CERTAIN NEW IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BARREL ORGANS TO PREVENT THEM FROM GETTING OUT OF ORDER, AND THAT ANOTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OR INSTRUMENTS MAY BE INTERNALLY UNITED OR ATTACHED THERETO AND MADE TO PLAY WITH THE SAME BARREL
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LONGMAN, of Penton Street, Pentonville, in the Parish of St. James, Clerken-
well; in the County of Middlesex, Organ Builder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
January, in the forty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said. John Longman, His especial licence that- I, the said John Longman,
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 NEW IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF BARREL ORGANS TO PREVENT THEM FROM GETTING OUT OF ORDER, AND THAT
ANOTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OR INSTRUMENTS MAY BE INTERNALLY UNITED OR
ATTACHED THERETO AND MADE TO PLAY WITH THE SAME BARREL; in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John
Longman, 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
John Longman, do hereby declare that my said-Invention is described by the
above Drawing, and also in manner following (that is to say) :-
The part of barrel organs employed in fixing the tune has hitherto been
detached from the barrel and key frame, whence many and continual musical

page_text: I
and mechanical imperfections arise; I therefore attach to the barrel a circular
plate or plates of any metallic or other substance, to which is adapted a proper
key frame (as described in the above Drawing); by this is gained a regular
precise uniform movement of the barrel without any reverberatory motion
whatever. The nice and steady connection of the plate or plates fixed to the
barrel with the key frame is the principle which gives not only variety of
mechanical adaption, but also accuracy of execution, to this above all other
barrel organs. A reverse method may be used by having the wheel A, which
is fixed to the barrel, made thick enough to contain a number of grooves cut
round it, and the plate B, which before was called a notch plate, to be a plain
piece of metal to run in the above-mentioned grooves, Figure 2. The spiral
barrel is made by cutting one part of the wheel A and inclining one of the
parts one way, so that when the key frame comes to that part of the wheel,
the inclined part gradually draws the key frame, until it receives the next
notch in the plate B, and has then passed one round, Figure 3. The exact
connection which my discovery gives to all parts of barrel organs with each
other enables me to add, with great advantage, as accompaniments, bells,
tambourins, &c. to improve and enlarge the force and beauty of the instru-
ment. The instrument thus improved, with or without accompaniments, is not
liable to be injured by position or carriage.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Longman, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of February, in' the year of our