AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRODUCING TONE UPON MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1823

page_text: TODD'S
пот
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
TODD, of Swansea, South Wales, Organ Builder, 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 Westminster,
the Twenty-second day of November, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-
three, in the fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Todd, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Todd, my exors,
admors, 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
IN PRODUCING TONE UPON MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said
Thomas Todd, 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 six 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 largo appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Todd, 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 Drawing hereunto annexed and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
My said Invention of producing tone upon musical instruments is chiefly
applicable to those instruments which are strung with wire strings, although
it may also be applied to instruments with gut strings. I prefer to make
these instruments in the forms of upright or horizontal pianofortes, although
they may also be formed of other shapes if required. The tone is produced by
causing a separate flat endless band, either made of woollen cloth, hair, silk,
or any other substance that will receive' and retain resin upon it, to pass near
to each string, over and around two rollers or cylinders, the one fixed before
or above the strings at about six inches apart, and the other behind or under-
neath them as the instrument may be a vertical or a horizontal one; these
rollers turn upon centres, so that when one of them is put into motion, either
by means of a pedal or otherwise, the band continues to run without touching
the string unless it be brought into contact therewith, as will be described here-
after, when it will produce the tone as required. I shall describe two several
modes of effecting this object, by a reference to the Drawing which, as
aforesaid, accompanies this Specification, and in which Drawing A, A, in
Fig. 1, represents one of the strings stretched upright over the bridges B, B,
affixed upon the belly of the instrument C, C, in the manner of affixing the
wire strings of pianofortes; D, the wrest pin; E and F the two rollers, over
and around which the endless band G, G, passes, and by a twist in it presents
a flat surface to the string, so that when pressed against it, whilst running, it
produces a tone from the string resembling that produced by a bow of a
violin, &c. In order to produce this pressure, I fix over the finger-keys of the
instrument and upon the key-frame a frame H, to which I attach by the
screwed pivots I, J, a swinging frame K. for every string in the instrument,
and to which I affix, by means of the bent wire L driven into the upper end
of the swinging frame and the screw M, the brass roller N, which has conical
holes in its ends, into which the conical points of the wire L and the screw M
enter, and upon which it turns as centres on the side of each swinging
frame K. I aflix a projecting wire loop or staple O, which is best seen in the
Plan, Fig. 2, and upon which the small slip of wire P is hung by a hole in
the end of it, the other end of which passes through another hole made in the
top of the upright piece of wood Q, which is affixed to the finger-key R; the
stem of the wire P is screwed and is furnished with two screwed nuts upon it,