IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES, ORGANS, SERA- PHINES AND OTHER LIKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hesketh Hughes and William Thomas
Denham, both of Cottage Place, in the County of Middlesex, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES, ORGANS, SERA-
PHINES AND OTHER LIKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS."
Sealed the 22nd September 1853, and dated the 23rd March 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hesketh Hughes
and William Thomas Denham, at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd March 1853.
We, HESKETI HUGHES and WILLIAM THOMAS DENHAM, both of
Cottage Place, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES,
ORGANS, SERAPHINES, AND OTHER LIKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS" to be as
follows:-
-
We reduce the length of the key boards and width of such instru-
ments to about one half, without impairing or otherwise interfering
with the power, touch, or tone of the instrument. Instead of the
keys being placed in a direction directly transverse to the front of the

page_text: board, we arrange them diagonally, or otherwise over one another, and
then instead of each key being of the particular long shape now
usually employed, we make them little larger than the top of a finger.
We arrange the wires in order to suit our new arrangement of keys; and
where an instrument of the ordinary construction is to be fitted with
key board according to our Invention, we place the keys in the centre
of the space occupied by the existing keys, and by means of side levers,
where necessary, cause them to act on the wires in the case of piano-
fortes (and the like), or on the valves of organs (and the like), as they
are now placed in such instrument.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hesketh Пughes and William Thomas Denham,
in the Great Seal Patent Office, on the 23rd September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc,
HESKETH HUGHES and WILLIAM THOMAS DENHAM, both of Cottage
Place, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Hesketh Hughes and William Thomas
Denham, Her special licence that we, the said Hesketh Hughes and
William Thomas Denham, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Iesketh Hughes and William Thomas
Denham, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES, ORGANS, SERAPHINES, AND OTHER
LIKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Hesketh Hughes and William Thomas Denham,

page_text: by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under
the hand and seal of one of us, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Hesketh Hughes and William
Thomas Denham, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:
Our Invention consists, first, in a new arrangement of key board,
whereby the length of the ordinary key boards of pianofortes, organs,
seraphines, and other like musical instruments will be reduced about
one half, without impairing or otherwise interfering with the power,
touch, or tone of such instruments, and whereby a greater range of
notes is afforded. And second, in a new arrangement of the action
and other parts of pianofortes and other like musical instruments,
whereby they may be considerably reduced in width. The drawings
hereunto annexed represent the manner in which we carry our Inven-
tion into effect. Figure 1, is a plan of so much of a pianoforte of the
ordinary construction as is necessary to explain our improved arrange-
ment of the key board and balance levers, and Figure 2, a section of
the same. A, A', are the notes of the diatonic scale, which are arranged
in such a manner that the keys A', are slightly raised above the
notes A, and are also placed at the back thereof; the balance levers B, B',
are curved in front as represented, and weighted in order to equalize
their action upon the hammers of the pianoforte, the valves of the
organ, or the levers for admitting the wind to notes of the seraphine,
harmonium, and other similarly constructed instruments. C, C, are
the notes which form the chromatic scale, and C', their balance levers.
It will be seen that by this method the notes of the diatonic scale are
arranged in a series of thirds, instead of seconds, as in instruments of the
ordinary construction; but we do not confine ourselves to this particular
arrangement. In some cases we mingle the chromatic with the

page_text: diatonic notes in their proper position, and by this arrangement the
pedal pipes of the organ may be introduced into the key board, so as
to bring them more immediately under the control of the performer.
Another part of our Invention consists in curving the back and sound-
ing board of pianofortes, and in arranging the wires and action in a
similar curve, whereby we are enabled to materially reduce the width
of the instrument, and also to arrange the balance levers parallel to
one another, the notes of both the diatonic and chromatic scales being
placed in the manner first hercin-before described and represented in
the drawings.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim the
several arrangements of the keys or notes of pianofortes, organs, and
other like musical instruments in the manner and for the purposes
herein-before described, and represented in the drawings hereunto
annexed. We also claim the curving the backs and sounding boards
of pianofortes in combination with our arrangement of the keys and
levers, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Hesketh Hughes and William
Thomas Denham, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Twenty-third day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.
HESKETH HUGHES. (L.S.)
W THOS DENHAM. (1.8.)
HESKETH HUGHES. (L.S.)
W THOS DENHAM. (L.S.)