A CERTAIN NEW IMPROVEMENT IN GERMAN FLUTES AND OTHER WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY POTTER, of No. 5, Pemberton Row, Gough Square, in the City of
London, Flute Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of May, 1
in the forty-eighth year year of His said Majesty's reign, did give and grant
unto me, the said William Henry Potter, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, my
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, an Invention of "A CERTAIN NEW IMPROVEMENT IN GERMAN FLUTES
AND OTHER WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
contained a proviso that if I, the said William Henry Potter, should not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month next after the date of the
said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages thereby granted should cease, determine, and be void, as in and by
the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Henry Potter, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained in manner herein-after mentioned, and by the Drawing thereof
herein-after contained.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-
fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
ond
The Invention or improvement for which the Patent is claimed consists in
giving a sliding motion to the valves by which the holes of German flutes and
other wind musical instruments (usually stopped by keys with valves) are
stopped or opened, and the manner in which such Invention or improvement
is to be performed is hereafter and in the Drawing herein-after contained more
particularly mentioned and described :-
In addition to the usual springs fix one end of the spring A to the key B,
and the other end of the last-mentioned spring to the valve C by pins or rivets,
so that the spring may lay across the flute or other wind musical instrument,
the object of which last-mentioned spring is to keep the valve close and steady
to its bearing. D is a plate of silver or any other metal made perfectly flat
and let into the flute or other wind musical instrument, and in such a position
that the spring A may press the valve C on it. A hole must be pierced
or bored through this plate into the flute, which hole is to be stopped or
opened by the valve C. The spring A may be fixed to such part of the keys
as the situation or position of the keys on the instrument or the note to be
produced may require, as is exemplified on the various joints of a flute deli-
neated in the Drawing. The middle joint shows the spring A fixed to the
bottom of the key, and the hole in the plate D covered by the valve. By
pressing the upper part of the key the valve slides from and uncovers the hole.
By taking off the pressure the valve slides back again and covers the hole.
The third joint shews the spring A fixed to the top of the key, and the hole
covered, as before stated. The pressure on the key and the release of it
produce the same effect as described in the preceding paragraph. The bottom
joint shews the spring A fixed to the bottom of two long keys (which are
intended for what are commonly called C keys) and the holes in the plates D
uncovered. By pressing these long keys the valves slide over and stop the
holes in the plate 1), and the pressure being taken off, the valves slide back
again to their former position, and the holes remain uncovered. The German

page_text: flute is the only instrument exhibited by the Drawing, but the same or a
similar description being applicable to all other wind musical instruments, it
has not been thought necessary to introduce a Drawing of any other.
Sealed and delivered, by the within
the presence
JAMES HOLYFIELD,
57, Coleman Street,
Gent.
W* SILK,
Parker's Rents, Shoe Lane,
Flute Maker.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fifth day of June,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Henry Potter came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the come Twents fifth day of June in th