AN IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING A OCTAVE STOP TO PIANOFORTES
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPHI
KIRKMAN, of Broad Street, Golden Square, in the County of Middlesex, Piano-
forte Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourteenth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and
sixteen, for himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Kirkman, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Joseph Kirkman, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Kirkman, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend; within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING A OCTAVE STOP TO
PIANOFORTES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Joseph Kirkman, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the, same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
.NOW. KNOW YE, that in compliance with the aforesaid proviso, I, the said
Joseph Kirkman, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said

page_text: Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed and applied, by
the Drawing annexed to these Presents and the following description thereof
(that is to say):
=
My Invention or improvement consists in applying to pianofortes one of the
strings or wires which are commonly made use of to produce cach tone or
note, and which are usually tuned in unison in pianofortes made on the com-
mon construction, in such a manner by the means herein-after described as to
enable it to be tuned an octave higher than the other two, and at the same
time to keep it on a level with the other string or strings, so as to allow all
the strings which are used to produce each tone or note, to be struck at the
same time and by the same hammer without making any alteration in or
addition to the usual mechanism or action whereby the hammers are moved.
My Invention which is applicable to all kinds of pianofortes, whether upright,
horizontal, cabinet, square, or other small instruments, is applyed in the following
manner (that is to say):-
In upright, horizontal, and cabinet piano fortes I place upon the sounding-
board of the instrument, as shown in the annexed Drawing, in addition to the
bridge A and the bridge B on the rest plank, which are usually used in
instruments made on the common construction, another bridge C, which I
recommend to be made of wood of the usual kind, though it may be made of
wood of any otlier sort, or of any other fit material, and which must be of the
same height with the bridge A. In the bridge A, which I term the unison
bridge, I cut grooves or notches a, a, a, a, a, cach sufficiently large to admit
a wire or string, hung on a pin fixed in the moulding of the instrument, to
pass free of it, and in the bridge C, which I term the octave bridge, I also
cut grooves or notches a, a, a, a, a, each sufficiently large to admit two wires
or strings, also hung on pins fixed in the moulding of the instrument, to pass
free of it. I use (as in upright, horizontal, and cabinet piano fortes made on
the common construction,) three wires or strings of the usual size and kind to
produce each tone or note (though the strings or wires may be made of any
material capable of being drawn into wire, and of any size the workman may
think proper, but I recommend that strings or wires of the usual size and
material should be made use of), which three strings or wires I hang on pins
fixed in the moulding of the instrument in the usual way. Two of these
strings or wires are then laid upon the unison bridge A in the usual way, and
by means of the grooves or notches cut in the octave bridge C, they pass free
of it, and after being laid upon the bridge placed on the rest plank of the
instrument are fixed in the usual manner to the rest pins by which they are
tuned. The third string. or wire, (which I recommend to be of the same size

page_text: and material as is usual, and of the same size and material with the other two
strings or wires, although it may be made of any material capable of being
drawn into wire, and of any size the workman may think proper,) and from
which the octave note above is produced, is then laid upon the octave bridge C
in the same manner as is usual in laying strings upon the bridges in instru-
ments made on the common construction, it being allowed to pass from the
moulding of the instrument free of the unison bridge A by means of the
grooves or notches cut therein, and is fixed, after being laid upon the bridge,
fixed on the rest plank in the usual manner, to the rest pin by which it is
tuned. The whole strings of the instrument are thus laid upon and over the
two bridges placed on the sounding board and the bridge fixed on the rest
plank of the instrument, and the number of the strings and of the grooves or
notches which are requisite to be cut in the bridges A and C depends on the
number of notes which are included in the compass of the instrument. The
two strings or wires which are laid upon the unison bridge A are then to be
turned by means of the rest pins in the usual manner in unison, and the string
or wire which is laid upon the octave bridge C, which I term the octave string,
and which in the annexed Drawing is by way of distinction colored red, is to
bo tuned an octave above the other two strings or wires, and, from the position
of the bridge C on the sounding board, this is enabled to be done without
giving a degree of tension to that string or wire much, if at all, greater than
that given to the other two; and the strings or wires, being by this means all
laid upon the same level and at the same distance from the sounding-board,
are enabled to be struck at the same time by means of hammers constructed
in the usual manner, and moved by the same mechanism and action as is usual,
and in the same manner as the strings or wires used in pianofortes made on
the common construction are struck. The method of applying my said
Invention or improvement herein-before described I reccommend as the best
mode of applying the same, although the several ways herein-after described
or any of them may be made use of (that is to say):-The strings or wires of
the instrument may be made to pass free of the bridges A and C by means of
holes made therein instead of grooves or notches, and the octave strings may
be hung either on pins fixed in the unison bridge A or from pins fixed in the
sounding-board of the instrument, but if this last method is made use of the
sounding-board must be strengthened by a bar placed either above or below
it. The octave bridge may also be constructed of two pieces, or, as it is usually
termed, a double bridge, in a similar way to the unison bridge instead of being
in one continued piece, and may be length'ned so as to carry the same through
the whole compass of the instrument, and thereby to enable one of the strings

page_text: or wires used to produce cach note in the scale of the instrument to be tuned
an octave above the other two, instead of being discontinued at the place shewn
in the annexed Drawing; or the octave bridge may be discontinued at any
other part of the compass or scale of the instrument as the workman may
think proper. Another methed of applying my said Invention or improvement
is by making use of for the octave string or wire of a seperate bridge placed
on the rest plank of the instrument in addition to the bridge usually placed in
that situation, and also in addition to the bridges placed on the sounding-board
of the instrument, as herein-before described. And I claim the benefit and
advantage of applying my said Invention or improvement in all or any of the
ways herein-before described. My said Invention or improvement may also
be applied to square or other small pianofortes in any or either of the ways
herein-before described, but I recommend that three strings or wires of the
usual size and material should be made use of to produce each tone or noto
instead of only two strings or wires, which are generally used in constructing
square or other small pianofortes, although the strings or wires may be made
of any material capable of being drawn into wire, and of such size as the
workman may think proper. And I do hereby declare that my said Invention
or improvement, the methods of performing and applying which are herein-
before described, consists in applying one of the strings or wires commonly
used in constructing pianofortes to produce each tone or note in such a manner
as to enable it to be tuned an octave above the other string or strings, wire
or wires (each tone or note included in the compass of the whole instrument
thereby being produced from a string or wire, or by two or more strings or
wires, producing a note, and from another string or wire producing a note an
octave above the other or others,) without giving to the string or wire pro-
ducing the octave note a degree of tension much, if at all, greater than that
given to the other string or wire, or strings or wires, and at the same time to
keep the octave string on the same level and at the same distance from the
sounding-board as the other strings, so as to enable them all to be struck at
the same instant and by the same hammer without making any addition to
or alteration in the construction of the hammers by which the strings or wires
are usually struck in pianofortes made on the common construction, or in the
mechanism or action by which the hammers used in pianofortes made on the
common construction are put in motion.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Kirkman, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixteen.
JOSEPH KIRKMAN. ~(L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twelfth day of December,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Joseph Kirkman 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 same Twelfth day of December, in the year above written.