IMPROVE- MENTS IN PIANOFORTES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
MAURICE ELIZEE SAUTTER, of Austin Friars, in the City of London, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-sixth day of June, in the eighth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles
Maurico Elizee Sautter, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Charles Maurice Elizee Sautter, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Maurice Elizee Sautter, my
exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time, and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PIANOFORTES," communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing
abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Charles Maurice Elizee Sautter, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Maurice Elizee Sautter, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of the first improvement is to enable the performer to produce
continuous sounds on the pianoforte, the intensity of which sounds may be
increased or diminished at the will of the performer. This effect is obtained
by exciting the vibrations of the strings by a succession of shocks from
hammers put in motion by a cylinder that is caused to revolve as long as the
instrument is being played, so as obtain continuous sounds, the arrangement
being such that the hammers are only put in motion by the cylinder when they
are brought into connection with it by pressure on corresponding keys. It is
clear that in consequence of the numerous different modes of making piano-
fortes, the position of the cylinder and of the keys and hammers used to carry
this improvement into effect, and also the mechanical means used to connect
them together and with the other parts of the instrument must vary more or
less to suit such different construction of instruments, I therefore wish it
to be understood that, in only describing certain means for accomplishing the
Invention I do not confine my claim to the means described so long as the
strings of a pianoforte are acted on in a similar manner.
I will now proceed to describe a mode of applying the aforesaid Invention
to an horizontal instrument. R, R, is one of the keys of the instrument;
A', A, A, is the bottom of the case of the pianoforte; underneath this is
placed another table of keys A, A, A, A, one of the keys of which is represented
by B, C, D. This second table of keys is so placed, that it may be drawn
forward when it is wanted to act. When in a state of rest, the keys are
hidden in a recess A'. The Drawing represents the lower keys as drawn for
action. E is one of the strings; N is the cylinder with teeth o, 0, 0, 0;
F, G, H, is one of the hammers; it moves on an axis G that is placed on a
stand L, which is fixed on a lever K, L. This lever K, L, is attached by its
extremity L to a transversal beam M, so as to be allowed a vertical motion
round the point L. Now the bammer F, G, H, is connected with the
key B, C, D, by means of a rod Q that rests on tho key and supports the end K
of the lever K, L, so that a pressure on B, by causing C, D, to rise, drives up
the rod Q, which lifts the end K of the lever K, L, and causes the hammer
F, G, H, to come into the position indicated by the red lines. In this position
the tail F of the hammer is caught by every tooth o of the cylinder A; when

page_text: the tooth has passed, the head H of the hammer strikes the string; the tail is
then caught by another tooth, and II rises and falls again, and so on every time
its tail F is met by one of the teeth of the cylinder. This produces a series of
shocks, which continue as long as the cylinder is kept in motion, and as long
as the key at B is pressed, the speed of succession of which depends upon the
speed of the cylinder and the number of its teeth. It will be understood that
by pressing more or less on the key at B, the performer brings the hammer
more or less into connexion with the cylinder, and that he is thereby enabled
to regulate the strength of the shocks and the intensity of the sound produced.
In order to leave perfect freedom to the vibration of the string, the damper T
is to be lifted during all the time that the action of the hammer takes place.
This is effected by a small rod S, which is placed under the stem of the damper,
in close connection with it, so that when D rises in consequence of the pressure
on its opposite end B, S may be driven up by a spring U, V, X, attached to D.
The motion received by S is communicated to the damper T, and the effect
lasts as long as the key is pressed, and therefore as long as the hammer remains
in action with the cylinder. Several small springs are introduced to ensure the
accuracy of the action; they are represented in the Drawing.
The Drawing shows that the application of the Invention does not interfere
with the ordinary action, so that a pianoforte may be played in the ordinary
manner or so as to obtain the continuous sounds. And I would remark, that
in the instruments made rotary motion has been obtained to the cylinder N by
means of a treadle acted on by the performer, but any convenient means may
be resorted to; and it will be readily seen by a workman that an instrument
can be made entirely and solely with the new mechanism, so as to produce no
other sounds but the continuous ones. This may be effected by simply sup-
pressing in the instrument above described the use of the common mechanism.
From the above description, aided by the Drawing, a workman will readily
apply this part of the Invention to other construction of piano, whether with
horizontal or vertical strings, and whether the pianoforte is to be capable of
playing in the ordinary manner, and with a continuous sound, as herein
described, or only with the continuous sound; and he will vary the action
employed so as to adapt the Invention to the particular construction of a
pianoforte.
The object of the second improvement is to enable the performer by the
single motion of one key to produce the sound corresponding to this key, and
also at the same time the octave of the same sound. This is effected by
having the key touched connected in its action with the hammer of the octave
The means of connection is by an oblique lever placed either under or above

