Improvements in Violins and similar Musical Instruments.
Year: 1885

page_text: Improvements in Violins and similar Musical Instruments.
I NICHOLAS EUGENIUS SIMOUTRE, lute-maker of Basle, Switzerland, do hereby
declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN VIOLINS & SIMILAR
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My present petition of Letters Patent for Importation in the United Kingdom
and the Island of Man, concerns a system of harmonical supports realized with
pieces of wood transversally pasted against the belly and the back of Violin or
other similar bow instruments, in order to concentrate, equalise and reinforce the
vibrations and therefore augment considerably the sonorousness of the instrument.
The application of those harmonical supports whose fibres may sit crosslegged
with those of the belly and of the back, contributes besides not little to the solidity
of the instrument and removes from the belly every degradation as often is caused
by the sound-post.
I proceed to describe the construction and action of the several parts of my
harmonical supports, and for that purpose will refer to the annexed Drawings.
Figure 1 shows the inside of a Violin's belly, furnished with an harmonical
support of my system interfurnished with an harmonical support of my system,
interposed between the belly and the sound-bar.
Figure 2 exhibits to view the interior face of a Violin's back supplied with an
harinonical support of my system, and Figure 3 is a transversal cutting of a Violin
mounted with a belly and a back bearing similar harmonical supports.
Figures 4, 5 and 6, represent, as also Figure 7, a transversal cutting of Violins
so that appear different variations in the application of my harmonical supports.
As every one sees in Figures 1 and 3, the harmonical support A of the belly B is
rasted at the belly, between the ff and under the bass-bar C, whilst the support D
(in Figures 2 and 3), pasted in the middle of the back E, bears two holes or
sockets a¹ a³. The fibres or grain of the wood of these supports A D are perpen-
dicular to the fibres of the belly and of the back.
The socket a of the inferior support D is in the middle, whilst the socket a¹ is
placed directly under the right foot of the bridge.
The sound-post F (in Figure 3) which unites both supports AD has the foot
rounded according to the form of the socket of support D. The foot of that sound-
post is placed, from exigency or effect to be produced, in the one or the other of
Pain Q.77

page_text: the sockets a a². When the foot of the sound-post is fixed in the socket a¹, the
sound-post occupies a vertical position and its head, straightly cut, buttresses itself
against the support A of the belly, as it happens in ordinary Violins without
harmonical support.
That disposition of the sound-post has been represented in the variations
indicated in Figures 4 and 5. When, in the contrary, the foot of the sound-post is
placed in the socket of the centre a², the sound-post takes the oblique position
shown in Figure 3, and props itself as before with the support of the belly under
the right foot of the bridge.
In the oblique disposition of the sound-post F in Figure 3, the superior support
may present ad libitum a little arrest b that serves as fulcrum to the head of the
scund-post. That arrest b is either a piece of wood laid under the support A of
the belly B as it has been indicated in Figure 3, or it be a notch performed upon
the inferior face of the support A. The sound-post being vertically placed, as in
Figures 4 and 5, that arrest becomes useless.
My supports A and D whose fibres are perpendicular to those of the belly B and
of the back E, accept very variable dimensions in length, breadth and thi kness;
they are shorter for the most vaulted instruments.
Their form also is subjected to many variations; they may for instance have
transversal sections so as they be flat on one side, whilst on the other they espouse
exactly the arched form of belly and back; 'tis what has been supposed in
Figures 1, 2 and 3 where the supports A and D become thinner from the middle
towards the edges.
The thickness of these harmonical supports may too be equal on their whole
extent as shows A in Figure 4; in which case I employ for their confection pieces
of wood bent upon the fire, according to the interior conformation of the belly and
of the back. The interior face of the supports, after this first operation of bending
them, is arched like that of belly and back, such as makes it clearly appear the
transversal cutting, for the support A of the belly B.
Of course I do not confine myself within those two dispositions of supports
whereas the transversal section of my supports can be of whatever kind, provided
their fibres cross with those of the wood of both the back and the belly.
There is to be gained a particularly clear sound by the increasing thickness of
the supports from the middle towards the extremities (See in A, Figure 5), the
thickness of the centre being about the half of the density which have the parties
that lay upon the sound-post F and the sound-bar C. The results are again
satisfactory when the supports are very thin in the centre and their thickness
gradually increases from the middle towards the extremities in a more considerable
proportion. Thus, a support, like the type represented by A of figure 5, which
has of thickness in the middle and 2m/m thickness at the extremities under
the sound-post and the bar, produces very good acoustical effects, as well as it
augments considerably the firmness of the instrument.
m
In the variation pointed out by Figure 6, the support of the back is entirely
suppressed, because that support is indispensable only when the back E has not a
sufficient thickness whereas its functions for acoustics are merely secondary.
Moreover the superior support A in Figure 6 may not pass under the bar F; in
which case the support A does not influence but the strings A and E (la and mi)
and not all strings together, as in the types shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5.
The supports which are represented in Figures 3, 4 and 5, could also place their
grain parallel with the grain of the belly and of the back, but the acoustical effect
of this last disposition cannot be prefered; except however instruments that have
either a remarkable thickness or too energetic vibrations; for by those means
I acquire a more velvet-toned expression of sound. That disposition of parallel
fibres increases but little the solidity of the back and of the belly; to gain more
solidity I make use of an oval sound-post F¹ in figure 7, with about the double in
breadth, place it vertically so as its fibres be crossing with the fibres of the support.
Figure 8 is a horizontal cutting of that sound-post F1 proveing the direction of its

page_text: grain. That oval sound post has thereabout of an equal breadth as of length the
foot of the bridge under or behind which it is to rest.
It is evident that my harmonical supports can equally be applied to Violins
whose belly and back are already doubled internally with pieces of wood which
have parallel grain with the grain of belly and back; there would then be three
superposed thicknesses of wood, Accurate application of my supports, even on a
lining thus producing a third thickness, if applied to instruments whose centres
have the maximum of the wished thickness, far from doing prejudicing effects,
facilitate the vibrations and augments the beauty of sound.
In short: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my
said Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that
what I claim as my Invention is
First. The application to string-instruments, of a system of supports made with
a piece of wood in whatever form, supports which are to be placed between the.
belly and the sound-bar, so as to lay their grain either in a perpendicular or in a
parallel manner with the grain of the belly,-be one support employed separately,
or in combination with another similar support applied to the back of the
instrument,
Second. The rounded conformation of the foot of the sound-post uniting the belly
and the back with a foot placed in a socket of the support set on the back, whilst
the head relies upon the support brought under the belly which is furnished or not
with an arrest in the case of an oblique disposition of the sound-post.
Third. The oval sound-post in the use of supports with parallel grain, sockets
being employed or not, and the fibres of the sound-post crossing with those of the
supports.