IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOS AND HARPS
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HAWLEY, of Frith Street, Soho Square, in the County of Middlesex, Watch-
maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS, in consequence of a communication from a certain foreigner
residing abroad, I am in possession of an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOS
AND HARPS;" and whereas Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,
by Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the First day of June, in the third year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Hawley, Her especial license that I, the said John Hawley, my exors,
adors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Hawley, my
exors, adiñors, 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, the said Invention;
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
John Hawley, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said in part recited 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 said proviso, I, the said
John Hawley, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to consist

page_text: in the application to pianos and harps of strings made of tempered steel,
which give to the said piano or harp a very strong and harmonious tone, and
which being once fixed to the instrument and tuned, will not again require
tuning for several years, and will not break so easily as the strings now in use.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said John Hawley, do
hereby declare the manner in which the said Invention is to be performed,
by the following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
I make the said strings of different lengths and sizes out of steel wire, which,
when made red hot, I dip into a composition of tallow, beef suet, beeswax,
olive oil, powdered staghorn, and mercury, in the proportions herein-after
described, and afterwards allow to cool. Such strings being so tempered, I
submit then to a second heating, and untemper them sufficiently to enable
them to be made straight, and give them the colour I require; and by the
degree of heat which I use I make them of different colors, but such colors do
not at all affect their tone or quality. The major part of such steel strings I
make of the ordinary cylindrical form only, and the same diameter from one
end to the other of such strings; but I make the strings for the bass or deeper
toned notes much thicker in the central parts than at the ends, and in forms
either cylindrical, conical, or angular, and I so arrange them on the piano as
that the hammer shall strike on the thickest part, whether conical, cylindrical,
or angular. I make such strings conical, cylindrical, or angular, by means of a
wire drawing iron with an adjusting screw, which enables me, by compression
or expansion, to draw the metal of greater or less diameter during the progress
of the drawing process as I may require; for I use a file to bring such strings
to the form and dimensions I require. For the purpose of fixing such steel
strings on the screws or pins of pianos or harps, I totally untemper the ends
by means of heat, so that they will bind round such screws and pins without
breaking. The proportion of the composition into which I dip the heated
steel in order to temper it as aforesaid, is as follows:-Five pounds of tallow,
six pounds of beef suet, one pound of beeswax, five pounds of olive oil,
quarter of a pound of powdered staghorn, and thirty grains of mercury, all
which I mix well together.
Now whereas I claim as the said Invention, the application of such strings
as aforesaid, so tempered as aforesaid, to pianos and harps; and such said
Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief entirely new, and
never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion of Wales or
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification
of the same, and that I do hereby verily believe this my said Specification

page_text: doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise, with the
proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained;
wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to the
said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hawley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and forty
Inrolled the First day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.