IMPROVEMENTS IN BARREL ORGANS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Pemberton, of Hildenborough, Tonbridge, in
the County of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BARREL
ORGANS."
Sealed the 18th November. 1856, and dated the 21st May 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Pemberton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st May 1856.
I, ROBERT PEMBERTON, of Hildenborough, Tonbridge, in the County of
Kent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN
BARREL ORGANS, to be as follows:-
Barrel organs having no chromatic scale, all the music executed on them is
played in the key of C, or natural key, or in three or four other keys at most.
My improvements consist in constructing them with a sufficient number of
pipes that will produce all the tones and semitones, so that the barrels can
be furnished with the chromatic scale, by which means all the twenty-four.
major and minor keys with their cadences or chords can be introduced, as
well as the exercises on the intervals, and the most difficult chromatic pas-
sages, and by the application of properly furnished barrels the most 'scientific
music can be produced.
My object in constructing and arranging the barrel organ to play the
chromatic and all other scales, and. music of the most perfect and scientific

page_text: kind, is for the purpose of practising the sense of hearing in children, or of
persons of more advanced years, to all the undulations of sound necessary to
the appreciation & production of the most perfect music, and thereby to cul-
tivate, improve, and extend the capacity of the human mind in the harmony
of sounds.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Pemberton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st November 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
PEMBERTON, of Hildenborough, Tonbridge, in the County of Kent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the. Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Ierself, Ifer heirs and successors, give and grant unto I,
the said Robert Pemberton, Her special licence that I, the said Robert
Pemberton, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Robert Pemberton, ny 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 lawfully might make,
usc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BARREL ORGANS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Robert.Pemberton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Robert Pemberton, do hereby declare
the nature. of my. said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):
:
Barrel organs having no chromatic scale, all the music executed on them is
played in the key of C, or natural key, or three or four other keys at most..
My improvement consist in constructing them with a sufficient number of
pipes that will produce all the tones and semitones, so that the barrels can be

page_text: furnished with the chromatic scale, by which means all the twenty-four major
and minor keys with their cadences or chords can be introduced, as well as
the exercises on the intervals, also the most difficult chromatic passages, and
by the application of properly furnished barrels the most scientific music can
be produced.
My object in constructing and arranging the barrel organ to play the
chromatic and other scales, and music of the most perfect and scientific kind,
is for the purpose of practising the sense of hearing in children, or of persons
of more advanced years, to all the modulations of sound necessary to the
apprecation and production of the most perfect music, and thereby to cul-
tivate, improve, and extend the capacity of the human mind in the harmony
of sounds.
In carrying out my Invention, I construct barrel organs with pipes and
barrels of the ordinary construction, but instead of constituting and arranging
the pipes and pins of the barrel so that they produce the natural notes only,
or with one or two of the semitones, and therefore perform all music in the
key of C, or at most in three or four other keys, I introduce a sufficient
number of pipes to produce all the tones and semitones, whatever may be the
range or compass of the instrument. By this means chromatic passages can
be executed, as also any difficult passages in modern music which has been
heretofore impracticable in barrel organs. In order that these organs may
have a steady sustaining power, I construct them with double-acting bellows,
whereby a constant and uniform pressure of air may be maintained. By this
means these organs are enabled to perform in all the major and minor
keys in semibreves, minims, crotchets, quavers, semiquavers, denisimiquavers,
and in seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, or eighths, and all the
major and minor keys, and at the same time to produce all the chromatic or
other passages of music involving the several flats and sharps of the natural
notes.
The object in thus constructing barrel organs is to produce an instrument
that a nurse, or other person unskilled in music, can produce musical passages
or scales to accustom the sense of hearing in children, or even grown persons,
to such sounds as are calculated to improve the capacity for music or any
other sound.
These organs are fitted with barrels suitably furnished with pins to act on
the valves of the several pipes to execute the passages of music required, two
or more barrels being used in combination, or the barrels may be changed, all
as well understood in the construction of barrel organs, and which therefore
uced not be herein detailed.

page_text: Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner to which it
may be performed, I wish it understood that what I claim as my Invention is,
constructing barrel organs with pipes to produce all the tones and semitones
in the musical scale, for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Robert Pemberton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
W. CLARK, Patent Agent,
53, Chancery Lane, London.
ROBT PEMBERTON: (L.s.)