CERTAIN NEW AND CURIOUS TYPES BY ME INVENTED, FOR THE PRINTING OF MUSIC NOTES AS NEATLY AND AS WELL IN EVERY RESPECT AS HATH BEEN USUALLY DONE BY ENGRAVING, IN MANNER AS IN THE SAID LETTERS PATENT IS MORE PARTICULARLY MENTIONED
Year: 1767

page_text: greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the 24th day of Decemb last, in the 8th year of His reign,
did give and grant to me, HENRY FOUGT, then of Salisbury Court, Fleet
Street, in the City of London, Gentleman, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I
and they, and every of us, during the term of 14 years therein mentioned,
shall and lawfully may make, use, exercise, and vend, in that part of
Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
"CERTAIN NEW AND CURIOUS TYPES BY ME INVENTED, FOR THE PRINTING OF MUSIC
NOTES AS NEATLY AND AS WELL IN EVERY RESPECT AS HATH BEEN USUALLY DONE BY
ENGRAVING, IN MANNER AS IN THE SAID LETTERS PATENT IS MORE PARTICULARLY
MENTIONED;" in which said Letters Patent a provisoe is contained requiring
me, the said Henry Fougt, by writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, and cause said description to be in-
rolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months
after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the said recited
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Fougt, in compliance with the said
priviso, do hereby specify and declare my said Invention to be as herein-after
is set forth.

page_text: And it is hereby declared that my new-invented music print, by which all
sorts of music, and figures occurring in music, may, by means of cast types, be
imitated and printed in perfection equal to those engraved in copper or tin
plates, in regard both to elegance and use, is in many respects similar to what
in former ages was used in printing offices, and known by the name of choral
types; but in many and the most material circumstances it differs widely from the
same. To proceed regularly in giving a perfect and full description of this my
Invention, it will be necessary to treat of these two circumstances seperately.
As to the similarity between the old method of printing music and
mine, I conceive the same, according to the meaning of the word itself, to
consist in such things, relating either to tools or manoeuvres, which in both
methods are exactly the same. The several implements belonging to the
old method, or choral types, being sufficiently known to every expert Letter
Founder and Printer, I have nothing more to do than to enumerate such
circumstances as enter more particularly into the comparison between the two;
among which I reckon the several arts and misteries belonging to letter
founding and book printing in general; for instance, at the founderies, how
the stamp of a letter, of whatever figure it be, is prepared; how the matrix
and moulds are adjusted; what mixture of metals is wanted for the casting, and
how the letters, after being cast, are polished, planed, and finished. In the
like manner, at the printing offices, how various and different types are distri-
buted an lodged in certain seperate drawers; how these types afterwards
are made use of and connected into proper rows, lines, and columns,
according to the manuscripts which are to be printed; how the printing is
performed in the press; how the varnish and printing ink is prepared; and,
lastly, how the paper is managed before and after the printing. In all these
above-recited circumstances there is so close an affinity between the old method
and mine, that the difference, if any, amounts to little more than what may be
supposed to be between casting and using types of different languages; and
this is of so little moment that every Letter Founder or Printer, who is barely
acquainted with the figure of the types wanted, knows at the same time how to
make and use them.
From what has thus been said of the similarity between the old music print
and this new one, or mine, the natural conclusion necessarily follows, that the
difference between them, which is very material and evident, depending not on
any new and hitherto unknow method of casting types or printing in general,
must, of course, consist in a new systematical drawing and division of the
caractars adapted to express music notes. This, as belonging essentially to
my Invention, constitutes the second part of my narrative, which, according to

