A NEW METHOD OF MAKING PIANOFORTES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY,
Du BOCHET, of No. 46, South Mall, in the City of Cork, Ireland, Pianoforte,
Tuner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eleventh day of February, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for;
Herself, Iler heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Du
Bochet, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Henry Du Bochet, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Henry Du Bochet, my exors, adiiors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "A NEW METHOD OF MAKING PIANOFORTES;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Henry Du Bochet, by an instru-
ment in 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 per-
formed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Du Bochet, do hereby declare that my said new-invented method of
making pianofortes is as follows:-
At the upper extremity of the clapper of the grasshopper, in that description
of horizontal pianofortes commonly called grand square pianofortes, to which
alone I apply my new method, I fix a block of wood A, bevilled on the one
side to the angle, as shewn in Drawing, Figure 1, by means of a wire firmly
fixed in its under surface. The lower end of this wire is made into a screw.
A corresponding female screw, of depth sufficient for adjusting the heighth of
the block A, is made in the upper extremity of the clapper B. I also apply to
the front of the check C, as at present used, a piece of felted cloth D, or other
springey substance, and make it extend a heighth of about a quarter of an inch
above the head of the check C, to check the hammer at a point between the
said check C and the string, when the key is struck with less force than is
necessary to bring it down to the check C. By this my new method of making
grand square pianofortes, I obtain a repeating touch which can be made
available at any required depression of the key. I also obtain, independently
of the repeating touch, an increased facility, by means of the screw above des-
cribed, for regulating the action. When I do not want to avail myself of the
regulating screw above described, I effect the repeating touch by the following
method In conjunction with the said piece of felt D, attached to the front of
the check C, as above described, I bore a hole at about three-eighths of an inch
from the upper extremity of the clapper E, Figure 2, and through it, from back
to front, of about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. Through this hole I pass
a piece of wire of the thickness of about one-fourth of the diameter of the hole,
and about three-quarters of an inch in length. A screw is made on this wire
of its whole length. One end of the wire is screwed into the block of wood F,
on the side which works along the inner side of the clapper E. The upper
surface of the block of wood F is bevilled to the angle, as shewn in Figure 2.
On the other end of this wire a nut or button of wood G is screwed, by means
of which nut or button the block of wood F may be fixed at any point within
the range of the said wire within the said hole. By the method last described
the repeating touch is effected in a similar way as in the method firstly herein-
before described. In instruments of an inferior description, and where the
saving a trifling expence is an object, I do not bore the hole in the clapper E,
as in Figure 2; and I omit the screw and the nut or button G, also represented
in Figure 2; and I glue the block of wood F to the inner surface of the
upper extremity of the clapper E, see Figure 3.

page_text: I claim as my Invention the new method of making pianofortes as above
described, being a new combination of mechanical means, by which the desired
effect of the repeating touch is better than heretofore obtained in grand square
pianofortes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Du Bochet, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.