CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CALLED PIANOFORTES
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FREDERICK COLLARD, of No. 195, Tottenham Court Road, in the Parish of
Saint Pancras, in the County of Middlesex, Musical Instrument Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of March last, for Himself, His heirs and successors,
did give and grant unto me, the said William Frederick Collard, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Frederick Collard, my exors, admors, and assigns, and every of them, by
myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy and deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as I, the said William Frederick Collard, my exors,
adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein unexpired,.
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS ON MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CALLED PIANOFORTES;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Frederick Collard, by an instrument 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 performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereto had, will more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Frederick Collard, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, which consists of two improvements, and in what manner the
same is to be performed; by the Plans and Drawings annexed to these
Presents, and the following description thereof, that is to say:-
The first improvement which I have invented is "the application of an
additional bridge on the sound board of pianofortes," which bridge I call "the
bridge of reverberation." To horizontal grand pianofortes, upright grand
pianofortes, and cabinet pianofortes, and pianofortes having the form of sound
board common to those instruments, the mode of applying this additional
bridge is as follows:-The case or external frame of each of the instruments,
or of instruments having the form of sound board common to them, to which
my improvements are intended to be applied, should be made from two to
three inches longer than is otherwise, usually considered, necessary in that part
where the belly or sound board is fixed, and the same extension wider on the
side of the case commonly called the bent side, for the purpose of getting a
greater space than is usually allowed between "the original bridge or bridges on
the sound board;" and the hitch-pin moulding, or moulding into which the pins
are driven, whereon the noses or eyes of the strings are hitched over this addi-
tional space, I extend the sound, board, and upon it an inch and an half or there-
abouts from the hitch-pin moulding, and as far as the strings are continued,
I place, the, additional bridge in, the direction pointed out, in the annexed
Drawing, Number One, which bridge, as before observed,, I call "the bridge
of reverberation," in contradistinction to, the original bridge or bridges on the
sound, board. In instruments where it may be desirable, to, avoid, the
additional length of the bass and of the case, the extra space required, for the
bridge of reverberation may be obtained in a case of the common length by
using shorter, bass strings of greater gravity, and placing the original, bridge
further in from the end of the case. My, bridge of reverberation is constructed
of wood in the same manner as, the original bridge or bridges on, the sound
board, and in it I fix, pins,, between, which the strings are interlaced, so as to
give all of them a firm, intermediate, bearing, between the hitch-pin, moulding
and the original bridge or bridges, on the sound, board.. The application of
this additional bridge, or, bridge. of, reverberation, to square, pianofortes will
require an additional length of from, two to, tree inches: in, the, sound, board,
behind the original, bridge. The. tuning, pins, must, be, in, that, piece, of wood,
commonly called the back block, and the hitch-pins-in, what is.usually called,
the right-hand. block, or block which is placed inside the right-hand, extremity.
of the case. The bridge of reverberation must, therefore, be placed on the

page_text: sound board or belly, an inch and half or thereabouts from the last-mentioned
block, and parallel to it, as in the annexed Drawing, Number Two.
.
The second improvement which I have invented is the application of a
certain apparatus, which I call the "harmonic swell; to those portions of the
strings which lie between the original bridge or bridges on the sound board
and the bridge of reverberation. For horizontal grand pianofortes this appa-
ratus of the barmonic swell may be formed of a piece of wood, about an inch
square, properly secured by metal (or any other means) against warping. It
is placed nearly parellel to the bridge of reverberation, andruns along above
the strings between the original bridge or bridges on the sound board and the
bridge of reverberation, as in Drawing Number One. The under part of it
is guarded with cloth or any other soft substance, and rests on the strings; so
as to prevent their vibration. To this general damper of the parts of the
strings which lie between the original bridge or bridges on the sound board
and the bridge of the reverberation in horizontal grand pianofortes are
annexed two cranks which move on parallel axis, one attached to the bass
end and the other to the treble end of the instrument (see Drawing Number
One), so that when the treble end of it is lifted up by means of a pedal which
I fix to the bottom of the instrument, and which communicates with the
apparatus by means of a crank and rods; the bass end is also necessarily lifted
up, and those portions of the strings are left entirely free to give out their
tone. My harmonic swell may either extend to the whole number of strings,
or be confined to a smaller number. The advantage of this apparatus called
the harmonic swell is, that when a performer chuses to give an increased
richness to any musical passage by using the pedál ábove described, he leaves
all the strings between the bridge of reverberation and the original bridge on
the sound board free to give out their melodious sounds or echoes; which, by
a well-known sympathetic relation between accordant strings, will be elicited
by the percussion of the chords or strings on the main body of the instrument.
Drawing Number Three represents the general inmoveable damper of
harmonic swell to be applied to upright grand pianofortes. Its materials and
direction are to be the same as those for, horizontal grand pianofortes; but;
instead of moving on cranks as, before described; it extends to the sides of the
case in the bass and treble. At each end is to be a short piece of wood. or metal
(see Drawing Number Three,.a), having one extremity attached to the inside
of the case on a moveable centre, and the other to the end of the general
damper or harmonic swell on a moveable center; and placed at such an angle
as to make the general damper or harmonic swell easily to be raised from of
-

page_text: the strings by a pedal with a communicating rod from below either at the
base end or at the treble end.
Drawing Number Four represents the general moveable damper or
harmonic swell to be applied to cabinet pianofortes. As the mechanism of this
instrument is placed before the strings, and renders the application of the
harmonic swell to the whole extent of the strings inconvenient, I only apply
it to about two thirds of the strings, leaving part of the strings in the treble
secured against vibration by a piece of tape, in the same way as is done in
pianofortes of the common construction. Its form is described in the
Drawing Number Four. It is to consist of a flat piece of wood or metal
(A), guarded with cloth, to be attached by means of two short pieces
of wood or metal (B), having moveable centers at each end of two blocks (C)
fixed on the bent side of the case, which blocks are to made of wood or wood
guarded with metal. The part of the blocks to which these short pieces of
wood or metal are attached, as well as the ends of the short pieces of wood
or metal attached to the blocks, to be on a bevil angle, so that when the
general damper or harmonic swell is moved upwards by means of a pedal,
it will be thrown off from the strings according to the angle of the blocks.
The application of the apparatus called the harmonic swell to square
pianofortes is very simple. As the bridge of reverberation in this instrument
is to be parallel to the hitch-pin block, nothing more is necessary to make
my harmonic swell than a
straight piece of wood guarded with cloth or other
soft substance, as aforesaid, which is to be passed over the strings imme-
diately in front of the bridge of reverberation, and to rest upon them so as to
prevent their vibration, which piece of wood is to be made to turn on two
centres, the one resting on the inside of the front and the other on the inside
of the back of the instrument, and to lifted up by a pedal similar to that
before described fixed to the bottom of the instrument, and communicating
by means of rods and a crank, upon which general moveable damper or
harmonic swell a spring is to be placed for the purpose of throwing it back
again into its original position on the strings when the foot is taken off the
pedal, as in Drawing Number Two.
To recapitulate in a few words, my Invention of improvements upon piano-
fortes is twofold:-
First, the introduction of a second bridge behind the original bridge or
bridges on the sound board of pianofortes, which second bridge is not to
regulate musical intervals, but to aid the vibration of the strings and enrich
the sound; and second, the introduction of a general moveable damper to

page_text: those portions of the strings which lie behind the original bridge on the sound
board of pianofortes, and which in instruments with my newly-applied bridge
lie between the said original bridge on the sound board and the bridge of
reverberation.
In witness whereof, I have here set my hand and seal, the Twenty-
second day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-one.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.