page_text: the key, or in any convenient position, according to the instrument to which
the Invention is applied, one end of which lever is acted upon by the key
touched, while the other end communicates the motion received to the
hammer of the octave. As there are various constructions of pianofortes, and
as a workman acquainted with the different constructions will, from the
description herein given, readily apply the Invention to other pianofortes
differing in construction, it will not be necessary to describe each construction
of pianoforte with the Invention applied thereto. I shall proceed to give two
examples of the means of applying this part of the Invention first to a vertical
instrument and then to a horizontal one of common construction.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS, SHEETS No. 2.
Figure 1, A, A, is the bottom of the case; B, C, is the front of the key
touched; D, the back of the octave key. The common parts of the instru-
ments are well known. I place under A, A, a case a, a, a, a, in which I
introduce the oblique levers E, F, G. Each of these levers moves on an
axis F, and is so placed as to have its end E in connection with the key B, C,
by a stem L that rests on E, and comes under B, while the other end G of
this lever carries an escapement rod M, N, which acts on the lever O, O.
When B is being pressed in the act of playing, the stem L communicates
the pressure to E, which moves on its axis F, and causes the end G to
rise; the end G lifts the rod M, N, which drives up the lever O, O, and
propels the hammer of the octave of the key B in the same way as would
be the case if the key C, D, of that octave itself were touched. M, N, acts
upon 0, 0, by means of a tooth Q that catches the angle e, but as it is
necessary that the action should cease at the instant when the hammer is
going to touch the string, there is a screw P placed in M, N, which screw
coming at a certain point in contact with the surface K, K, moves M, N,
thereby disengaging the angle e from the tooth Q, which causes 0, 0, to fall
back. M, N, has another tooth T, which lifts the rod S, S, by supporting
the fork U as long as the oblique lever is acted upon, thus keeping the
damper off from the string. When the oblique levers are required to act, all
the axes F being carried by a beam or plank, that beam or plank is moved up
and down by means of a pedal or other contrivance. This beam I would
recommend in this case to be made as represented in the Drawing by H, H;
it is arranged so as to move on hinges at one end c, and to be acted upon on
the other end by the pedal b. In a state of rest the beam and the oblique
levers are placed as indicated by the red lines, Figure 2, of Drawings. No. 2
shews part of a plan of the oblique levers.

page_text: HORIZONTAL INSTRUMENT, DRAWINGS No. 3.
Figure 1, X, X, is the bottom of the case; B, C, is the front of the key
touched; D, the back of the octave key. The common parts of the instru-
ment are well known. Here I place the oblique levers above the keys.
E, F, G, is one of the oblique levers; it is attached by a screw F to a
bearer A, A. The key B, C, carries a small piece P, which, when the key
is pressed, lifts up E and drives down G; G is connected by a small stem O
with the extremity of a bell crank lever L, M, N, which moves on M, N,
being pulled down, L is moved, and gives a horizontal motion to an escape-
ment rod I, H. In consequence of this motion the tooth i of I, II, catches
V, and propels the hammer; but I, H, carries a projection T, the surface of
which comes in contact with the head of a screw U, and this by disengaging
the tail of the hammer allows it to fall back into its resting position. In
order to act on the dampers another series of oblique levers may be placed
under the keys. E, F, G, will be one of these levers, one end of which is
connected with B, C, by a rod H, and the other end with the damper by a
rod I. It is clear that the damper is thereby kept up as long as the key is
pressed. The beam A, A, which carries the upper series of oblique levers
rest when they are not wanted on a spring, which keeps them from the reach
of the small pieces P placed on the keys, while the lower series of oblique
levers are laying on their support in a like position to that described for the
vertical instruments. Now the pedal acts by simultaneously raising the series
of lower levers and depressing the series of upper levers, so that they both
come at the same time into the position required, in order that they may be
properly acted upon by the keys. This is produced by any of the well-known
simple mechanical contrivances.
Figure 2, Drawings No. 3, is part of a plan shewing the relative positions
of the keys and of both series of oblique levers. From the above description
a workman will readily vary the apparatus when applying this part of the
Invention to a different arrangement of pianoforte to either of those shewn,
the Invention not being confined to the particular arrangement of pianoforte
described. It must be observed that although the above examples describe
the connexion as taking place between a note and its higher octave, the same
arrangement may connect the said note with its lower octave by simply
inverting the position of the oblique levers.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Maurice Elizee Sautter, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
MAURICE (L.S.) SAUTTER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Charles Maurice Elizee Sautter
came before our said Lady the Queen in. Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.