IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SOUNDING BOARDS OF PIANOFORTES
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE SOUNDING BOARDS OF PIANOFORTES." A communication from abroad
by Albert Henry Wood, of the City, County, and State of New York, United
States of America, Musician.
Sealed the 30th May 1879, and dated the 8th April 1879.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th April 1879.
"
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SOUNDING BOARDS OF PIANOFORTES.
A communication from abroad by Albert Henry Wood, of the City, County, and
State of New York, United States of America, Musician.
The object of this Invention is to furnish a sounding board for upright and other
pianos which shall be so constructed that there shall be no waste or escape of
vibrations, the said vibrations being controlled, and utilised, and reutilised until they
cease from natural laws. The Invention consists in a sounding board having a strip
of wood or other vibration-conducting material abutting against and attached to its
edge all around, and surrounded with a strip of rubber or other nonconductor of
vibrations, and in a sounding board, having a strip of wood or other vibration-
conducting material abutting against and attached to its edge all around, surrounded
with a strip of rubber or other nonconductor of vibrations, and having its bridge or
bridges extended at both ends to overlap the vibration conducting rim as hereinafter
fully described.
In the accompanying Drawings Figure 1 is a plan view of the improved sounding
board, and Figure 2 is a section of the same taken through the line x, x, Figure 1.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two Figures.
A represents the body of the sounding board, to the edge of which all around are
secured strips B of wood or other vibration-conducting material of the same thick-
ness as the said board A. With this construction the vibrations of the sounding
board A will be conducted entirely around the said board by the rim B re-enforcing
the spent vibrations, and charging the grains of the wood that have not been set
into vibratory motion with active force and vibratory motion. The rim B is
entirely surrounded with a strip C of india rubber or other suitable nonconductor
of vibrations, to keep the vibrations within the sounding board, until they coase by

page_text: their own exhaustion, thus prolonging the sound, and in connection with the rim B,
imparting a greater equality of duration of sound to each tone, and increasing the
power, continuity, compactness, and singing quality throughout the entire register
or scale to an extent hitherto unattained. This construction also prevent the sounding
board A from splitting, the india rubber strips C yielding as the wood expands,
and following up the shrinkage or contraction so as to preserve the tension of the
sounding board intact. D represents one of the bridges which are so extended at
both ends as to overlap the rim B, and thus help to distribute the vibrations to all
parts of the sounding board, and assist materially in increasing the duration and
volume of sound, and the equality, sympathetic compactness, and singing quality of
tone.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of performing the
same, I declare that what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent
is,—
1st. A sounding board A having a strip B of wood or other vibration-conducting
material abutting against and attached to its edge, all around and surrounded with
a strip C of india rubber or other nonconductor of vibrations, substantially as herein
shown and described.
2nd. A sounding board A having a strip B of wood or other vibration conducting
material abutting against and attached to its edge all around, surrounded with a
strip C of india rubber or other nonconductor of vibrations, and having its bridge
or bridges D extended at both ends to overlap the vibration conducting rim B,
substantially as herein shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.