IMPROVED MODES OR METHODS OF KEEPING IN TUNE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CALLED PIANO-FORTES, GRAND PIANO- FORTES, HARPSICHORDS, SPINNETS, AND OTHER STRINGED INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
THUNDER, of Brighthelmstone, in the County of Sussex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
January, in the forty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Thunder, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence that I, the said Edward Thunder, my executors, administrators, 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 "IMPROVED MODES OR METHODS OF
KEEPING IN TUNE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CALLED PIANO-FORTES, GRAND PIANO-
FORTES, HARPSICHORDS, SPINNETS, AND OTHER STRINGED INSTRUMENTS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Edward
Thunder, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully
and at large annear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Thunder, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described and
ascertained in the above Drawings and description thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Thunder, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and five.
EDWARD UNDER (-)
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents the screw rest pin, with all its parts, for tuning and
keeping in tune the strings or wires of musical instruments. The piece a is a
part of Fig. 1, the sides of the top of which is flattened to receive the tuning
hammer on it, as represented at top of Fig. 2, which Fig. 2 is the edge view
of Fig. 1. The bottom of the piece a at d is worked small to fit and turn in
a hole drilled in the piece b, as described by the dotted lines at f; and at d, on
the said small part, is a groove worked round it, and at g, in the part b, is a
hole drilled for a pin to go through, to fit in the said groove, to keep the
piece a from separating or coming out of the piece bat e. In the piece a is
also a screw or worm cut about the middle of it, which works in the cogs of
the piece c, as in Fig. 1. The piece 6 has a round shank at its bass, that is
put in a hole that may be made for it in the instrument, or the said shank
may be cut short, and rivetted to any substance, and fixed or screwed to the
instrument. is the place where c is to be put, and turns any way on the
centre pin i, shewn also at i-in the piece b, b, which pin is to be rivetted
to keep it on. c is a piece either made a whole circlo or a part of a circle,
*represented with a rebate and cogs worked on its extreme circumference.
The edge view and thickness of c is seen at c, c, shewing the rebate that is made
before the cogs are cut, which cogs work in a groove in the piece b, as seen
at k, in Fig. 1, and which groove is more particularly shewn at.k, in the
piece b, b, which piece b, b, represents the piece bedgeways. 7 in the piece c
is a pin formed to put the string on to be tuned, represented also at 1, in Fig. 2.
It might otherwise. be put on a hook, as at 7, in the piece c, c, c. After the
string m to be tuned is put on the pin 7, in Fig. 1, the, tuning hammer is put
on the top of Fig. 1, and turned one way or the other, and the cogs in the
piece c, Fig. 1, being worked in the screw in piece a, Fig. 1, will draw the
string put on the pin at l, Fig. 1, to any tension required.
.
Fig. 3 is another method of tuning the string or wire to a steady and fixed
tention. The part a, at the bottom, screws into the instrument, and draws the
.

page_text: b
piece 6 downwards, which is set in a notch in its bass. Of course the string
fixed on the the part c is drawn to any tention required.
Fig. 4 is a representation of another method; namely, the part a screws in
the instrument at its bass, and forces the piece 6 downward, one end of which
is put in a notch on the instrument; at the other, on the hook, is fixed the
string or wire to be tuned, which string is brought over a small wheel set in
the piece c, which is fixed or rivetted into any substance, and by turning the
piece a with the turning hammer the string or wire may be tuned to any pitch
required.
Fig. 5 represents only the middle part of the rest pin, made small for the
string or wire to be turned round it, which will have less tendency to return
than tho' it was fixed on it's utmost circumference.
Fig. 6 represents for the most part Fig. 5, except its bass is made taper,
whereby it will much longer fit the peg board in the instrument.
Fig. 7 is another method for tuning the string or wire to any fixed tention.
a points out a screw which is larger at its bass than at its top; the string or
wire to be tuned is to be brought round at the top of the said screw, and
twisted, as at b, leaving a loop of some length from the screw; therefore by
putting on the tuning hammer on the top of the rest pin a, and turning it, the
string or wire b works towards the bottom of the screw a, which will draw the
string or wire to any tension required.
Fig. 8 represents another method of tuning the string or wire. The part a
has a screw at its bass, which, by being turned, will force the part b, on which
the string or wire c is fixed, downward, by which any tention may be obtained.
d is the part in which the piece 6 works on the centre pin e, and is fixed or
rivetted at the bottom to any substance required. I make the above of any
metal or other proper material whatsoever.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Thirty-first day of January,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Edward Thunder came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of February, in the year above written.