IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Griffith Brewer of 33 Chancery Lane in the
County of Middlesex for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOS"
communicated to him from abroad by Louis Napoleon Letailleur and Petrus
Scholtus both of Paris France
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Griffith Brewer at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th April 1883.
EDWARD GRIFFITH BREWER of 33 Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOS " (A Communication to me from abroad by Louis
Napoleon Letailleur and Petrus Scholtus both of Paris France)
In upright as well as in grand pianos the sounding board is generally formed of
pieces or boards of wood laid on one another and held together by means of
transverse or longitudinal bars applied at the back on the joints but which do not
except imperfectly fulfil their office for although these bars may be more or less
well secured they cannot always prevent the disjunction of different parts of which
the whole of the sounding board is composed; they have also the disadvantage of
injuring the equality of the sounds; on the other hand in upright pianos and with
vertical strings, oblique or half oblique as in grand pianos with horizontal strings,
the extreme tension of the string produces almost alway deviations from the
straight line which constitutes or necessitates in these instruments the counter
drawing of the strings.
According to this Invention the sounding board and the string securing or
drawing arrangements are made up or arranged in an improved manner so as to
obviate the above mentioned defects.
According to this Invention the sounding board is doubled either wholly or
partially throughout its extent by crossing the pieces which compose it-the
crossing being made in an oblique direction or square. The thickness of this
sounding board may be afterwards formed of two entire or partial sheets super-
posed square or obliquely firmly glued one on the other and thus consolidated the
one to the other without continuity between the different parts of each piece
D

page_text: taking place. This truly solid coupling of the parts composing the two united
sheets and joinings and crossings of the sounding board no longer necessitating
the use of bands for covering the joints and will produce at the same time as
solidity of this part, the equality of tone so desirable."
In the existing arrangements for drawing up or securing of the strings, the
strengthening pieces that is to say the bars of wood more or less thick and fitted
with cramps and other pieces of iron which serve to hold firmly in their necessary
relation the holdfasts of the winding pins and those of the hooks which are very
often, in fact generally susceptible to flexion that is to say to bend forward either
by the effect of moisture or the variations of temperature especially with regard to
those pianos for export or owing to the insufficiency of the necessary power to
offer a resistance at least equivalent to the drawing power of the strings.
To remedy these great inconveniences the Inventors have produced a new
Counter
arrangement for the counter drawing or securing of the strings.
strengthening pieces are not required fitted with crainps or bolts and other pieces
of additional iron. The new means which the Inventors have invented and which
they intend to employ or if it is wished the new application which they intend to
make of the means of consolidating the holdfasts to the back of which the sounding
board is placed and which maintains or keeps the extreme holdfasts of the winding
pins and hooks, consists in the substitution for the simple bars of wood of a single
thickness furnished with cramps and angle irons, of bars of wood composed of two
blades of varying thicknesses according to circumstances, these two bands aro
separated at top in the middle and at bottom by a small intermediate wedge piece
of the same width as the others, and held together throughout their length by
screws which go through them from part to part and even extend to the half
thickness of the holdfasts or bars.
The effect thus produced is the union of the pieces of wood thus screwed' and
besides strongly glued in the adhering parts and firmly fixed to the three plate
bars transversal from the top middle and bottom completing the frame of the back
of an upright piano or the platform of a grand piano will be such as to maintain
the perfect position of the counter strengthening pieces intended to form the
counter drawing action of the strings.
These new means of inaking up the sounding board and the parts for securing or
drawing the strings are much superior to that of the system at present in use
which it improves so much as regards solidity as that of sonority of the instruments
in which the employment of iron against the sounding boards present very serious
inconveniences which disappear under the adoption of the new system above
described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Edward Griffith Brewer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th October 1883.
Edward GriffiTH BREWER of 33 Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOS " (A communication to me from abroad by Louis
Napoleon Letailleur and Petrus Scholtus, both of Paris, France)
In upright as well as in grand pianos the sounding board is generally formed of
pieces or boards of wood laid on one another and held together by means of
transverse or longitudinal bars applied at the back on the joints but which do not
except imperfectly fulfil their office for although these bars may be more or less
well secured they cannot always prevent the disjunction of different parts of which
the whole of the sounding board is composed; they have also the disadvantage of
injuring the equality of the sounds. either through the effect of a solution of
continuity in case of disjunction or by the strengthening even which procures their
application to certain parts only of the table; on the other hand in upright pianos
and with vertical strings, oblique or half oblique as in grand pianos with horizontal
strings, the extreme tension of the string produces almost always a deviation from
the straight line which constitutes or necessitates in these instruments the counter-
drawing of the strings.
According to this Invention the sounding board and the string securing or
drawing arrangements are made up or arranged in an improved manner so as to
obviate the above mentioned defects.
1 According to this Invention the sounding board is doubled either wholly or
partially or throughout its extent by crossing the pieces which compose it the
crossing being made either in an oblique or square direction. The thickness of this
sounding board is thus formed of two entire or partial sheets superposed square
or obliquely firmly glued one on the other and thus consolidated the one to the
other without discontinuity between the different parts of each piece taking place
This truly solid coupling of the parts composing the two united sheets and joinings
and crossings of the sounding board no longer necessitating the use of bands for
covering the joints and will produce at the same time as solidity of this part the
equality of tone so desirable; see in the drawings Figures 3 and 4.
In the existing arrangements for drawing up or securing of the strings the
strengthening pieces, that is to say the bars of wood more or less thick and fitted
with cramps and other pieces of iron which serve to hold firmly in their necessary
relation the hold fasts of the winding pins and those of the hooks which are very
often in fact generally susceptible to flexion that is to say to bend forward either
by the effect of moisture or the variations of temperature especially with regard to
those pianos for export or owing to the insufficiency of the necessary power to offer
a resistance at least equivalent to the drawing power of the strings.
To remedy these great inconveniences the Inventors have produced a new
arrangement for the counterdrawing or securing of the strings.. Counter-
strengthening pieces fitted with cramps or bolts and other additional pieces of iron
are dispensed with. The new means which the Inventors have invented and which
they intend to employ or if preferred the new application which they intend to
make of means of consolidating the holdfasts or string plates to the back of which
the sounding board is placed and which maintains or keeps the extreme holdfasts
of the winding pins and hooks consists in the substitution for the simple bars of
wood of a single thickness furnished with cramps and angle irons, of bars of wood
composed of two blades of yarying thicknesses according to circumstances, thọ

