ENTIRE NEW IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CALLED THE HARPSICHORD, GRAND PIANOFORTE, AND SQUARE PIANO- POZTE, OF A NEW AND PECULIAR CONSTRUCTION, BY WHICH THE SAME INSTRUMENTS BECOME MORE PERFECT AND DURABLE INSTRUMENTS OF THEIR KIND, AND WHICH ENTIRELY REMEDIES THE GREAT DEFECTS OF THE VIBRATING BODY OF THE SAID INSTRUMENTS, CALLED THE BELLY OR SOUND BOARD, HERETOFORE USUALLY NADE; AND ALSO AN ENTIRE NEW MOVEMENT CONDUCTED AGAINST THE VIBRATING SUBSTANCE OF SUCH INSTRUMENTS, WHICH, BY MEANS OF HAMMERS ACTING BY FEET OR KNEE PEDALS, WILL FORM A GRAND ACCOMPANIMENT, PRODUCING A PLEASING AND POWERFUL VIBRATION AND SWELL THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1797

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ROLFE and SAMUEL DAVIS, of Cheapside, in the City of London, Musical
Instrument Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Thirty...
first day of January, in the thirty-seventh year of His reign, did give and grant
unto us, the said William Rolfe and Samuel Davis, our exors, aduiors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we,
the said William Rolfe and Samuel Davis, our cxors, adñiors, and assigns, and
every of them, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Great
Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, our Invention of " ENTIRE NEW IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS CALLED THE HARPSICHORD, GRAND PIANOFORTE, AND SQUARE PIANO-
POZTE, OF A NEW AND PECULIAR CONSTRUCTION, BY WHICH THE SAME INSTRUMENTS
BECOME MORE PERFECT AND DURABLE INSTRUMENTS OF THEIR KIND, AND WHICH
ENTIRELY REMEDIES THE GREAT DEFECTS OF THE VIBRATING BODY OF THE SAID
INSTRUMENTS, CALLED THE BELLY OR SOUND BOARD, HERETOFORE USUALLY NADE; AND
ALSO AN ENTIRE NEW MOVEMENT CONDUCTED AGAINST THE VIBRATING SUBSTANCE OF
SUCH INSTRUMENTS, WHICH, BY MEANS OF HAMMERS ACTING BY FEET OR KNEE
PEDALS, WILL FORM A GRAND ACCOMPANIMENT, PRODUCING A PLEASING AND POWERFUL
VIBRATION AND SWELL THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE INSTRUMENTS;" to have, hold,

page_text: exercise, and enjoy the same, unto us, the said William Rolfe and Samuel
Davis, our cxors, adiiors, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end
and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, and
fully to be compleat and ended; in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso, obliging us, the said William Rolfe and Samuel Davis, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
one calendar mouth next after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and
by the said recited Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Rolfe and Samuel Davis, in
compliance with the said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and set forth in the several descriptions and plans thereof hereunder
written and drawn, and hereafter set forth (that is to say) :—
The principle of this Invention consists in the substituting a vibrating
substance in the body of the instruments in lieu of the sounding board
hitherto made of wood; such vibrating substance may consist of one or other
of the following materials:-Of the skin or skins of an animal or animals.
dressed or manufactured after the manner of vellum or parchment; or of
silk, wool, hemp, flax, cotton, thread, or such kind of substance, woven and
manufactured; or of paper pasted together or manufactured in the manner of
pasteboard; and such substances may either be varnished, oiled, papered, or
otherwise manufactured so as to render the same strong and durable, and to
qualify them for the purpose. To this vibrating substance is applied an
accompaniment formed by means of pedals and hammers which net underneath,
and which produces the pleasing and powerful vibration and swell throughout
the whole instruments. The manner of executing this Invention is described
in the Figures and Plans hereunder drawn and described, in which Fig. 1.
A, A, A, A, is a view or plan of a grand pianoforte or harpsichord case.
Fig. 2, B, B, B, 13, is a frame made of wood, metal, or other materials, and made
suitable or to fit into such grand pianoforte or harpsichord case at C, C, C, C;
on or to the frame is affixed the vibrating substance, consisting of such
materials as herein-before are mentioned, and which being affixed on or to the
aforesaid frame with glue and tacks, or other means, forms the vibrating body
of the said instruments marked D, which is substituted in the place or stead of
that part of the said instruments heretofore generally called the belly or sound
board, on which vibrating bedy is affixed the bridge or bridges marked E. E,

