IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Nicholson Wornum, of Store Street, Bedford
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Pianoforte Manufacturer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Nicholson Wornum
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th April 1867.
I, ALFRED NICHOLSON WORNUM, of Store Street, Bedford Square, in the
County of Middlesex, Pianoforte Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the action of those
descriptions of grand pianofortes in which the string is struck from the top, the
key giving motion to a crank to which a hopper acting on the hammer butt is
jointed, as is described in the Specification of a former Patent granted to me,
and dated the 11th day of July 1856 (No. 1644). Heretofore the centre or
joint between the crank and the hopper has been beyond the centre on which
the crank itself turns, and in this position the weight of the hopper and other
parts on the crank tends to such an extent to lift the crank from the key that
it is necessary to employ a spring to keep it down to it.
Now, according to my present Invention I place the centre or joint which
connects the crank and hopper on the other or key side of the centre on which
the crank itself turns, and by so doing 1 am enabled to avoid the use of the

page_text: crank spring, the weight of the crank being sufficient to keep it in contact
with the key.
Another part of my Invention consists in applying additional wrest pins
immediately behind the bridge and between the bridge and the ordinary wrest
pins. The additional wrest pins are able to turn freely in their holes, and the
strings after taking some turns round them pass to the ordinary wrest pins, on
which they are wound in the usual manner. I make these additional wrest
pins each of two diameters, where the string passes on to it from the bridge it
is of small diameter, and where the string passes off from the additional pin
to the ordinary wrest pin it is of larger diameter. By these arrangements two
objects are attained, the length of the string between the bridge and wrest pin
is much shortened, which is in itself desirable, and, further, the turning of the
string is facilitated, for the strain on the ordinary wrest pin is reduced in a
ratio depending on that of the two diameters of the additional wrest pin.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Alfred Nicholson Wornum in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
NICHOLSON WORNUM, of Store Street, Bedford Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Pianoforte Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Nicholson Wornum, Her special licence, that I, the said Alfred
Nicholson Wornum, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Nicholson Wornum, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Alfred Nicholson Wornum, 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

page_text: 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 Alfred Nicholson Wornum, 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 the action of those
descriptions of grand pianofortes in which the string is struck from the top,
the key giving motion to a crank to which a hopper acting on the hammer
butt is jointed, as is described in the Specification of a former Patent granted
to me, and dated the 11th day of July 1856 (No. 1644).
centre or joint between the crank and the hopper has been beyond the centre
in which the crank itself turns, and in this position the weight of the hopper
and other parts on the crank tends to such an extent to lift the crank from the
key that it is necessary to employ a spring to keep it down to it.
Heretofore the
Now according to my present Invention I place the centre or joint which
connects the crank and hopper on the other or key side of the centre on which
the crank itself turns, and by so doing I am enabled to avoid the use of the
crank spring, the weight of the crank being sufficient to keep it in contact
with the key.
Another part of my Invention consists in applying additional wrest pins
immediately behind the bridge and between the bridge and the ordinary wrest
pins. The additional wrest pins are able to turn freely in their holes, and the
strings after taking some turns round them pass to the ordinary wrest pins, on
which they are wound in the usual manner. I make these additional wrest pins
each of two diameters; where the string passes on to it from the bridge it is
of small diameter, and where the string passes off from the additional pin to
the ordinary wrest pin it is of larger diameter. By these arrangements two
objects are attained, the length of the string between the bridge and wrest pin
is much shortened, which is in itself desirable, and further the tuning of the
string is facilitated, for the strain on the ordinary wrest pin is reduced in a
ratio depending on that of the two diameters of the additional wrest pin.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.

page_text: a, a, is the frame of the instrument and fixed bars or rails attached to it;
b, b, is the finger key, capable of rocking on the pin b₁; c is the crank resting
on the finger key, it is jointed to the hammer rail at c. The hopper d is
jointed to the crank at d¹, and as will be seen this joint d' is measuring on a
horizontal line nearer to the front of the instrument than the centre c'; e is
the hammer jointed to the hammer rail, and caused by the hopper d to strike
upon the string f, the hammer being at other times kept raised by the spring g
and band h; i is an adjustable escapement button on the hammer rail; k is a
spring carried by the hopper to keep it on the hammer butt until it arrives at
the proper position for it to escape; is a check on the crank to catch the
hammer as it returns from the string so as to allow of the blow being
immediately repeated; m is a wire passing from the top of the hopper to a
damper of ordinary construction. Many of the parts herein-before referred
to are such as are described in the Specification of the Patent granted to me,
and dated the 11th day of July 1856, as already mentioned.
additional wrest pin, which, according to part of my Invention, I employ
immediately behind the bridge a, a; the string takes several turns around.
this pin, and then passes to the ordinary wrest pin o, through which it is
passed, and around which it is wound as is usual. The additional wrest pin may
be cylindrical, but the making it of two diameters, as the Drawing represents,
is also an important feature of my Invention, as in this way the tuning the
string is facilitated, as the winding a given short length of the wire upon the
wrest pin causes but a much smaller length to be taken up out of the
effective portion of the string on to the pin n.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Nicholson Wornum, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
A. N. WORNUM. (L.S.)