AN IMPROVEMENT ON STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BUNDY, of Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Mathematical Instru-
ment Maker, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminthe Twenty-fourth day of April now
last past, did give and grant unto me the said William Bundy, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Bundy, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfuly might make, use, exercise, and vend, witliin
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
AN IMPROVEMENT ON STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Bundy,
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters.
otherwise the same utterly to cease, determine, and become void, 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
William Bundy, do hereby declare that my said Invention is fully described
in manner following, that is to say:

page_text: To produce the most powerful sound by the vibration of strings, it is neces-
sary the materials such strings are composed of should be of the greatest
specific gravity and elasticity, therefore, the strings for pianofortes, and all other
musical instruments which are required to be metallic, will be improved in
proportion to the quantity of those requisites applied to compose such strings;
the material which has been in general used for strings of the upper notes par-
ticularly being of the greatest elasticity combined with strength, only requires
an increase of specific gravity to improve them, which may be effected by
entwining or covering with a metal or composition of metals drawn into wire,
whose specific gravity is considerably more than that of the covered strings; for
this purpose gold will apply well, but I use platina (being of the greatest specific
gravity to increase the power of vibration. The application and mode of com-
bining or connecting with any other metal or material which may be used to form
a part of the string I claim as my Invention, and call such application a philo-
sophical improvement. In the use of this heavy metal platina, I find the purity
and power of tone is increased with the quantity used, and that the strength
of the string covered, whether brass, steel, iron, or any other metal or material,
must determine the quantity, for if too much platina be added the string will
not stand drawing up to its proper tension. The note F and F in the bass,
whose length may be 57 and 56 inches from guide pin to bridge pin, made of
brass wire, one foot of which weigh fifteen and one-half grains, will carry
twenty-four rounds of platina wire entwined on each inch, drawn to one and
one-quarter inches one grain weight. The sizes of wire for the following notes
are to decrease uniformly, so that the wire of the following note G, weighing
13 grains each foot, will carry covering platina wire of of an inch the grain
weight; the G above, 11 grains each foot, will carry platina wire of two inches
the grain weight; the G above, weighing 9 grains, will carry platina wire of 3
inch the grain; G, above, weighing 7 grains, will carry platina wire of 4 inch
the grain; G above, weighing 7 grains, do. do., 5 in.; G above, weighing 6
grains, do. do., 6 ins.; do., covered or spun, twelve rounds on each inch of string.
To fix the platina wire on the covered strings so firmly as to withstand the
agitation while vibrating without disturbing the intimate connection of the
different metals, and preserve the vibration from being clog'd by continuing
the covering (which has hitherto been practised) beyond the pins, I make the
cover'd wire rough, by drawing a sharp bastard cut file along the wire several
times, which prepares the string to receive the covering platina wire, whose
ductile nature admits of being forced by pressure (while spinning or covering)
into the indents made by the file, and renders it perfectly secure tho the
ends terminate within the pins.

page_text: This method I claim as my Invention, for securing the covering of strings
with wire of any ductile metal or composition of metal whose ends of covering
are secured and terminate within the guide pin and bridge pin strings, made of
animal substance, as gut or silk, have their power of vibration much increased
by being covered with platina wire instead of wire of inferior specific gravity,
though the weight of the metal covering be equal, from the advantage of its
decreased bulk, compared with other metals; and as some difficulty may arise
in drawing the platina wire so fine as will be required to cover close on the
string, I use platina wire, drawn to six and one-half inches per grain weight,
to cover the fourth string of a violin, making one hundred revolutions on each
inch of string; and if an additional string be required to the violin, a fifth may
be put to follow the fourth with great advantage by covering gut, the size of a
second string, with platina wire of four inches per grain weight, laid close on
the string; and an improved third string may also be obtained by covering gut
the size of a full first string with platina wire, of six and one-half inches per
grain weight, with sixty rounds on each inch of string. The strings for a tenor
violencello, double bass harp, and all other instruments whose strings are
composed of animal substance, are improved by covering with platina wire,
giving the same weight as is now in use of common metal wire to covered
strings, which I claim as my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bundy, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of June, One thousand eight