IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Prangley, of Salisbury, Professor of Music,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES."
Sealed the 30th July 1861, and dated the 2nd February 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Prangley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd February 1861.
I, WILLIAM PRANGLEY, of Salisbury, Professor of Music, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in pianofortes. In the
construction of upright pianofortes it has been proposed to mount the fly or
hopper which acts on the hammer butt on a block attached to the further end
of the key lever, this construction however is frequently inconvenient in prac-
tice, as it is difficult to bring the upper end of the fly or hopper bigh enough
in the instrument to act on the hammer butt if the hammer is placed in
the position it is desirable it should occupy, as were the block which carries
the fly or hopper made sufficiently deep for the purpose it would throw the
key lever out of balance. To obviate this inconvenience when employing
such actions, in place of making the key lever straight as is usual, I make a
rise or step in it at a point before it reaches its centre pin. This rise or step,
up

page_text: by raising the further end of the key lever, diminishes the height of the block
or blocks which are there necessary to elevate the fly or hopper, and the
increase of weight necessarily given by the rise or step on one side of the
centre pin tends to balance the block or blocks on the other side thereof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Prangley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PRANGLEY, of Salisbury, Professor of Music, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Prangley, Her special licence that I, the said William
Prangley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said William Prangley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said William Prangley, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Prangley, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
he performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in pianofortes. In the
construction of upright pianofortes it has been proposed to mount the fly or
hopper which acts on the hammer butt on a block attached to the further end
of the key lever. This construction however is frequently inconvenient in
practice, as when the strings are made as long as is required to produce an

page_text: Action," thus by my Invention I am enabled in upright pianofortes of
considerable power and length of string to connect the fly or hopper which
acts on the hammer butt directly with the key lever, and to avoid the use of a
sticker, and this without interfering with the position of the hammer, which is
still kept at such a height as to strike the string at the point where the best
effect may be produced, whereas heretofore this result has been attained only
in instruments of small power with comparatively short strings.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Prangley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
W". PRANGLEY. (LB.)