres at the
top edge and clothed with baize, and serves also the purpose of pushing off
the dampers by screwing a crooked wire into the bottom edge, which meets
another wire fixed in a small wooden spring under the strings, and is moved
by the right pedal. The damper rail is screwed down upon the upright pieces
of the action frame, the left-hand cheek being cut off on the line with the
hammers, and the piece so cut screwed to the bottom part on the outside, to
give more room for the bass dampers. The left-hand pedal is a pedal is a
buff stop, which stops only one string upon cach note. The pedals are nine
inches apart; at the back of each is a notch lined with cloth, in which is a
steady pin screwed into the bottom, and bent over to the front at the top of
the pedal Fig. 5, which serves to stop the pedal at the heighth desired.
On

page_text: I
each pedal, with leather between, is. glued a small wooden nutt, Fig. p, No. 3;
in. this is screwed. a wire, Fig. p, No. 2, which continues to the top above,
and terminates in.a mitre, Fig. p, No. 1, and is passed through a bushed hole,
Figs. and, to steady it. The right-hand wire works the wooden spring,
Fig. N, No. 1, the left-hand wire works against the under edge of 'the buff'
stop, which hanging on centres moves towards the strings (see an end in
Fig. n, and is fixed lialf an inch below the tuning-pin clock, breaking off
at c, above middle c. In Drawing No. 2 is a section of the whole action
as it is in the instrument. It is by no means necessary rigidly to preserve
the above-mentioned measures, as all the parts may vary more or less from
them, providing such variations. are borne in mind that one part may be altered
with respect to another.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Wornum, bave 'hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord
Cine thousand night bindved and aloven