AN IMPROVEMENT ON HARPS
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DELVEAU, of Wardour Street, in the Parish of Saint Anne, in the County of
Middlesex, Musical Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fourth day of April 1822, in the third year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said James Delveau, my exors, admors, and
assigns, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said James Delveau, my exors, adñors, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT ON HARPS;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso, that if I, the said James Delveau, shall not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date.
of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties.
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
James Delveau, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):
Fig. 1st on the Sheet of Drawings represents a section of the harp, supposed
to be taken through the centre of the pillar and body, in order to explain the
nature of my improvement.
Fig. 2, an end view, to explain the improved form of the lower part of the
pillar, as will be herein-after explained.
And Fig. 3, a plan, wherein the pillar and neck are supposed to be removed
to shew the lower part of the sounding-board and pedestal.
Note. The same characters or letters of reference are used to denote
corresponding parts upon all the Figures.
A represents the pillar of the harp, which is made in the usual manner. At
the upper part where it joins to the neck B, the pillar is hollowed throughout in
the form of a pipe to allow the leading rods or wires to proceed from the pedals
up to the mechanism contained in the neck to produce the semitones, according
to the ordinary construction of harps; but as the mechanism to produce the
semitones does not form any part of my Invention, and is very well understood
by persons conversant with the manufacture of harps, I shall not enter into any
minute description of it; at the same time I wish to state that it may be
constructed in any of the present known ways, and applied with equal facility
to the harps made according to my improvement. The lower part of the
pillar A, commencing at the part a, is forked, or divided into two branches b, b,
in the form of a lyre, as represented in the Fig. 2; or the branches may be made
in any otlier form or shape which may be considered agreeable to the taste of
the maker. The branches b,'b, are united together at the bottom e, so as to form
a broad case for the better support of the pillar upon the pedestal D of the
harp, upon which the part erests, and is kept in place by two small wood pins
or dowels, seen by dotted lines d, d, in Fig. 2, which dowels enter into holes
formed in the top surface of the pedestal D, as seen at c, c, in the plan,
Fig. 3. The basere of the pillar has a hole made through it of sufficient
size to allow the leading rods or wires to pass through and up the hollow pipe
of the pillar, as before-mentioned. E represents a slight wood trunk, which
is introduced under the pillar and between the branches 6, b, so as to hide the
leading rods or wires but not to bear the strain of the strings, as the branches
b, b, are made sufficiently strong to support the necessary tension of all the

page_text: strings without depending upon the centre piece or trunk E. F represents the
sounding-board, which is made of deal, in the usual form, having two slips of
hard wood glued along its centre for the purpose of receiving the small pegs
which secure the lower extremities of the strings. The lower part of the
sounding-board F proceeds in an uninterrupted manner some distance below
the surface of the pedestal D, as seen in the section Fig. 1st, instead of
terminating at about. the level of the dotted line 0, 0, as is the case with the
sounding boards of the harps at present in use. By this improvement I obtain
a greater degree of elasticity than usual in the sounding-boards, in consequence
of its extending some inches below the peg or suspension point of the lowest
or base string, shewn at S in Fig. 1, instead of its terminating very near the
suspension of the said 'string, 'as is the case in the present construction of harps,
where the sound-board, as before mentioned, terminates about the level of the
dotted line o, o. The pieces of wood forming the top of the pedestal are
hollowed out, as seen at i, k, in Fig. 1st, so as not to touch the sounding-board
in the middle, but only at the two edges thereof, as seen at i, i, in the plan,
Fig. 3, thereby leaving the sounding-board at liberty to vibrate freely some
inches below the base strings. The pedals P are curved or bent, as represented
in Fig. 1, to allow them to pass under the bottom edge of the sounding-board
and bring them up to a proper place for the feet of the performer to act upon.
The pedals may be arranged in any way that may be found convenient so as
to allow tho leading rods or wires to pass up through the pillar to the neck
of the harp; for I hereby declare that I do not make claim to any particular
construction or arrangement of the pedals, or to the movements to effect the
shortening of the strings to produce the semitones, but I confine my claim
entirely to the new mode of making or arranging the bottom part or pedestal
of the harp and branched or divided part of the pillar as herein-before
described, so as to obtain a greater length of sounding-board and a more
perfect connection between the pillar and the pedestal in proportion to the
size of the harp than by the means at present adopted in the pedestals and
sounding-boards of the harps in common use.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Delveau, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-two.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of June, in
the year of our Lord 1822, the aforesaid James Delveau came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
2
1
T
One thousand