AN IMPROVEMENT IN PIANO FORTES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Anderson Rüst, of Regent Street, in
the County of Middlesex, Piano Forte Manufacturer, for the
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Anderson
Rüst at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 6th July 1853.
I, ROBERT ANDERSON RÜST, of Regent Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Piano Forte Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PIANO FORTES" to be as
follows:-
In the belly or sounding board I make perforations through which
I insert tubes, bent at their lower extremity, through hollow bars to fit
into the same. I extend these tubes upwards through or into the rest
plank, and terminate them in sound holes or apertures at the top of the
instrument. The effect of these tubes will be to add great vibration
and depth of tone to the piano forte. I provide dampers to the sound
holes in order to shut off and regulate the sound.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Anderson Rüst in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 6th January 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ROBERT ANDERSON RÜST, of Regent Street, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Piano Forte Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seventeenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Anderson Rüst, Her special licence
that I, the said Robert Anderson Rüst, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Anderson Rüst, 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
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN PIANO FORTES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Anderson Rüst, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and scal, 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 within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Anderson Rüst, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:
.
My Invention consists in making perforations in the belly or sound-
ing board through which I insert tubes of metal, bent at their lower
ends, and brought forward through hollow bars to the front of the
sounding board. I extend these tubes upward through or into the rest

page_text: plank, and terminate them in sound holes or apertures at the top of
the instrument. The effect of these tubes will be to add great
vibration, depth, and brilliancy of tone to the piano forte. I provide
dampers to the sound holes in order to shut off and regulate the
sound.
Figure 1, of the Drawings hereunto annexed represents a view of a
sounding board fitted with my improvement; Figure 2, is a section
of the same; and Figures 3, and 4, separate views of the tubes.
A, A, is the sounding board, and a, a, the wires. B, B, are the tubes,
the lower or bent ends of which are passed through the holes b, b, in
front of the sounding board. These tubes are carried up through the
rest plank C, and open into the holes c, c, which may be covered with
dampers, if required, to regulate the sound. In some cases, instead of
bending the lower end of the tubes, I insert straight taper tubes in the
hollow bars at the back of the sounding board, communicating with
the holes c, c, in the rest plank, and carried down to a point immie-
diately above the front sound holes. I also form, when desired, apertures
in the bend of the tubes, as shewn at d, Figure 4, when such tubes are
inserted in the hollow bars, whereby the sound is also communicated
to the bars, and thereby increased.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
The several methods of inserting tubes through perforations in
the belly or sounding boards of piano fortes in the manner and for the
purpose herein-before described and represented in the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Anderson Rüst, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of January,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
R. ANDERSON RÜST. (L.S.)