AN APPARATUS ADAPTED TO PIANOFORTES FOR THE PURPOSE OF VARYING THE TONES PRODUCED IN PLAYING
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Immanuel Liebich, of No. 70, Church Street,
Camberwell Green, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of
"AN APPARATUS ADAPTED TO PIANOFORTES FOR THE PURPOSE OF VARYING THE
TONES PRODUCED IN PLAYING.”
Sealed the 5th November 1872, and dated the 14th May 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Immanuel Liebich at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th May 1872.
I, IMMANUEL LIEBICH, of No. 70, Church Street, Camberwell Green,
5 in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "An APPARATUS ADAPTED TO PIANOFORTES FOR THE PURPOSE OF
VARYING THE TONES PRODUCED IN PLAYING," to be as follows:-
-
The-object-of-the Invention is to enable the tones of the instrument to
be varied. For this purpose there are provided plates of metal (steel)
O capable of being brought between the hammers and the strings, so that
the hammers in playing, in place of striking the strings directly, strike
against the upper ends of these plates, which then strike the strings.

page_text: Each of these plates thus capable of being placed in position between a
hammer and a string is made sufficiently long and thin to admit of the
desired amount of elasticity being imparted to it on the striking of a
hammer. Each plate is also formed straight or flat at the end, to act
between the hammer and the strings, a form which I find to be of a
material importance and the omission of which by forming them curved
has been the cause of failure in previous experiments by me. The series
of these plates is applied by their opposite ends to a bar or rail capablo
of a sliding motion and of being operated by pedal movement or such
like means, so as to move the plates into position between the hammers 1
and the wires, or away therefrom, at the will of the player. When plates
are thus interposed between the hammers and the strings in playing,
the tone will be varied to resemble that of the pedal harp.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Immanuel Liebich in the Great Seal Patent Office ]
on the 14th November 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, IMMANUEL
LIEBICH, of No. 70, Church Street, Camberwell Green, in the County of
Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Immanuel Licbich, Her special licence
that I, the said Immanuel Liebich, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Immanuel Liebich, my exe-
cutors, 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, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN APPARATUS
ADAPTED TO PIANOFORTES FOR THE PURPOSE OF VARYING THE TONES PRODUCED IN
PLAYING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Immanuel
Liebich, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly;

page_text: 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 Immanuel Liebich, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained. in and. by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :—
.
The object of the Invention is to enable the tones of the instrument to
be varied. For this purpose there are provided plates of metal (steel)
capable of being brought between the hammers and the strings, so that
the hammers in playing in place of striking the strings directly strike
against the upper ends of these, plates which then strike the strings.
Each of these plates thus capable of being placed in position between a
hammer and a string is made sufficiently long and thin to admit of the
desired amount of elasticity being imparted to it on the striking of a
hammer. Each plate is also formed straight or flat at the end to act
between the hammer and the strings, a form which I find to be of
material importance and the omission of which by forming them curved
has been the cause of failure in previous experiments by me. The series
of these plates is applied by their opposite ends to a bar or rail capable of
a sliding motion and of being operated by pedal movement or such like
means, so as to move the plates into position between the hammers and
the wires, or away therefrom, at the will of the player. When plates are
thus interposed between the hammers and the strings in playing, the
tone will be varied to resemble that of the pedal harp.
But that the Invention may be fully understood, I will, by the aid of
the accompanying Drawings, proceed to describe means pursued by me in