page_text: on which the wires or strings rest, which frame aforesaid being moveable at each
of the corners marked F, F, F, by means of a mortice and tenon is extended or.
enlarged, so as to strain or make tight the vibrating body by means of screws
marked 9, 9, 9. 9, I, I, I, I, I, with nuts, which pass through the back of the
aforesaid case marked G, in Fig. 1, and the belly cross piece marked H, in
Fig. 1, likewise through the corresponding parts of the said frame marked G, II,
in Fig. 2, the other parts of the said frame marked I, I, I, being glued or
fastened on ledges or linings usually placed in the aforesaid instruments for
the belly or sound board to be affixed on. The frame (if needfull) may have
screws with nuts pass through the parts thereof fastened on the ledges or
linings, and the frame may be altered in its form or shape, so as to be most
suitable to the aforesaid instruments, and may be extended or enlarged by
other means, so as to render the vibrating body tight to sustain the weight of
the strings and produce the sound or tone required.
The frame, with the substance consisting of any of the materials before
mentioned, and which forms the vibrating body (according to the shape or
form the nature of such instruments require) is to be or may be applied to all
descriptions or denominations of pianofortes or harpsichords. The substanco
that forms the vibrating body may be used for that purpose in the aforesaid
instruments without the use of the aforesaid frames, the same being glued or
fastened on the ledges or linings as the sound board or belly heretofore made of.
wood hath been done, and may be manufactured in any manner that will render
the same less liable to variation from change of weather, and other natural
causes. Fig. 3, K, K, K, K, is a view or plan of a square pianoforte case.
Fig. 4, L L, L, L, is a frame made of wood or metal or other materials, which
is made suitable or to fit in the square pianoforte case at M, M, M, M,
on or to which frame is affixed the substance which forms the vibrating body, on
which vibrating body is affixed the bridge marked m, on which the wires or
strings rest. The frame is to be extended or enlarged, so as to strain or make
tight the vibrating body for the purposes before mentioned, by means of screws
marked n, n, n, n, n, with nuts, through the back of the case marked N, in
Fig. 3, and the rest block marked O, in Fig. 3, likewise through the corres-
ponding parts of the frame marked N, O, in Fig. 4; the other parts of the said
frame, marked P, Q, being glued or fastened on the ledges or linings; and the
frame, in order that it may have liberty to be enlarged or extended, is moveable
by means of a mortice and tenon at either or all of the corners thereof; and it
may be enlarged by other means, and may be made to any form or shape as
may be most suitable to the said instruments. Fig. 5, R is a hammer acting on
a center where one or more may be applied, which is conducted against the

page_text: vibrating body of the grand pianoforte or harpsichord by menus of a pedal or
pedals which is or are affixed to the fiame in any part most convenient on
which the said instruments rest, the hammer or hammers being placed in any
part of the aforeaid instruments as may be most convenient; which hammer
or hammers is to be or may be applied to all the aforesaid instruments to which
the vibrating body before specified is applied, and which hammer or hammers is
to be or may be conducted against another vibrating body composed as is before
mentioned, and strained and made tight as aforesaid, so as to form a drum cc-
companiment made either in form or shape like Fig. 2, or other form or
shape most convenient, letached from the former, and tho said detached
vibrating body may be affixed either between the aforesaid vibrating body
and the bottom of the said instruments, or in any other part thereof as
may be most suitable, within the limits of the aforesaid grand pianoforte or
harpsichord cases, or on or to the bottom thereof. S is a beam which acts on
a center or balance at T, which beam being pulled at V, by means of a wire or
cord aflixed to the pedal, raises the lever W, which conducts the hammer against
the vibrating body. Fig. 6. X is a hammer with pedal, beam, leaver, &c., like
the former, which is applied to the square pianoforte in manner as specified of
the former bammer or hammers, and may also be conducted against another
vibrating body, composed as is before mentioned, detached and aflixed in manner
as aforesaid.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Rolfe and Samuel Davis, havo
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-seventh day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-sevon.
WILLIAM KOLI. (L.S.)
SAMUEL DAVIS. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1797, the aforesaid William Rolfe. and Samuel Davis
came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven.