CERTAIN NEW IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CALLED A HARP
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SEBASTIAN
ERARD, of Great Marlborough Street, in the Parish of St James, Westminster,
and County of Middlesex, Musical Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Seal of His United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of April, in
the forty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Sebastian Erard, His especial licence that I, the said Sebastian Erard, 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 NEW IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CALLED A HARP;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the Sebastian Erard, by an instru-
ment 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 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
Sebastian Erard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are herein-after particularly
described and ascertained as follows:-
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 represent apparatus for carrying more effectually
into practice and use my Invention for rendering the harp capable of modu-
lating into every practicable scale of music by altering the tension of the
strings, as is more particularly described in a certain Writing or Specification
given under my hand and seal on the Sixteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and one, which said Specification. was
duly inrolled in the Office of the Petty Bagg, in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery, on or about the Sixteenth day of June, in the year aforesaid, in
compliance with a certain proviso contained in His Majesty's Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
granted unto me, the said Sebastian Erard, on or about the Sixteenth day of
May, in the year aforesaid, for my Invention of Improvements in the Con-
struction of Harps and Pianofortes; and I do accordingly refer to the said
Specification for all such parts of my said former Invention therein contained,
as it would be unnecessary to repeat upon the present occasion, wherein I
confine myself to describe and explain that Invention for which His said
Majesty hath granted unto me His Letters Patent herein first recited.
Figure 1 represents the vertical section of an improved method of varying
the tension of the strings of the harp; and Figure 2 represents the plan of the
same apparatus. is the apparatus fixed on the head of the pin, and described
in my former Specification aforesaid, with the exception that it has no adjust-
ing part at l. f. 1, represents a separate pin, moveable on its axis by the
interior machinery of the harp, for the purpose of governing the position of i
by the connecting piece c attached to a lever at h. This lever may be
lengthened or shortened at pleasure by a screw adjustment, or by various other
well-known methods; but I give the preference to the construction here
delineated, which I have contrived and adopted after much consideration.
The lever g is itself tapped externally into the form of a screw; and it passes
through a cylindrical nut e which is so lodged in a that it can turn on its axis.
but not move endways. The piece a is screwed or fixed to the pin. Upon the
exterior surface of the nut e is cut a milling or hollow screw rach, in which an
endless screw f works, so that when. f is turned e revolves slowly on its axis,
and causes g to move without rotation, having no other effect than to alter the
distance of h from the axis of the pin 7, and consequently to determine the
quantity of angular motion produced in the pin d. k, in Figure 2 and 3,
represents the connecting piece, by means of which the pin is made to obey
the action of the pedal.

page_text: Figure 3 is a view of an upright section of part of the harp, for the purpose
of shewing more clearly the disposition of this apparatus, wherein the same
parts are denoted by the same letters. The letters a, a, a, a, denote two brass
plates, seen edgewise, which are fixed on each side of the harp for the pur-
pose of supporting the machinery.
Figure 4 shews a method of fitting up the pins for the shorter strings,
which, from their less resistance, will admit of being held in tune by their
stickage or friction, instead of requiring the wheelwork contained in 6 (Figure 1).
d, Figure 4, represents the pin, having a flat plain wheel at e, upon which the
cap-pieces are to be fixed, in the same manner as the said piece b, instead
of the wheels. The cap-picces contain only a spring, which may most con-
veniently be of the concave figure called a dish spring, and serves to keep the
pin steady when turned as usual by the key applied to its square.
:
Figure 11 shews the method of fixing a small hand or index for the purpose
of indicating upon the face of the harp whether any string is' flat, sharp, or
natural. A socket or cylindrical tube, marked by the dotted lines n, o, n, in.
Figure 2, is fixed to the piece b, and moves along with it (the pin d being con-
tained within the same). On the outer extremity of the said socket is fixed:
the index o, p, which will not, therefore, move during the act of tuning by the
pin, but will change its position only along with the piece b, and consequently
will produce the desired effect.
Figure 6 shews one of the most convenient methods of disposing the pins
and apparatus in the harp as it is at present formed.
Figure 5 exhibits another method of causing the pin to regulate the
position of the pin d. Two wheels are connected together by toothwork or
chain, or any other suitable method; and one of these wheels is attached to
one of the said pins, and the other wheel to the other pin; but by means of
an adjustment the said pins may be made to occupy either the centres of the
said wheels, or they may be fixed at a distance from the said centres. In this
last case the motion of the pin 7 will not produce an equal quantity of angular
motion in the pin d, but a greater or less quantity, as may be required; and
the angular deviation of the pin d may be made equal on each side of the
position required for the natural note of the axis of the pins and centres of the
wheels be all in one line at the time the natural note is tuned.
Figure 7 represents a new construction and disposition of the pedals.
a, b, is one of the pedals, moveable on a vertical joint in the piece b, which
also allows it to be put into any position that may be required to the right or
left. is the piece which communicates with the machinery, and is drawn
downwards when the foot is pressed at g. The broken pieces d and e shew

page_text: the positions of the pedal when the string is kept either sharp or flat, and a
represents the position for the natural note. f shews the form of the opening
or groove in the body of the harp, wherein these movements are performed.
When these pedals are used in harps containing springs, which raise the pedals
by reacting against the drawing piece c, I place a spring beneath each pedal,
to assist it's rise, and relieve the springs of the machinery. With this advan-
tage I use weak spiral springs, fixed on the outside of the harp, for the purpose
of affording the necessary reaction instead of the stronger pins within. The
parts may be disposed all upon one axis, or in any other manner which may
be found convenient; but I give the preference to that arrangement which
brings the part c within the smallest compass.
Figure 8 represents this kind of arrangement, in which it is to be understood
that those pedals which seem to interfere with each other in this plan have their
centres in fact placed a little above or below each other in a proper frame,
so as to move without obstacle; and, from the advantage of simplicity in the
construction of the said pedals, which require no support or fixture against the
bottom of the harp, I am enabled to form an opening in the bottom a, a, a,
Figure 8, through which I can have access to the internal space for any useful
purpose that may require it.
Figure 9 shews a method of connecting the several flaps or doors which
produce the swell in such a manner that there shall be no noise or jar produced
by their movement. Each door a is affixed to the door beneath it by a
bended or notched piece b, of metal or other material, which causes them all to
move together, altho' cach several door or flap is moved upon its own appropriate
hinges or joints.
Figure 10 shews the several doors in their places during the act of. opening
or shutting.
Fig. 12 represents a method of altering the tension of the upper strings.
a, b, c, represents each string affixed to it's pin at a, and passing over the.stud
or bridge at b to c, which is the sounding part. The pressure is made at d, by
which the string between a and b is bended, as shewn by the dotted lines, and
the tone of the part c raised as required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sebastian Erard, bave hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and two.
SEBASTIAN ERARD. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fourth day of April,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Sebastian Erard came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year above written.