page_text: the injunction laid on me, I am going to make as circumstantially and faithfully
as possible.
The better to illustrate the nature and properties of my Invention. I must
call to my aid the historical knowledge of the several improvements which
have been made from time to time in the art of printing in general. In
former times, and before the arts of letter founding and book printing were
fully established, the first essays of printing books were made be engraving the
whole text, which was to be copied in a plate of metal, or by cutting out the
same, with the caracters in relievo, in a piece of wood of such size as the in-
tended book was to be. The next step to facilitate and shorten the work, was to
divide the wooden columns into syllables and words; at last this was likewise
disapproved of, and that method introduced which is still in use, viz, to make
use of cast letters in printing, and to cast each letter singly. The different
methods of printing music may be considered in the same manner. The
method of engraving music in plates of metal is the same as the primitive
essays of engraving books in the same manner; the choral types, as they
were called, answer to the second attempt in book printing, of dividing the
wooden columns; and this new method of my Invention corresponds with the
third and last-accomplished method of printing in general. The comparison
here established is self-evident in the first instance; but to find the connexion
of it in the two latter, it will be necessary to consider that, notwithstanding the
old choral types are cast figures, as mine are, they are. however, not divided
further than in the length of the five combined lines, so that each type of every
single note contains not only the whole figure of the note, but at the same
time a correspondent portion of all the five lines together; whereas in this new
method a double division is introduced by dividing the figure of the note with
its tail or stalk, and the five lines, both in the length and height of the row, so
that every note, together with the five lines occupying the same space, is
divided into five seperate types, of which one comprehends the head of the
note alone, together with one of the lines, upon or near which it is placed, and
of the four other types, each is for each of the rest of the lines. together with
an equal portion of the tail of the note. By this division the number of the
seperate types in a row of printed music is augmented at least five times, but
at the same time such advantages are in other respects gained as made
printers reject the types with combined words and syllables, and introduce in
their place those with single letters, namely, that the caracters are made more
universal, and that we are able to execute with a few variations of these single
types such things as could not be done with several thousands of the
composite ones, not to mention another very material circumstance, which is,

page_text: that in proportion to the simplicity of figure to which each type is reduced,
the type itself will come out more perfect and neat from the mould after being
cast. Thus, much will be sufficient, I imagine, not only to shew the essential
qualities and properties of this my new method of printing music, but like to
prove and demonstrate how much it really differs from the choral types.
To render this narative still more compleat, I will further add what first made
me think of an attempt of this nature, and upon what principles I afterwards
proceeded in executing this new-invented plan of printing music:-I had
learnt from the art of printing in general that, instead of making use of copper
plates or wooden cuts for flowers and vignettes, it was an old practice to
print various sorts of drawings by means of uniting many seperate types cast
in form of flowers and other ornaments, and which were made to correspond
so exactly in a pattern, and to close so nicely, that the places of joining were
altogether indiscernible. Reflecting on this, I thought it well worth my
while to enquire if some similar artifice might not be made subservient to
imitate and represent music caracters; I than began to consider a series of
music notes, not as a row of letters, but as a Drawing composed of several and
different parts, and looking on them in this view, I soon was convinced, not
only of the possibility of my scheme, but I found likewise, that I could meet
with but few difficulties in the execution of my plan, since all the types made
use of for printing are generally cast in rectilineal, equilateral, and rectangular
figures; and amongst music caracters there occur scarce other figures than
such as are composed of strait lines or certain segments of circles, which,
taken singly and seperately, might have a near resemblance to one another,
and yet produce infinite variations when combined in certain orders. Now I
had nothing more to do than to find out the easiest and most convenient
method of dividing those lines and figures. In regard to this, it seemed to me,
as. I have already said, to be the most natural way to assume the distance
between two lines as the fundamental mesure and rule, after which the division
of the types might and ought to be calculated, and according to which every
one of the music caracters should be made to sit and to follow one another in
a systematical order. In consequence of this theory I made a trial with
a thin oiled paper, on which I had drawn small squares of such a size as to
answer exactly to the proposed dimension of the distance between two single
lines. This transparent paper being laid over a page of written or printed
music, I saw immediately what figures were represented within each square,
and concluded that in order to produce a similar composition by printing, I
wanted as many seperat types with different caracters as there were different
figures in the several squares, the number of which is, however, much less

page_text: than might be at first imagined. These are the principles an which my plan
and Invention are founded. Experience has further taught me that for the
greater exactness in execution, many figures ought not to be divided, such as
the heads of the notes and the signs of the keys, and, on the contrary, that it
will answer many good purposes on particular occasions to have the figures of
the single lines divided into /, and /, squares; likewise that the strait line
which makes the continuation of the whole line, ought to be so situated on the
type, that is it either on the lowest edge or on the uppermost half of an entire
square. And further, that two or more single squares may be cast together
into one type, to be used occasionally, observing only the same principles and
commensurable proportions. A delineation of the several caracters and
divisions of caracters to be used in the course of my said Invention, is in the
margin.
This is the whole and faithful description of the construction and use of my
new music types, and of the new method of printing music by
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twentieth
day of April, One thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, in the
eighth year of the reign of His said present Majesty King George
the Third.
presence of
JAMES JEFFerson.
HARRY COPPs.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of April, in
the year of our Lord 1768, the aforesaid Henry Fougt came before our said
Lord the King in Ilis Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and
Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord One
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight.