CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS ON THE FLAGEOLET OR ENGLISH FLUTE
Year: 1807

page_text: BAINBRIDGE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BAINBRIDGE, of the Parish of Saint Andrew, Holborn, in the City of London,
Musical Instrument Maker, send greeting. :
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of May,
in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Bainbridge, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the said William Bainbridge, my
exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS ON THE FLAGEOLET OR ENGLISH FLUTE;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Bainbridge, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, 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 Bainbridge, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the manner

page_text: in which the same is to be performed and effected, are described as follow,
that is to say:-
Firstly, as one of my said improvements, I do make in one side of the cap
or piece immediately above the whistle piece in the large English flute (whether
made according to the usual construction or according to the improved con-
struction described and specified by me, in compliance with a proviso in certain
Letters Patent granted unto me by His said most Excellent Majesty, on the
Second day of April, in the forty-third year of His reign, or according to any
other construction;) an hole or perforation, and do insert therein a mouth-piece
or tube, or other suitable piece, by means of which the performer shall and may
be enabled to perform on such English flutes of concert pitch, or of any othor
large size, by holding the instrument in the same position as the German flute,
or in some other similar position as shall be preferred for case and facility of
execution.
And, secondly, as one other of my said improvements, I do, either with or
without the improvements herein-before referred to or described, in any flageolet
or English flute, of whatever size or description the said flageolet or flute may
be, make an hole or aperture communicating with the bore or cavity thereof,
through some part of the surface below the aperture of the whistle, and above
the uppermost finger hole, and I do cover the said hole or aperture so described
'to be made with a key, having its tail or finger end so placed as to be con-
veniently pressed when needful by the thunib or the little finger, or otherwise,
during the performance, and the effect, use, and advantage of the said hole, are
that the notes above C on a large concert flageolet or flute, which are difficult
to be produced, and when produced are not in tune become more easy in the
execution, and at the same time more perfect, when the key is pressed so as
to open the said hole, and, morcover, that the E, F, and G, above the lines,
or in alt, are rendered with more facility and better in tune by 'the' same
practice, particularly in the smaller instruments.
And 1 do further declare that the said hole is of great utility and advantage
in giving the sharps or semitones, without cross fingering to most of the notes,
by simply opening the same, so that a superiority of effect and simplicity of
fingering are obtained at the same times by means thereof. And farther, that
the said hole may be made on any side whatever of the said flageolet or flute,
and that the place thereof may be taken either higher or lower, and its size
considerably varied without materially altering or affecting the properties or
effect produced or obtained by means of the said hole, and the key thereto
applied as aforesaid. And also that I do prefer making the same in the whistle
part near the aperture of the whistle. And lastly, that the size of the said hole

page_text: may be regulated and made by trial, which the ordinary skill and ear of a
workman competent to fabricate and tune instruments of this or the like nature
will be sufficient to enable him to perform.
And, thirdly, as one other of my said improvements, I do, either with or
without the improvements herein-before referred to or described in any flageolet
or flute as aforesaid, make a small hole below the aperture of the whistle and
above the uppermost finger hole, similar to the hole last described as my
second improvement, but I do not apply a finger key to the hole now thirdly
to be described, but instead thereof, I apply a stopper or flap or pin, or other
suitable and well-known contrivance, by means of which the opening of the
said last-mentioned hole shall and may be made larger or smaller, and kept for
any required time in that state, in order that the pitch of the said flageolet or
flute may be precisely and accurately brought to agree and accord with that
of any monochord or pitch pipe or turning fork, or other instrument, as may be
required.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bainbridge, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our
WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1807, the aforesaid William Bainbridge came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seven.