page_text: principal of an average thickness of 0.06 to 0.08 millimetres of 0.10 more or less.
The auxiliary of an average thickness of 0.02 to 0.03 by an average of 0.10 m width
more or less these two bands are separated at top in the middle and at bottom by a
small intermediate wedge piece of the same width as the bands and of an average
thickness of 0.005 to 0010 more or less and held together throughout their length 5
by screws which go through them from part to part and even extend to the half
thickness of the holdfasts or bars.
The effect thus produced is the union of the pieces of wood thus screwed and
besides strongly glued in the adhering parts firmly fixed to the three plate bars
transversal at the top middle and bottom completing the frame of the back of an 1
upright piano or the platform of a grand piano will be such as to maintain the
perfect position of the counter strengthening pieces intended to form the counter
drawing actions of the strings.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings shows the back of an upright piano
showing the outside front. A is the top external transverse bar supporting the 1
uprights or supports of the string plate numbering at least eight (one of these pieces
is shown detached at Figure 5 which is a vertical section drawn to a larger scale);
B transverse middle bar; C transverse external lower bar; D uprights or supports
of the string plate shown separately at Figure 5.
Figure 2 shows the back of an upright piano frame looking on the front to the a
interior without the sounding board, E internal transverse bar at the top, face view,
the upper part is intended to receive the holdfast of the winding pins; F recessed
part of this bar intended to receive the upper part of the sounding board: B trans-
verse middle bars, internal face view. G transverse bottom bar intended to receive
the lower part of the sounding board. D straight and oblique uprights of the string
plate; internal face view. The side plates show a part recessed to receive the
sides of the sounding boards.
Figure 3 shows the sounding board previous to its fixture on the uprights of the
string plate of upright or cottage pianos, this piece can also be fitted to grand
pianos by placing it horizontally instead of vertically. H interlaced cross pieces of
the boards forming in two parts superposed obliquely or square the arrangement of
the sounding board; the full lines indicate the top, the dotted lines the bottom;
the black lines the oblique interlacing and the other lines the square interlacing;
I and J show the position of the bridges over the holdfasts of the hook pieces;
K pieces extending beyond the obliquely interlaced boards; o obis are the free or s
extended parts of the sound board.
Figure 4 shows the sounding board placed on the string plate and an internal
face view of the upright frame, Æ upper part of the coupling bar of the string
plate intended to receive the holdfasts of the pius; H sounding board seen in face
view;
I Ibs show the position of the bridges over the holdfast pins; J the position 4
of the hooks holdfasts, N lower holdfasts of the hooks or iron holdfast; o obla the
free parts of the sound board; D internal sides of the supports of the string plates
intended to receive on recessed part, the sounding board. G is the extreme part of
the lower transverse bar having served to receive the lower part of the sounding
board, and below which the iron holdfasts are placed.
Figure 5 shows one of the uprights of the string plate of the upright frame It
is equally applicable to grand pianos, it may be either straight or oblique in the
two cases. Average length 1.25 average breadth 0.08; average thickness 007.
A transverse external top bar, side view; D principal blade of the upright or
strengthening piece of the string plate; and auxiliary blade; B transverse middle
external bar; C, lower transverse bar; a, b, c intermediate pieces between the
blades forming the coupling together of the uprights; E transverse internal top
bar shown in side view with its recess serving to receive the sounding board in its
upper part; G side of the bottom internal transverse bar receiving the lower part
of the sounding board, H side of the sounding board placed on the string plate;

page_text: Figure 6 represents the piece shown at Figure 5, internal back view. D principal
bar of the straight and oblique upright face view, E face of the transverse bar
intended to receive the holdfast of the winding pins; F, recessed part to receive
the sound board; G internal transverse bar at the bottom, face view.
These new means of making up the sounding board and string plate and for
securing or drawing the strings are much superior to that of the system at present
in use which it improves so much as regards solidity as that of sonority of the
instruments in which the employment of iron against the sounding board present
very serious inconveniences, which disappear under the adoption of the new system
above described.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed I declare that I claim.
In pianos whether square upright or grand the application to and combination
therewith of the means of making up or constructing the sounding boards and
string plates together with the parts for securing or drawing the strings all
substantially as and for the purposes herein before set forth.
In witness whèreof I the said Edward Griffith Brewer have hereunto set my
hand and seal this eleventh day of October in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty three.
EG BREWER (10)