IMPROVEMENTS IN TUNING PIANOFORTES
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Down Gordon, of Eldon Street,
Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex, Pianoforte Manufacturer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TUNING PIANOFORTES."
Sealed the 9th May 1853, and dated the 9th November 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Down Gordon
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 9th November 1852.
I, JOHN DOWN GORDON, of Eldon Street, Finsbury, in the
County of Middlesex, Piano-forte Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TUNING PIANO-
FORTES " to be as follows: -
This Invention consists of making the top plate with projections
in combination with the use of screws for tuning the parts, being
so arranged that the points or ends of the screws shall press against
or enter into holes or recesses in the projections of the top plate, or,
in place thereof, portions of plates may be let into the wrest plate
or plank, and receive the ends of the screws; also, combined with
such top plate with projections, the use of compensating tubes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said John Down Gordon in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 9th May 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN DOWN GORDON, of Elden Street, Finsbury, in the County of
Middlesex, Piano-forte Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in
the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Down Gordon,
Her special licence, that I, the said John Down Gordon, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Down Gordon, 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 law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TUNING PIANO-FORTES,"
upon the condi-
tion (amongst others) that I, the said John Down Gordon, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and scal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Down Gordon, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what man-
ner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is
to say):-
This Invention consists of making the top plate with projections,
in combination with the use of screws for tuning, the parts being
so arranged that the points or ends of the screws shall press against
or enter into holes or recesses in the projections of the top plate;

page_text: or, in place thereof, portions of plates may be let into the wrest
plate or plank, and receive the ends of the screws; also, combined
with such top plate with projections, the use of compensating tubes.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully under-
stood, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, shows a transverse section; Figure 2, a front view,
partly in section, and Figure 3, a plan of the parts, constructed and
combined according to my Invention; Figure 4, shows different
views of some of the parts full size, and Figure 5, shows a variation'
of the same. In each of these figures the same letters of reference
are used to indicate the same parts. a, is the wrest plank; b, is the
top plate with projections, against which the ends of the tuning
screws press; c, is a projection, fixed to the wrest plank, which I
call the register, through which the tuning screws d, d, pass, and
their ends rest in recesses in the projection e', of the top plate e;
the screws d, also pass through the suspenders or connections f
which are so formed that the strings may be in a line with the
screws d, d, as is shewn by the Drawing. The connections f, are
received in notches or recesses g, formed in the projecting plate e,
which recesses keep them properly spaced; h, are compensation
tubes, which resist the strain of the strings i, i, i, which are sus-
pended to the ends of the connections f, in a line with the centres
of the tuning screws, as before mentioned. In Figure 5, in place
of having the top plate complete, as shewn at Figure 1, the pro-
jections are at intervals fixed through the top plate into the wrest
plank, and the connecting parts f, are somewhat differently formed;
but they act in the same manner as those before described, and
the suspension of the strings i, is in each case in a line with its
tuning screw.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
do not confine myself to the precise details, so long as the peculiar

page_text: combination herein described be retained; but what I claim is, the
combination or arrangement of apparatus herein explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Down Gordon, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
three.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
JOHN DOWN GORDON. (L.S.)