Improvements in Stringed Instruments such as Violins, Banjos, and the like.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Feb., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 30th Apr., 1889
Complete Specification Accepted, 8th June, 1839
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Stringed Instruments such as Violins, Banjos, and
the like.
I, ISAAC LEVY XIMENES of No. 172 Hampstead Road in the County of
Middlesex, usually known as Giovanni Luigi, Professor of Music, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:
My invention relates to means of holding, keeping apart and tuning the strings
of instruments such as violins, banjos and the like, in such a manner as to render
these operations easy and certain.
I attach the end of each string by forming a loop and engaging this loop on a
curled hook fixed at the one end of the instrument, so that it can be readily engaged
or disengaged. I pass each string through a hole in the bridge instead of introducing
into a notch in the usual way. The strings being thus kept in separate holes of the
bridge cannot be displaced when they are forcibly pulled upwards. I make each of
the tuning pegs with a hook stud projecting from it laterally. The string, instead
of having to be passed through a hole of the tuning peg, as is usual, has merely to
be bent to form a bight which can be readily and rapidly engaged on the hooked
stud and then by turning the peg the string is drawn up for tuning.
1000
ABEL & IMRAY.
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in Stringed Instruments such as Violins, Banjos, and
the like.
1, ISAAC LEVY XIMENES of No. 172 Hampstead Road in the County of Middlesex
usually known as Giovanni Luigi, Professor of Music, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to means of holding, keeping apart and tuning the strings
of instruments such as violins, banjos and the like, in such a manner as to render
these operations easy and certain.
be
I attach the end of each string by forming a loop and engaging this loop
on a curled hook fixed at the one ond of the instrument, so that it can
readily engaged or disengaged. I pass each string through a hole in the bridge
instead of introducing it into a notch in the usual way. The strings being thus
kept in separate holes of the bridge cannot be displaced when they are forcibly
pulled upwards.
I make each of the tuning pegs with a hook stud projecting from it laterally.
The string, instead of having to be passed through a hole of the tuning peg, as is
usual, has merely to be bent to form a bight which can be readily and rapidly
engaged on the hooked stud and then by turning the peg the string is drawn up for
tuning.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a side view of a banjo arranged according
to my invention. Figs. 2, 3 and 4 shew parts to an enlarged scale that is to say
Fig. 2 is a plan of the holder A for the ends of the strings, Fig. 3 is an elevation
of the bridge B and Fig. 4 is a plan of one of the tuning pegs C. Each string S has
a loop knotted on its end which is engaged on one of a set of books a projecting
from the holder A attached to the base of the instrument. The bridge B, being made
with holes instead of the usual notches, the strings which are passed through these
holes cannot be displaced when they are pulled aside as they often are by the
performer. Each tuning peg C has a hook c fixed to it by passing the shank of the
hook through a transverse hole of the peg and securing it by a nut. The string S
is attached to the peg by forming a bight or loop of the string and engaging it on
the hook c the loose ends of the string (of which there may be a considerable
coil S¹) being passed under the main string S so that on turning the peg in the
direction of the arrow the part of S which overlies s presses it firmly to the peg
preventing its slipping.
I have shewn applied to the fret board G an instrument D for facilitating tuning;
this instrument, however forms no part of the present invention, being described in
iny Provisional Specification No. 4038 of 1889.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what i
claim in respect of stringed instruments, such as violins, banjos and the like is :—
1. Securing the ends of the strings by knotted loops to hooks projecting from a
holder fixed to the base of the instrument, substantially as described.
2. The bridge made with holes, instead of notches, through which the strings are
passed, as and for the purpose set forth.
3. Securing a string to a tuning peg by engaging a bight or loop of the string on
a hook projecting laterally from the peg, substantially as described.
Dated this 30th day of April 1889.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.