IMPROVED DIGITORIUM (A SMALL INSTRUMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE WRISTS AND. FINGERS, AND IN CONNECTION WITH PIANOFORTE, ORGAN, AND HARMONIUM PLAYING).
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Myer Marks, of 53, Richmond Road, Bayswater,
London, W., in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
DIGITORIUM (A SMALL INSTRUMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE WRISTS AND. FINGERS,
AND IN CONNECTION WITH PIANOFORTE, ORGAN, AND HARMONIUM PLAYING)."
Sealed the 17th May, 1867, and dated the 23rd November 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Myer Marks at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
.November 1866.
I, MYER MARKS, of 53, Richmond Road, Bayswater, London, W., in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED DIGITORIUM (A SMALL INSTRUMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE WRISTS
AND FINGERS, AND IN CONNECTION WITH PIANOFORTE, ORGAN, AND HARMONIUM
PLAYING)," to be as follows:-
Drawings Nos. 1, 2, 3, are appliances attached to the sides and back of
digitorium to produce great tension of the fingers; Nos. 2 and 3 are alike.
Drawings Nos. 4, 5, are appliances to ascertain and acquire the exact
position and distance requisite for the hands, wrists, and arms in playing on
the pianoforte, organ, and harmonium. No. 4, a slide connected with bottom
of digitorium, which can be drawn in and out at will so as to suit all sizes of
fingers and hands. No. 5 an appliance raised and lowered at will, and on
which the wrists rest.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Myer Marks in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd May 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MYER
MARKS, of 53, Richmond Road, Bayswater, London, W., in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Myer Marks, Her special licence that I, the said Myer Marks,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Myer
Marks, my executors, 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 "IMPROVED DIGITORIUM
A SMALL INSTRUMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE WRISTS AND FINGERS, AND IN CONNEXTION
WITH PIANOFORTE, ORGAN, AND HARMONIUM PLAYING," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Myer Marks, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under mine, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly 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 Myer Marks, do hereby declare the
nature of said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
The digitorium a term used as a trade mark and applied to a small
instrument to strengthen the fingers and wrists, and which is the Invention of
the Patentee of improved digitorium.
The digitorium consists of five keys or notes enclosed in a case of wood
and the keys of the digitorium are similar to the keys of the piano and organ.
The names of the five keys or notes of the digitorium are C, D, E, F, G.
The keys of the digitorium are made of different degrees of weight some
keys of an easy touch, others of a heavier touch, so as to suit professors and
pupils. The notes of the keys of the digitorium being C, D, E, F, G, all five

page_text: fingered exercises. for the piano or organ can be played on the digitorium.
The action of the keys of the digitorium is caused by springs of metal of
different degrees of thickness, and tempered for the purpose. The size of the
digitorium is about 6 inches long by 5 inches wide and 2 inches high.
Lenght of key of digitorium 54 inches.
The "improved" digitorium (for which Letters Patent have now been
granted) has keys or notes the same as those of the digitorium and are
made in the same manner, and also the keys are made of different degrees of
weight, and are called the same as those of the digitorium C, D, E, F, G.
The action of the keys is the same as that of a digitorium. The size of the
case of improved digitorium is also of the same size as that of a digitorium,
and is made of wood. The action of the key of the improved digitorium is
caused by springs, the same as in digitorium.
The nature of the said Invention for "improved digitorium" is as follows:-
Drawings Nos. 1, 2, 3, are appliances attached to the sides and back of
the digitorium, to produce great tension of the fingers and stretch of octaves;
No. 2, 3, are alike.
Drawings Nos 4, 5, are appliances to ascertain and acquire the exact
position and distance requisite for the hands, wrists, and arm (of persons of
all ages) in playing on the pianoforte, organ, and harmonium. No. 4, a slide
connected with bottom of digitorium which can be drawn in and out at will
so as to suit all sizes of fingers and hands. Its length is made accordingly.
No. 5 an appliance raised & lowered at will, and on which the wrists
rest. No. 5 can be raised and lowered by means of a screw in wood or iron.
Nos. 1, 2, 3, are pieces of wood of the exact shape as in Drawings made of
sizes suited to the stretch of different sizes of hands, the pieces of wood being
about inch in thickness they are covered with a soft material, such as velvet
or leather.
In witness whereof, I, the said Myer Marks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this 22rd day of May, in the year of our Lord