IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF STRINGS TO BE USED FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Baillie Hamilton, of University College,
Oxford, Esquire, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF STRINGS TO BE USED FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS."
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Baillie Hamilton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 6th May 1874.
I, JAMES BAILLIE HAMILTON, of University College, Oxford, Esquire,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STRINGS TO BE USED FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS," to be
as follows:-
My Invention relates to a new form of string to be used in percussion.
stringed instruments such as the pianoforte.
The form of the string is an open coil. The substance of the coil is of
metal wire. This wire may be either round or flattened to any degree
necessary to withstand the tension put upon it when formed into an,
:

page_text: open coiled string. The wire thus prepared is coiled upon a core or man-
dril, which when withdrawn will leave a string similar to the "loaded"
string of a pianoforte, only without a core. The string so formed may
be stretched upon a sounding board, and any of the usual modes of
percussion may be employed.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said James Baillie
Hamilton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th November
1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BAILLIE HAMILTON, of University College, Oxford, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Baillie Hamilton, Her special licence
that I, the said James Baillie Hamilton, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Baillie Hamilton, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STRINGS TO BE USED FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Baillie Hamilton,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly 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 on or before the Seventeenth day of November One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Baillie Hamilton, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention and in what monnan th

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to a new form of string to be used in stringed
instruments.
The form of the string is an open coil. The substance is metal wire
flattened to any degree necessary to withstand the tension put upon it
when formed into an open coil and stretched. In practice I find that
when the cross section of the wire forming the coil departs from the
round or square, and approaches an oblong, elliptical, or other similar
shape it gives greater power of resisting tension than when the cross
section is of a circular, square, or other shape having equal diameters.
The wire is either drawn or pressed to the required shape. The wire
thus prepared is coiled upon a core or mandril, or by any other suitable
method, and when the core is withdrawn it will leave the wire in the
form of the "loaded" string of a pianoforte, only without the core.
This string is stretched upon the sounding board in the usual way, and
can be applied as well to percussion stringed instruments as to those in
which a free reed and string are used in combination.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be carried out, I claim, the employment of a
string in the form of an open coil, as above described, for musical
instruments.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Baillic Hamilton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of November One
thousand cight hundred and seventy-four.
JAMES BAILLIE HAMILTON. (L.S.)