CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN THE GRAND PIANOFORTES
Year: 1827

page_text: BROA
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES SHUDI
BROADWOOD, of Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square, in the Parish of Saint
James, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Pianoforte Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Ninth day of April, in the eighth year of His reign, did, for Him-
self, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said James Shudi
Broadwood, His especial licence that I, the said James Shudi Broadwood,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James' Shudi
Broadwood, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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, and
also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of a "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN THE GRAND PIANOFORTES;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said James
Shudi Broadwood, by an instrument in writing under iny hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be

page_text: enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Shudi Broadwood, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained as follows (that is to say):-
The improvement consists in a new method of placing the hitch pins on the
upright and horizontal grand pianoforte, and on the cabinet and cottage piano,
by which the strings may be fixed at any distance from the bridge or bridges
on the sounding board of these instruments which may be thought most
proper to ensure a due tention on these bridges, to the improvement of the tones,
and from the consequent shortening of the strings, the now afterdraught or
length of string behind these bridges being hereby removed, the strings are con-
sequently comparatively less affected by the variations of the atmosphere. A
plate, technically string plate, of brass, copper, iron, tin, or any other metal, of
wood or any other material, of the width that may be required, which must
depend on the distance the bridge or bridges are placed from the bent side,
or by whatever name that side of the instrument beyond the bridge to which
the strings have hitherto been attached may be called, and should follow, the
direction given by the curve of the bridge or bridges on the sounding. board,,
over which this plate or string plate. hangs, and thereby, does not prevent its
necessary. vibration. Upon the, edge, of this string plate, at about the distance
of two inches from the bridge, I insert, and rivet the hitch, pins, to, which the,
strings are attached in the usual; manner. The string, plate is fixed to the
moulding, or bent side of the instrument by screws, nails,, or bolts. To the
three bars, or iron stretchers, which I have sometime, employed to, counteract
the pull of the strings, I have, added a fourth, and claim, as, my. Invention a
mode of fixing, this whereby the tendency of this long bar to give, way to the
pressure it sustains is resisted. This, is, accomplished by inserting a strong
screw through, the middle of this bar or stretcher,, which, going through an
aperture made in the sounding, board, is fixed into a cross brace, beneath the
sounding board. The mode of fixing this bar will be exemplified in the
accompanying Drawing.
In. witness whereof, I, the said James Shudi. Broadwood; have. hereunto
set my.hand. and seal, the Twenty-first day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand, eight hundred and twenty-seven.

page_text: JAMES SHUDI BROADWOOD. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1827, the aforesaid James Shudi Broadwood came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.