IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANO-FORTES
Year: 1885

page_text: دو
I ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the county of Middlesex,
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PIANO-FORTES (a communication from Frederic Anton Rudolph Gunther of
Toronto, in the dominion of Canada, Musician) and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of the invention is to secure in an upright piano the full tone of the
concert grand-piano; and it consists essentially, in so arranging the strings forming
the scale that those strings constituting the lower bass shall be long and bring into
action the largest possible proportion of the sounding board while the higher bass
and middle and treble strings are arranged so as to bring no more sounding board
into action than is absolutely necessary to produce the required tone.
The drawing represents this improved scale, only sufficient number of the strings
being shewn to indicate the particular position of each set of strings forming the
scale.
In the drawing the strings running between A, and B constitute the lower bass.
These strings are held by tuning-pins in the ordinary way, and rest upon a
bridge, C, supported by the sounding board-This bridge C, is sufficiently deep to
support the strings of the lower bass high enough to permit the higher-bass strings
and middle-note strings to pass below them and vibrate freely without contact.
The higher-bass strings extend from E, to F and pass over a bridge G resting on
the sounding board D sufficiently deep to support the strings, E, F high enough to
permit the strings of the middle-notes to pass below them, and yet not sufficiently
bigh to come in contact with the strings of the lower bass, space being left between
the three sets of strings to allow the free independent vibration of each set. The
middle-note and treble-note strings extend from H to I. These strings pass below
the lower bass and higher bass strings and are secured in the ordinary way, but
rest upon a bridge J which rests upon and is supported by the sounding board D.
Pain A1

page_text: In upright pianos as now constructed the lower-bass strings extend substantially
in the same direction as shewn in the drawing, but the higher-bass and middle-
note strings all extend in the same direction, which is substantially the same as
that of the strings marked H. I.
If the strings of the higher-bass were made as long as those shown in the
drawing when set at the angle that they are now usually set,-that is to say,
substantially parallel with the middle-note-then there would be too much
sounding-board brought into action for the satisfactory and harmonious action of
the middle and treble notes, and the quality of the tone would be entirely different
from that produced by the arrangement of this improved scale-By arranging the
strings forming the lower-bass so that they extend from the extreme angles, as it
were, of the iron frame, the largest possible surface of the soundingboard is brought
into action, thus obtaining the desired full tone of the bass notes; and further, by
extending the higher-bass and tenor strings in the direction indicated all the
sounding-board that is required is obtained; and also, by arranging the middle
note and treble strings in the direction indicated as long strings as desirable are
obtained and as much sounding board can be brought into action as required, and
at the same time a large portion of the sounding-board indicated by the letters
a b and c, can be damped off or dispensed with which would utterly destroy the
effect of the scale were it permitted to remain, and which portion of the sounding.
board it would not be able to dispense with were it not from the fact that the scale
is arranged in the manner indicated.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is
A piano-forte scale having lower-bass strings A, B, higher-bass and tenor
strings E, F, and middle-note and treble strings H I arranged substantially as
described, in connection with a sounding-board, D, damped or cut off at, a, b,
and c.
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100K