CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HARPS AND PIANO-FORTES, BOTH LARGE AND SMALL, AND WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO ALL KINDS OF INSTRUMENTS WHERE KEYS ARE USED
Year: 1794

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SEBASTIAN
ERARD, of Great Marlborough Street, in the Parish of Saint James, in the
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 Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of October, in the thirty-fourth year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said Sebastian Erard, His especial licence,
that I, the said Sebastian Erard, during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HARPS AND PIANO-FORTES, BOTH LARGE AND SMALL, AND
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO ALL KINDS OF INSTRUMENTS WHERE
KEYS ARE USED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Sebastian Erard, by an instrument in writing 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 one calendar month after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation
being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Sebastian Erard, do hereby declare that my said Invention of certain im-
provements in the construction of harps and piano-fortes, both large and small,
and which improvements may also be applied to all kinds of instruments

page_text: where keys are used, is described in the several plans hereunto annexed, and
the description thereof as follows, that is to say:-
The parts coloured in red in the annexed Plates point out the alterations
and improvements invented by me,. and for which I have obtained His
Majesty's Royal Letters Patent.
Plate 1st, Piano-fortes. Figure 1, the damper; 2, the center or pivot for
the damper; 3, the damper rail; 4, the hammer; 5, the center for the
hammer; 6, the screw for regulating the hammer; 7, a piece which being
put in motion makes the hammer strike one, two, or three strings; 8, a plate
of copper which receives the copper fork (Fig. 9) with a steal pivot (Fig. 10)
which supports the springs (Fig. 11) joined to the bottom plate 8, as it is
seen in the profil; 12,,12, screws for regulating at pleasure the motion and
elasticity of the hammer and damper by making them more or less tight;
13, 14, represent two different ways for the fall of the hammer, which may be
joined at pleasure to its extremity 15. This piece.of mechanism is intended
to produco harmonic sounds. No. 1 is a spring, to which is joined a piece of
copper, furnished with a bit of cloth of any kinil, which by pressing on the
middle of the string produces, the octavo of, an harmonic sound; No. 2, a
screw which regulates exactly the degree of pression necessary to produce
those sounds; No. 3, a.copper frame, to which are fastened the screw and the
spring for putting it in motion at pleasure by means of ono of the pieces
No. 3 or 4 by a pedal for the foot or knee;,5, the spring for putting it in
motion. The whole of this mechanism may be applied in the same: manner
to tho small piano-forto by placing the screw which regulates the hammer in
a board to be laid in the room of tho rest plank, as in (Fig. 16). 17, a piece
to remove the damper from the strings.
Plate 2, Harps. Fig. 11 are two plates of copper fixed to the sides of, the
arm between which the mechanism which forms, tho som-itones is placed;
2. the forks on tho, notes, in their natural position,, the motion of which
forks is shown by the points, and marked 3 (Fig. B); Fig. 4 shows the
means by which the mechanism communicates with, the pedal; Fig. 5, the
mechanism of tho note C, represented so as to shew how the semi-tone is
formed when the pedal is used; Fig. 6, plates on which the supporters or
stops are fixed, and which may be raised or lowered by means of a scrow
marked (Fig. 7); Fig. 8 is a screw for fixing the semi-tones, when once
regulated; Fig. 9, a screw joined to the fork 2 to tighten at pleasure the
string in the part where the semi-tones are formed, a screw might be applied
in the same manner to the. supporter or stop A, but it becomes useless,
because the fork may be made more or less tight on the place where it is

page_text: screwed (No. 10) on its pivot, which connects it with the interior work.
represented by Fig. B; Fig. 11,- the squares to which the. pivot is joined,
(see Fig. 12); 18, the spring; 14, the machine for raising the spring-at
pleasure; 15, a plate with two screws to fasten the pivot to which the
mechanism is joined. The other notes G, A, B, C, D, E, are pointed out in
the pivot F, where the part of the work destined for them is to be placed
in the same manner as in Fig. B, the only difference is in the proportion
marked by the place of each string. The semi-tones may be regulated where
the fork is fixed, by placing a plate similar to that which carries the sup-
porters, and rendering moveable that which forms the semi-tones by means of
a screw to fasten the fork, or in rendering the piece where the pivot is placed
moveable. But these two means do not appear solid. The whole-mechanism
is placed under the arm of the harp, and shut up by a thin plate of copper,
No. 16.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sebastian Erard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven-hundred and ninety-four.
SEBASTIAN ERARD. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same "Seventeenth day of
November, in the year above written, the aforesaid Sebastian Erard came.
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided..
Inrolled the same Seventeenth day of November, in the year above
. Written.