CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS UPON AN UPRIGHT PIANOFORTE
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FREDERICK COLLARD, of Tottenham Court Road, in the Parish of Saint Pancras,
and County of Middlesex, Musical Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of September,
in the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William
Frederick Collard, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the said William Frederick Col-
lard, my exors, adñors, and assigns, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS UPON AN UPRIGHT PIANOFORTE;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso that if I, the said William Frederick Collard, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, deter-
mine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Frederick Collard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said In-
vention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described by the Drawing and references thereto hereunto annexed, and the
following description thereof, that is to say :—
The general form of the instrument to which my improvements appertain
is that of a square pianoforte turned upwards on its side. I make the length
of the case about five feet, and the height above the legs about two feet
six inches; the depth from back to front of the upper part, whereon the
sounding board and strings are fixed, I make about eight inches, and the depth
from back to front of the lower part, whereon the keys rest, I make about
eighteen inches; the rest-pin block or piece of wood in which all the tuning
pins are placed, except about twelve of the lower or bass notes, the tuning pins
of which I place in the left-hand extremity of the block usually called the
hitch-pin block, herein-after more particularly described, I place against the
right-hand extremity of the case. The hitch-pin block, No. 6 in annexed
Drawing, which is about six inches wide, is carried directly across from
the right hand to the left extremity of the case, above two inches and three-
quarters above the bottom whereon the keys rest, which distance of about two
inches and is left for the keys to pass through to the back of the case, see
No. 13 in annexed Drawing; the form of this hitch-pin block, which I claim
as my Invention, is described in the annexed Drawing, No. 6; and its
peculiarity is its receding in front just below where the strings are hitched, by
which means, as will be seen by the Drawing, I obtain the advantage of placing
the centre of the hammer very considerably within the perpendicular of the
string, in consequence of which the head of the hammer, when at the point of
contact with the string, not reaching the perpendicular of its centre, needs no
balance or spring to carry it back to its first position, and quits the string with
a rapidity that leaves its full and unimpeded vibration. Immediately above the
hitch-pin block I leave a narrow aperture, just wide enough to admit the heads
of the dampers, which are placed behind the string. The damper, which is
described, No. 4 in the annexed Drawing, is made as follows:-The head is
formed of wood and cloth, to which a small wire is fixed which passes through a
socket into a simple crank attached to the back part of the case, to which crank
a small stick is hinged, communicating through a socket to the extremity of the
key. On the whole of the internal space, that is, from the left-hand extremity
of the case to the rest-pin block, and from the upper extremity of the case to
the hitch-pin block, the narrow aperture for the dampers alone excepted, I
insert the sounding board, on which the bridge, whereon the strings rest, is so

page_text: placed that the longest or bass strings pass from the lower left-hand corner
to the upper right-hand corner of the case; the check, or that part of the
machinery by which the hammer is rested, after striking the string before it
reaches its original position for the purpose of sudden repetition, is described
in the annexed Drawing, No. 8, and is formed by placing in the centre
block of the hammer slender pieces of wood, secured in an angular shape,
and received on a piece of wood covered with leather, and fixed to the
key by a wire in the inverted position of the ordinary check of a horizontal
grand piano. The button, described in No. 10 in the annexed Drawing, which
regulates the distance for the lever to quit before the hammer strikes, is a thin
piece of wood with an angular head, acted upon by a screw passed through the
hammer rail or piece of wood to which the hammers are fixed, which hammer
rail is described in the annexed Drawing, No. 9; by this structure and position
of the mechanism, besides the advantage already described, as the whole of that
part of the machinery which is in front runs nearly parallel with the hitch-pin
block, the following improvements result, that is to say,) the whole of the
sounding board and strings are left unincumbered with machinery and free to
send forth the tone; and, notwithstanding the principal part of the machinery
is in front, no part of it need be removed for the purpose of putting on strings.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Frederick Collard, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the
day of November, in the year of