CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON THE TAMBOURINE
Year: 1799

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
DALE, of the Parish of Saint Marylebone, in the County of Middlesex, Music
Seller, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of February, in the thirty-ninth year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Dale, His especial licence, that
I, the said Joseph Dale, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON
THE TAMBOURINE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Joseph Dale, by an instrument 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
Joseph Dale, do hereby declare that my said Invention consists in a new
method of straining or tightening the skin or head of the tambourine, so as
effectually to remove certain objections and impediments felt by the performer
in the use of this well-known instrument when accompanying a piece of music,
and performing with that variety of attitudes necessary to give the sound and
power thereof its full effect. These objections are briefly as follows, viz:

page_text: ر
The skin or head, which is streched over the end of a circular ring or frame
in order to render it sonorous, being subject to a variation of tone from the
fluctuating temperature of the atmosphere, it is necessary that this skin or
head should be capable of being re-streched or slackened at the discretion of
the performer, in order to adjust the tone of the instrument to its proper
standard when varied from it by the cause above mentioned, or otherwise.
Now, the usual method of doing this in the common tambourine has heretofore
been, by introducing on the outside of the hoop sundry iron-pins, one end of
which, hooking on the narrow ring by which the said skin or head is stretched,
and the other end being screwed and passing through plates fastened or over-
banging the, outside of the hoop or frame, and then having a nut on the upper
side of the said fixed plate, the skin or head could, by turning or unturning
these nuts, be tightened or slackened at pieasure to its proper tone as aforesaid.
It must be observed that the above pins, plates, and nuts, being also on the
outside of the hoop or frame, as above stated, and in most of the instruments
the nuts are wholly above the upper end or extremity of the open end of the
said hoop or frame, the consequence is, that when the performer proceeds to
give the instrument the various turns and evolutionary attitudes before men-
tioned; in order to perform his part, he finds his hand not only much obstructed
by the projection of the above pins, &c., on the outside of the hoop or frame,
as above stated, but the hand is also very frequently injured' by such sharp
projections, and the performance interrupted thereby; and also it frequently
happens, that some part of the said pins, nuts, &c., by laying hold of the
garments of the performer, will totally frustrate the performance.
+
The Drawings hereunder, and the following references thereto, will more
fully shew the nature of my said Invention.
Fig. 1 is the section of a tambourine, shewing the pins and screws, &c. of a
kind seemingly best calculated to remove the objections I have stated in those
on the old plan. A, A, is the skin or head of the tambourine. B, B, the edges
of the hoop or frame, supposed cut by a line passing through the parts where
the said stretching rings, irons, pins, or screws, &c. fall. C, C, are two nuts
sunk into the rim or frame, flush with its edge or surface on the open
side of the instrument. These nuts lay hold on the screwed ends of the
iron pins or screws D, D, the contrary ends of which, being hooked, lay
hold of the under edge of the ring or hoop E, E, which lays hold of tlie
wire F, F, unto which the skin or head is fastened, 'so that when the nuts
C, C, are turned round with a turnscrew, the ring or small hoop is drawn
towards them up the rabbet or outside of the hoop or frame G, G; and liy
which means the skin or head may be strained to any required degree of

page_text: tightness. The-nuts C, C, have small washers, collars, or shoulders under the
points or lower end H, H (where a plate may be fixed for it to bed upon); and
through which the screw passes to guard the wood, and prevent its being worn
by the frequent turning of the nuts.
Fig. 2 represents another method of bracing the skin or head, by cutting a
notch K at the bottom of the hoop-or frame, where the skin or head is fixed,
so as to give room for the iron or screw to go through the skin, and 'hook or
lay hold of the ring or hoop which guides the wire unto which the skin or
head is fastened. L, a plate screwed or nailed to the inside of the 'hoop
or frame through which the screw or iron N-passes. M, the nut, which turns
and tightens or slackens the skin or head to be turned by a tool.
Fig. 3 shews another way, by cutting a notch a little from the end or
bottom of the hoop or frame, so as to leave room for the iron or screw to go
through and play up or down to tighten or slacken the skin or head, and acts
nearly in the same manner as at Fig. 2, except it must be observed that at
Fig. 2.the iron or screw goes through the skin or head to lay hold of the ring
or hoop as at Fig. 1, whereas at Fig. 3 it lays hold of the ring or small hoop
which guides the wire and skin or head of the tambourine, without going
through the said skin or head. It may be observed, that by the Drawings at
Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, that the irons or screws do not appear to go through the
skin or head of the tambourine; but it must be understood that before they
are began to be screwed they must go through or pass the head of the skin,
unless it is done by adding a fastening to lay hold of the iron ring or hoop by
another part, which may also be accomplished, all of which methods place the
irons, pins, nuts, &c., out of the way of the hand of the performer. But the
objections made to the screws here stated may be removed by various methods
of bracing the skin or head of the tambourine, in manner similar to the head
of a drum or tabor, or some other elastic means; besides, it may be made with
very little iron, &c., or without any iron at all. A tambourine without any
iron, screws, plates; or nuts, may be done by making a hoop or frame with a
rabbet, as at Fig. 1, where the stretching ring is conducted as at E, E; then
take a ring or hoop made of wood, in the manner of that which before was
made of iron, to fit tight on the rabbet or outside of the hoop or frame, which
may be fastened by glue or otherwise to the skin, at the same time drawing it
as tight as possible, which skin, having been wetted before it was put on, will,
when dry, become tight. It if should afterwards slacken, by holding it to the
ire, it will resume its former tone, and if it should become too tight, it may be
lackened by wetting it. Another way of compleating this for the more
convenience of tuning the tambourine, may be done by making an additional

page_text: small ring or hoop, which goes over the rabbet or outside of the hoop or frame,
and so fastens the skin between the two small rings or hoops to go on to the
aforesaid rabbet or outside of the hoop or frame, as at E, E, Fig. 1, which
rabbet must in the same manner have room left for its being tightened or
slackened at pleasure, by pressing it tighter or contrary wise, or adding to it a
hook, screw, &c., as at Fig. 1, 2, and 3, with the addition of as many more
screws, &c., as may be necessary, according to the strength of the ring or hoop,
and the hoop or frame. With regard to the hole in the hoop or frame of a
tambourine for the thumb to go through, instead of a piece fastened in the
hole for its running round, it may be done by two pieces of metal, ivory, or
hard wood, to meet and screw, leaving room for the thumb to go through and
act, and by the help of shoulders, collars, or washers, it will run with greater
velocity, and may be eased and fastened at pleasure, or by unscrewing, taken
out altogether, to act as a common tambourine if necessary, see Fig. 4.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Dale, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
1
hundred and ninety-nine