Improvements in Pianofortes
Year: 1898

page_text: Improvements in Pianofortes,
1, JOSÉ CICERÓN CASTILLO, of Baranquilla, United States of Columbia, South
America, Pianoforte Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
This invention relates to a pianoforte for children of the ages of
from 6 to 10 years, the chief object of which is to enable children who are very
young, as stated, to be taught to play the pianoforte according to the technical
rules, so that when these children get older they will be able to play upon the
ordinary, full-sized pianoforte without difficulty for themselves and for the
teacher who is instructing them.
Eminent scientific medical men and composers have written methods for
teaching children to play the pianoforte, which have all, however, proved to be
faulty, tedious, and unsuccessful, for the simple reason that the child who is
learning is not able, with its small fingers, to grasp the several octaves and to
have command of the whole keyboard with its arms. The teacher is therefore
compelled to limit the instruction to exercises which do not require the spanning
of entire octaves or which comprise merely the middle octaves, with the result
that the children do not make any progress and even after learning for years
do not learn how to play either chords or scales.
In addition to the drawbacks and difficulties above stated, it is a fact that
the modern and usual construction of pianofortes is intended to suit the hand of
a grown-up person, and not the hand of a child. The keys of such pianofortes
have certain dimensions and a stroke or touch of corresponding height and
strength, which has always been strictly adhered to by pianoforte-manufacturers.
Nobody has attempted to remodel the keys, the keyboard, and, in fact, the
whole pianoforte in such a manner as to enable children of the age of from
6 to 10 years to span entire octaves, to have a command over the whole extent
of the keyboard, and with their slight strength to produce an adequate striking
of the keys.
Certainly everything possible has been tried to obviate the above-mentioned
drawbacks in teaching children to play the pianoforte by constructing instru-
ments with only 6, 5 and 4 octaves, and constructing dumb keyboards without
hammer-mechanism, for the purpose of stretching the tender fingers of children
to a certain extent, but in all cases the ordinary dimensions of the keys have
been maintained with the result that the position of the middle keys of a key-
board of this kind could never correspond to the keys of the ordinary keyboard
of seven octaves. The transition from the smaller keyboard to the larger key-
board was therefore accompanied by difficulties, and often, several years of
continual fresh study were required. Further, the heaviness of the keys designed

page_text: for the keyboard of ordinary pianofortes for grown-up people, results in producing
a hard, and very often a clumsy, touch, which remains even in later years.
Now this invention has for object to obviate all these difficulties, and it is
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the new child's pianoforte, whilst an ordinary
pianoforte is indicated by dotted or broken lines;
Fig. 2 represents the keyboard of an ordinary pianoforte of seven octaves; and
Fig. 3 represents, on the same scale, the keyboard of six octaves of the child's
pianoforte.
The frequently employed mode of reducing the number of octaves has the
disadvantage that the keys are shifted laterally, so that a child who has learned,
for example, to play on a pianoforte of six octaves, finds it almost impossible
to play correctly on a keyboard of seven octaves.
This is especially the case with children who, at an age of less than 10 years,
cannot be induced, or can be induced only very seldom, to play such exercises
with pianofortes of the kind usual at the present time. The instruction in playing
the pianoforte is therefore quite different from that of grown-up people, and the
transition from the childhood to a riper age offers fresh difficulties both to the
teacher and to the pupil.
According to this invention, the arrangement of keys is the same as that of
the ordinary pianoforte, but with the difference that, starting from the middle
key D, the large keyboard of seven octaves ends at both ends with the keys A,
whilst the new keyboard of six octaves ends both in the bass and in the treble
with the keys D. Therefore on passing to the ordinary pianoforte a child finds
a uniform arrangement of keys.
The keys of the child's pianoforte are so narrow that, for example, the 73 keys
necessary for the six octaves are arranged in a space of the length of 765 mm.
or 30 ; whilst the 85 keys of the ordinary keyboard of seven octaves measure
1235 mm. or 48 5". But the length also of the keys of the child's keyboard
is different from that of the ordinary keyboard. But, above all, it is the smaller
stroke of the keys and the lighter touch produced partly by diminution in weight
and partly by the simplification of the hammer-mechanism, which enables a
child of tender age to produce each tone with the same fulness of sound as a
grown up person does on the ordinary pianoforte.
Heretofore, all pianoforte-manufacturers have retained the stroke or touch of
9 mm. or 1/32" Consequently, the child has been compelled to play with this
disproportionately high stroke. In addition to the dimensions of the keys, which
are suited to the size of a child's hand, the inventor has reduced the stroke or
touch of the said keys to six mm., or ¼". This absolutely new stroke or touch
is an important advance in the manufacture of pianofortes.
The pianoforte here described is not merely the result of a simple alteration
in dimensions such as is the case with the 6, 5, 4, and 3 octave pianofortes, but
it is the solution of a new problem in construction. The new pianoforte is
designed to relieve the teacher giving instruction of all drawbacks and difficulties,
and to enable the pupil or child to make better progress in its studies. Therefore
also the ear of the pupil is properly trained from the very beginning. Both
the arrangement of the keys and the tones produced by striking the latter, are
exactly the same as in the case of an ordinary pianoforte. Therefore in using
such an instrument the method of instructing children is exactly the same as
that for grown-up people, or, in other words, the method of instructing children
as hitherto practised, is completely changed, and considerably simplified.
תוות
20th of Janu1808
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in Pianofortes.
I, JOSÉ CICERÓN CASTILLO, of Baranquilla, United States of Columbia, South
America, Pianoforte Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:―
This invention relates to a pianoforte suitable for children of the ages of
from 6 to 10 years, the chief object of which is to enable children who are very
young, as stated, to be taught to play the pianoforte according to the technical
rules, so that when these children get older they will be able to play upon the
ordinary, full-sized pianoforte without difficulty for themselves and for the
teacher who is instructing them.
Eminent scientific medical men and composers have written methods for
teaching children to play the pianoforte, all of which, however, have proved to be
faulty, tedious, and unsuccessful, for the simple reason that the child who is
learning is not able, with its small fingers, to grasp the several octaves and to
have command of the whole keyboard with its arms. The teacher is therefore
compelled to limit the instruction to exercises which do not require the spanning
of entire octaves or which comprise merely the middle octaves, with the result
that the children do not make any progress and even after learning for years
do not learn how to play either chords or scales.
In addition to the drawbacks and difficulties above stated, it is a fact that
the modern and usual construction of pianofortes is intended to suit the hand of
a grown-up person, and not the hand of a child. The keys of such pianofortes
have certain dimensions and a stroke or touch of corresponding height and
strength, which has always been strictly adhered to by pianoforte-manufacturers.
Nobody has attempted to remodel the keys, the keyboard, and, in fact, the
whole pianoforte in such a manner as to enable children of the age of from
6 to 10 years to span entire octaves, to have command over the whole extent
of the keyboard, and with their slight strength to produce an adequate striking
of the keys.
Certainly everything possible has been tried to obviate the above-mentioned
drawbacks in teaching children to play the pianoforte by constructing instru-
ments with only 6, 5 and 4 octaves, and constructing dumb keyboards without
hammer-mechanism, for the purpose of stretching the tender fingers of children
to a certain extent, but in all cases the ordinary dimensions of the keys have
been maintained with the result that the position of the middle keys of a key-
board of this kind could never correspond to the keys of the ordinary keyboard
of seven octaves. The transition from the smaller keyboard to the larger key-
board has therefore been accompanied by difficulties, and, often, several years of
continual fresh study were required. Further, the heaviness of the keys designed
for the keyboard of ordinary pianofortes for grown-up people, results in producing
a hard, and very often a clumsy touch, which remains even in later years.
Now this invention has for object to obviate all these difficulties, and in order
that it may be fully understood, I will proceed to explain it with the aid of the
illustrative drawings filed with my Provisional Specification, whereof
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the new child's pianoforte, whilst an ordinary
pianoforte is indicated by dotted or broken lines;
Fig. 2 represents the keyboard of an ordinary pianoforte of seven octaves; and
Fig. 3 represents, on the same scale, the keyboard of six octaves of the child's
pianoforte.
The frequently employed mode of reducing the number of octaves has the
disadvantage that the keys are shifted laterally, so that a child who has learned,

