CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS APPLICABLE TO MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF DIFFERENT DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
GOSTLING TOWNLEY, of Ramsgate, in the County of Kent, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, in and
by His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of November, in the forty-ninth year of
His reign, for Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Gostling Townley, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Charles Gostling Townley, my executors, administrators, or assigns, by myself
and themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or
such others as I, the said Charles Gostling Townley, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS APPLICABLE TO MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF DIFFERENT DESCRIPTIONS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Charles
Gostling Townley, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, par-
ticularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within one calendar month next
and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and

page_text: by the same (relation being thereunto had), will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Gostling Townley, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, by the
Plan or Drawing hereunto annexed, and as follows, that is to say:-
Fig, 1 is the head of a flute, having a joint at a. This joint is made of
different lengths for the purpose of tuning flatter or sharper; and to the old
tuning marks 4, 5, 6, I add an additional sharp one 7.
Fig. 2 is the concert 3rd joint, of which I have three lengths, the concert
one, a sharp one, and a flat one. By this means I tune the instrument in the
two most advantageous parts, and am enabled to vary the pitch to nearly the
extent of a semitone above or below concert, without putting the flute
out of tune, as is the case with the present modes of pitching it. The additional
hole b makes f-sharp a perfect note by merely lifting off the thumb which
covers the hole, instead of uncovering the one under the second finger, which
usually makes that note, and which is too flat; both ways are to be used
according to circumstances.
Fig. 3 has an additional key c covering a small hole, which sharpens low d
a quarter of a note or thereabouts, and is used in playing low d soft, or with
a mouthpiece, that note being generally much too flat on the flute, except it
is forced. The key is so situated that it may be used or not as required. The
difference in the length of the tuning joints 4, 5, 6, 7, for the head is about
the same as that of the usual body joints used for tuning. The superiority of
my plan over that of having different body joints is, that while I vary the pitch
to a greater extent than is done by means of them, I yet tune the lower
notes equally with the upper ones, for my extra 3rd joints, being propor-
tionably longer or shorter as the head is extended or reduced in length,
the notes which are chiefly dependant on the third joint for their intonation
(which are low g, f, e, d, and c) are necessarily flattened and sharpened s
equally with those which are affected cheifly by the head. The difference
between the concert and sharp third joint is about the same as that between
the tuning joints 5 and 6 between the concert and flat third joint, somewhat
less or thereabouts. I do not claim for the tuning in the head by itself, but
for the general combination, as forming a material improvement in the tuning s
of the flute. I use the following plan for greater security in the stopping of
the keys: A small circular cavity or trench is made round a hole, having a
key to stop it; the leather or other sul stance which covers the key fills up the
cavity, and thus renders the key more perfectly air-tight. My improvement

page_text: of the flute mouthpiece is very simple in its nature, and appears to be capable
of very extensive application. By explaining the principle on which it
is constructed, to the best of my ability, it will be in the power of any
ingenious or tolerably well-informed mechanic to apply it in the various ways
for which it may be adapted. The chief defect of the present flute mouth-
pieces, which may be said to be wholly useless, arises from this circumstance,
that they convey the wind through a straight parallel aperture against a
circular edge. Now I conceive the true principle on which a mouthpiece
ought to be constructed to produce a clear pleasing tone, and on which mine
are constructed, to be simply this, that the opposite edge of the flute mouth-
hole must be considered in the same point of view, or nearly so, as the wind
cutter of a flageolet or other voiced instrument; and therefore, like other wind
cutters, it must have the wind conveyed against its edge through a corresponding
aperture or throat. By this I mean, that if the mouth hole be circular or
oval, the wind must be conveyed through a crescent of a corresponding circle,
or oval, or through a circular parallel aperture.
Agreeably with this principle, I construct a mouthpiece A, Fig. 4, which
consists of a case containing the plug B, and which goes into the brass tube
at C, of the spring cillindrical head D. The apparatus is steadied by the
notch f, which receives a pin screwed into the flute smaller than the notch,
that the mouthpiece may advance and retire a little for the upper and lower
notes. The upper surface of the plug being filed away laves a cavity, and the
wind is conveyed against the edge of the mouth hole in the direction d, e, along
the crescent aperture 9. In proportion as the aperture for the wind is wider
or more contracted to a certain extent, the lower or upper notes are produced
better.
Fig. 5, shewing the end of a plug with the circular parallel aperture, I find
best calculated for the lower octave, and Fig. 6 for the upper tones. The
sharp edge a, a, should be filed away to prevent the moisture from collecting
at the end of the aperture 6. For general purposes I prefer the plug, Fig. 6.
Fig. 7 is a mouthpiece, which contracts by the pressure of the mouth at a,
and opens by pressing at b, c being a pin on which the plug has motion. In
this case the plug resembles Fig. 6, in the aperture part 6, and is reduced on
the opposite side, or nearly all round, to allow it to move a little on its axis c,
from that part of the case where the aperture for the wind is formed to the
opposite side, by which means the aperture is increased. The case is also filed
away in a small degree just over the aperture to render the bore in that part
wider, as this tends to give the low notes a fuller tone. The end which goes
into the mouth must also have the aperture considerably wider, to allow for

page_text: the contraction which there takes place when the opposite end is widened by
the pressure of the mouth at b. The mouthpieces are made of various sub-
stances, as ivory, wood, &c.
The voicing of the flute by means of the mouthpiece improvement is also
applicable to the organ, and other instruments in which organ flute pipes
are used, by affording real flute pipes of different bores and dimensions, and
different sized mouthpieces, according to the above principle, instead of
the usual flute stops in those instruments. Flutes played by means of ia
mouthpiece, especially those with metallic tubes, should be furnished with
the tone-regulating key, as specified by me in pursuance of a former
Patent obtained the Ninth day of August last past'; for this key, enabling
the performer to tune the flute while playing, prevents those unpleasing
elevations and depression's in the pitch of the instrument which proceed from
the heat and moisture of the breath, and the degree of expression that is given
to the tone.
:
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Gostling Townley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eight.
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