CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON HARPS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO ALL OTHER MUSICAL STRINGED INSTRU- XENTS
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FREDERICK GROSJEAN, of Soho Square, in the County of Middlesex, Musical
Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster the Twentieth day of October, in the first year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Frederick Grosjean, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and au-
thority, that I, the said John Frederick Grosjean, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Frederick Grosjean, my exors, admors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON HARPS,
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO ALL OTHER MUSICAL STRINGED INSTRU-
XENTS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said
John Frederick Grosjean, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Frederick Grosjean, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
My improvements consist in applying vitrified or crystallized matters to
sounding boards and other surfaces of harps and other stringed musical in-
struments, whereby I am enabled to obtain greater fulness and richness of tone
to the same than when made according to the ordinary modes now in practice;
and in order to give the best information in my power for carrying out my
Invention, I will describe the means pursued by me, and which I have found
fully to answer, first remarking, that there are many materials more or less
suitable for effecting my Invention, such as glass, flints, sand, metals, and
other vitrified and crystallized substances, which are to be employed in the
state of small crystals or particles closely cemented on the surface of the
sounding boards and other surfaces of harps or other stringed musical instru-
ments; but as many of such matters are more or less acted on by the change
of atmosphere, I have and do give preference to glass as being in every way
suitable for the purpose and most effective in use. I will therefore confine
my description to the employment of glass, at the same time first observing
that other matters above noticed, should they be used, are to be prepared
into small crystals or broken particles similar to those hereafter explained
in respect to glass.
I take any quantity of flint glass (by preference), and having pounded it in
a mortar and broken it into parts somewhat smaller than peas, I put it
into a coffee mill, and grind the same to as oven a state as possible, in
order to obtain a quantity of particles of about one-sixteenth of an inch;
and in order to have all the pieces as nearly to a size as possible, I have
two sieves, one having openings or holes of slightly less than one-sixteenth
of an inch in diameter, and another sieve with holes of one-sixteenth of
an inch diameter, the sieves I use being of perforated zinc or other metal.
The ground glass I first sift through the sieve with the smaller holes, by
which I separate all the parts which are less than the size to be employed,
and that which remains in the sieve is then to be put into the sieve having
larger holes, and the pieces sifted through will be sufficiently regular and
equal for the purpose, but previously to using the same I prefer to sweat the
particles in a linen cloth, which operation is performed by putting the sifted

page_text: glass in a cloth, and shaking it to and fro several times, by which the parts
or crystals will have any dust separated therefrom which would otherwise
adhere.
Having thus prepared the broken glass, I proceed to apply it to the sounding
board and to other surfaces of a harp or other stringed musical instrument,
and for this purpose I employ a cement, by preference, of glue with isinglass,
about one half by weight of each. The sounding board is to be warmed,
and the cement above mentioned thinly laid on the back or front surface or on
both surfaces, and the broken glass (which is heated to a degree that the hand
can but just touch it) is to be sifted evenly over the sounding board, the effect
of using the glass hot being to cause it to penetrate the cement and to come in
contact with the sounding board.. By this means I obtain a close coating of
particles or crystals to the sounding board, which will be found to materially
improve the instrument to which it may be applied, and by this means a
greater fullness and a superior richness of tone will be obtained than can be
obtained by other means, whether the same be applied to a harp or other
stringed instrument; and in some instances I apply the crystals to the whole
internal surface of the instrument, in like manner to that explained in respect
to the sounding board by which the sound is repulsed by a hardened irregular
crystallized surface, and may be said to resemble a grotto with irregular crys-
tallized surfaces, producing a very peculiar effect to the fullness and beauty of
the sound of the instruments so improved. I would here remark, that I have
been thus particular in explaining the particular sizes of the broken glass or
other hard vitrious or crystallized matters which I employ, because it is the
practice I have pursued and found to answer; at the same time I do not
confine myself thereto, nor do I confine myself to the mode of obtaining the
glass in fine parts or crystals, as other means may be resorted to; and I
further observe, that to smaller instruments, such as violins, I apply the glass
much finer than that above expressed. But what I claim, as my Invention,
is the mode of preparing the sounding boards and other surfaces of harps and
other stringed musical instruments, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Frederick Grosjean, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this 19th day of April, in the year of our Lord
L
L
JOHN FREDERICK GROSJEAN. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of April, in
the year of our Lord 1888, the aforesaid John Frederick Grosjean came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her 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 5
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and thirty-eight.