CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRIEDRICK
LUDWIG HAHN DANCHELL, of Great Marlborough Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Musical Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the First day of September, in the fifth year of His reigr,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Friedrick Ludwig Hahn Danchell, His especial licence, full power, sole privi-
ledge and authority, that I, the said Friedrick Ludwig Hahn Danchell, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Friedrick Ludwig
Hahn Danchell, my exors, adññiors, 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, the Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PIANOFORTES," partly invented by myself and
partly by a communication from my Partner, Fredrick George Greiner, a
Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Friedrick Ludwig Hahn Danchell, shall cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the

page_text: date of the said in part recited Letters 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
Friedrick Ludwig Hahn Danchell, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention to consist of the two following improvements (that is to say):-
First, in an improved hammer, part of the reaction or elasticity of which
is produced by the elasticity of the india rubber applied for that purpose.
And, secondly, in a hollow or box-shaped bridge for promoting an increase
of tone in the instrument. And in further compliance with the said proviso,
I, the said Friedrick Ludwig Hahn Danchell, do hereby describe the manner I
in which the said Invention is to be performed, by the following statement
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
1
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure represents the first of the said improvements in pianofortes, and 1
is a side elevation of one of my improved hammers attached to its key. A
is the key and clavier; B, the key pin; C, the grasshopper; D, the notch or
escapement at the end of the shank of the hammer; E, the shank of the
hammer; F, the head of the hammer; G is the rail or butt supporting the
pin or axis on which the end of the hammer shank turns, and it is to a part 2
of this rail or butt that the hammer shank is suspended by an india-rubber
thread, as will be better shewn in Figure 2, which is a side view of the shank,
the rail or butt, and the hammer head. The red line represents a thread of
caoutchouc or india rubber fastened by an adjusting screw pin H to the rail
or butt G at one end, and by a fastening pin I to the shank of the hammer of 2
the other.
Figure 3 represents the second of the said improvements in pianofortes,
and is a side sectional elevation of my said hollow or box-shaped bridge. J is
the hollow bridge resting on the sounding board. The red line in this Figure
denotes the string passing over the bridge.
Figure 4 is a plan of the bridge.
3
Now whereas I claim, as the said Invention, first, the hammer action herein-
before shewn, and the application of india rubber to give clasticity and
reaction to the head of the hammer; and, secondly, the hollow bridge berein-
before described, whether the same be applied to an ordinary flat sounding 3
or otherwise; and such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge
and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His