NEW-INVENTED IMPROVEMENTS ON HARPS
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
DIZI, of Crabtree, in the Parish of Fulham, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of November,
in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
Frederick Dizi, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence,
sole privilege, full power and authority, that I, the said Frederick Dizi, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, 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, my "NEW-INVENTED
IMPROVEMENTS ON HARPS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Frederick Dizi, under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto
had) will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I do hereby
declare that my improvements consist in producing from the same string three
semitones by means of machinery which acts inside of two or more plates,
between which the strings do pass, and in an index to denote the key in which
the harp is. The means by which I carry these improvements into effect

page_text: are fully detailed and explained by reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, and are described as follows (that is to say):-
When the instrument is properly strung and tuned without the pedals being
acted upon, all the strings are then in the flats; the naturals are produced
when the first pressure is applied to the pedals; and the sharps, when the pedals
are pressed completely down. The pedals act upon two ranges of studs, forks,
rings, stops, dividers, or other well-known contrivances, through the medium of
seven particular pieces, which I call levers, placed between the plates near the
pillar of the harp. These levers are so contrived, that at the first depres-
sion of the pedal the lever affects only the upper ranges of studs, forks, rings,
stops, dividers, or other contrivances, and at the second depression operates
upon the lower range without moving the upper, as the Drawings will clearly
shew. For the convenience of the arrangement, the levers and other parts of
the mechanism are placed on two or more plates, thro' which the arbors of the
cranks pass, and on which arbors are fixed the forks, rings, studs, or other
contrivance, for the purpose of producing flats, naturals, or sharps at pleasure.
These studs, forks, or other contrivance, I arrange in the usual manner in two
rows, one above the other, so that all the naturals are in the upper range, and
all the sharps in the lower range.
Fig. 1 shews the position of the cranks (6 and c), and also the lever (d),
when the pedal is out of gear or not acted upon. Fig. 2 shews the situation
of the lever when the first movement of the pedal is made, and also the
position of the crank (e), to the arbor of which the stud, fork, or other con-
trivance is attached in order to produce the natural. Fig. 3 shows the
situation in which the lever is when the pedal is wholly depressed, and has
moved the crank (h), to the arbor of which is fixed another stud, fork, or
contrivance intended to act upon the string and produce the sharp. Fig. 5
and 6 shew the manner of moving the crank (c) by the crank (f), which is
placed behind or underneath the lever (d). The crank (f) has a knob or
projection (1) on the upper side against which the lever presses when the
pedal receives its second depression, and causes it to carry round the
cranks (f) and (e), which produces the sharp. Fig. 7 shew the situation
which the lever (a), Fig. 1, will take when the pedal is first moved to
produce the natural. Fig. 8 shews the situation the lever (d) will take when
it receives the second movement in order to produce sharp. And for the sake
of readily discovering, without the aid of the ear, the key in which the harp is,
I fix on the arbors of an octave of the cranks near the middle of the harp, and
on the outer side of the front plate, fingers or indexes, on which are marked
the musical characters of the notes, and are made to appear in the circles, as

page_text: represented in the Drawing, or to disappear, according as the pedals are
moved; and by referring to the highest number shewn, it will plainly indicate
the key. For instance, in Fig. 4, M, the indexes of the strings F, C, and G, are
represented as moved in the circles, and therefore, by referring to the highest
number of the index, which in this case is found on the string G, which is the
third in the order of sharps, the harp will be seen to be in the key of A. And
I also fix on the arbors of another octave, Fig. 4, N, other fingers in a similar
manner, and mark on them the musical characters of band #, these are
intended to indicate the notes which are produced on the strings to which they
respectively belong.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the First
day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and eighteen.