page_text: for example, to play on a pianoforte of six octaves, finds it almost impossible
to play correctly on a keyboard of seven octaves.
This is especially the case with children who, at an age of less than 10 years,
cannot be induced, or can be induced only very seldom, to play such exercises
with pianofortes of the kind usual at the present time. The instruction in playing
the pianoforte is therefore quite different from that of grown-up people, and the
transition from childhood to a riper age offers fresh difficulties both to. the
teacher and to the pupil.
According to this invention, the arrangement of keys is the same as that of
the ordinary pianoforte, but with the difference that, starting from the middle
key D, the large keyboard of seven octaves ends at both ends with the keys A,
whilst the new keyboard of six octaves ends both in the bass and in the treble
with the keys D. Therefore on passing to the ordinary pianoforte a child finds
a uniform arrangement of keys.
The keys of the child's pianoforte are so narrow that, for example, the 73 keys
necessary for the six octaves are arranged in a space of the length of 765 mm.
or 30"; whilst the 85 keys of the ordinary keyboard of seven octaves measure
1235 mm. or 48 5". But the length also of the keys of the child's keyboard
is different from that of the keys of the ordinary keyboard. But, above all, it is
the smaller stroke of the keys and the lighter touch, which enables a child of
tender age to produce each tone with the same fulness of sound as a grown-up
person does on the ordinary pianoforte.
Heretofore, all pianoforte-manufacturers have retained the stroke or touch of
9 mm. or "3" Consequently the child has been compelled to play with this
disproportionately high stroke. In addition to the dimensions of the keys, which
are suited to the size of a child's hand, the inventor has reduced the stroke or
touch of the said keys to six mm., or ". This absolutely new stroke or touch
is an important advance in the manufacture of pianofortes.
The pianoforte here described is not merely the result of a simple alteration
in dimensions such as is the case with the 6, 5, 4, and 3 octave pianofortes, but
it is the solution of a new problem in construction. The new pianoforte is
designed to relieve the teacher giving instruction of all drawbacks and difficulties.
and to enable the pupil or child to make better progress in its studies. Therefore
also the ear of the pupil is properly trained from the very beginning. Both
the arrangement of the keys and the tones produced by striking the latter, are
exactly the same as in the case of an ordinary pianoforte. Therefore in using
such an instrument the method of instructing children is exactly the same as
that for grown-up people, or, in other words, the method of instructing children
as hitherto practised, is completely changed, and considerably simplified.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
A piano whose keyboard comprises six octaves and has an arrangement of keys
which exactly corresponds to the arrangement in the ordinary pianos of seven
octaves and which extends uniformly from the middle key D to both ends, the
dimensions of and resistance to striking of the said keys being such that children
of the age of from six to ten years are enabled to span complete octaves with
each hand, to reach over the whole keyboard with their arms, and to exercise
a powerful touch.
The 20th J... of Cantumhi 1900
F. WISE HOWORTH,.
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.