AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUND-BOARDS OF PIANOFORTES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Malcolm Stodart, of 1, Golden Square, in the County
of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF THE SOUND-BOARDS OF PIANOFORTES."
Sealed the 30th April 1858, and dated the 30th October 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Malcolm Stodart at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
·October 1857.
I, MALCOLM STODART, of 1, Golden Square, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUND-BOARDS OF PIANOFORTES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement.in the construction of the
sound-boards of pianofortes. For which purpose, in place of making the
sound-board, of a pianoforte of the same thickness on each side of the bridge,
the sound-board, according to my Invention, is reduced in substance from the.
bridge outwards towards each edge of the sound-board where it is fixed. It
is preferred that the reduction on each side of the bridge should follow a
convex curve, so that the sound-board on that side where the bridge is fixed;
may be a convex curve; but this is not essential so long as the substance of
the sound-board between the bridge and the outer edges of the .sound-board,
and on each side of the bridge, be reduced in thickness.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Malcolm Stodart in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MALCOLM
STODART, of 1, Golden Square, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and, successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Malcolm Stodart, Her special licence, that I, the said Malcolm Stodart, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Malcolm
Stodart, 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 niake? 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 THE CON-
STRUCTION OF THE SOUND-BOARDS OF PIANOFORTES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Malcolm Stodart, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what, manner, the
same was to be performed, and cause the
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
same to
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Malcolm Stodart, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state
ment thereof, that is to say: 3
of the
This 'Invention' has for its object an improvement in the construction
sound-boards of pianofortes For which purpose, in place of making the
sound-board of a pianoforte of the same thickness on each side of the bridge,
the sound-board, according to my Invention, is reduced in substance from the
bridge outwards towards each edge of the sound board where it is fixed. "It
is preferred that the reduction on each side of the bridge should follow a
convex curve; but this is not essential, so long as the substance of the sound
board between the bridge and the outer edges of the sound-board, and on each
side of the bridge, be reduced in thickness. 6.
e ono zo b
And, in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood, and

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal and vertical section of the sound-board of a
pianoforte, and of some of the parts connected therewith, taken near the treble
end of the instrument, and showing the form of which the sound-board is now
ordinarily constructed; and Figure 2 is a similar view, showing the form of a
sound-board constructed according to my Invention. As the Drawing shows,
it is thickest immediately under the bridge, and is continuously reduced in
substance from the bridge outwards towards each edge of the sound-board,
where it is fixed.
The thickness of the sound-board immediately under the bridge is the same
from end to end, as is also the reduced thickness at the edges; consequently the
curved surface of the sound-board becomes much flatter at the base end than
at the treble end of the instrument. These curves I make as nearly parabolic
as possible by using suitable templates or guages while fashioning the sound-
board, and the templates are so formed that in the finished sound-board the
thickness of the board at the bridge and the thickness at the end where the
board takes its bearing shall in every section of the sound-board taken parallel
to the section shown in the Drawing be semi-ordinates of the parabolic curve.
The sound-board is supported at the back in the ordinary manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said Malcolm Stodart, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
MALCOLM STODART. (L.S.)
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.