IMPROVED ARRANGEMENTS FOR FACILITATING THE TEACHING AND PLAYING OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS OF THE CHARACTER OF THE VIOLIN, VIOLA, VIOLONCELLO, DOUBLE BASS. AND GUITAR
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Brooks, of Dunstable, in the County of
Bedford, and Charles Inwards, of Bute Street, Luton, in the said
County of Bedford, Professor of Music, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
ARRANGEMENTS FOR FACILITATING THE TEACHING AND PLAYING OF STRINGED
INSTRUMENTS OF THE CHARACTER OF THE VIOLIN, VIOLA, VIOLONCELLO, DOUBLE
BASS. AND GUITAR."
Sealed the 29th April 1864, and dated the 4th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Brooks and
Charles Inwards at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 4th November 1863.
We, ROBERT BROOKS, of Dunstable, in the County of Bedford, and CHARLES
INWARDS, of Bute Street, Luton, in the said County of Bedford, Professor of
Music, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
ARRANGEMENTS FOR FACILITATING THE TEACHING AND PLAYING OF STRINGED
INSTRUMENTS OF THE CHARACTER OF THE VIOLIN, VIOLA, VIOLONCELLO, DOUBLE BASS,
AND GUITAR," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the adaptation of a number of stops.or studs,
which can be fixed on or attached to the finger boards of the above and

page_text: of the finger board, and 6 the protruding stud or stop,) which can be made of
ivory, pearl, ebony, or other substance, and of any required form, as thus
for instance, and each may be of a different color, so as to
indicate the different notes of the chromatic-scale or otherwise, and the above
arrangement may be combined and used with letters, figures, or devices placed
upon the said studs or projections or upon the finger board, close to them or
otherwise, in order the more readily to denote the tones or semitones to be
indicated by the said studs or projections.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Brooks and Charles Inwards in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 4th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
BROOKS, of Dunstable, in the County of Bedford, and CHARLES INWARDS, of
Bute Street, Luton, in the said County of Bedford, Professor of Music, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto we, the
said Robert Brooks and Charles Inwards, Her special licence that we, the
said Robert Brooks and Charles Inwards, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Robert Brooks and Charles Inwards,
our 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 ARRANGEMENTS FOR FACILITATING
THE TEACHING AND PLAYING OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS OF THE CHARACTER OF THE
VIOLIN, VIOLINCELLO, DOUBLE BASS, AND GUITAR," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Robert Brooks and Charles Inwards, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of

page_text: 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 we, the said Robert Brooks and Charles Inwards,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
The object and purport of this Invention is to facilitate the teaching and
playing of stringed musical instruments, such as the violin, viola, violincello,
double bass, and guitar, by providing the finger-boards of the same with a
number of studs or projecting pieces, each of them serving as a guide for the
player's fingers for obtaining the sound of a particular note, whether it be a full
tone or a semitone, and to secure this result without the objections which exist
to keys or spring pieces acting upon the string, as also to projecting ridges
extending across the whole width of the finger-board, which latter arrangements
are found to be undesirable; the nature and character of such our Invention
being this: We use a number of stops or studs fixed in or attached to or
forming part of the finger-board of an instrument of the kind aforesaid, these
stops or studs being, as we prefer, similar to those illustrated by the accom-
panying Drawing, and hereafter described with reference to the same, which
stops or studs may be all of one color or of various colors, and various sizes
and forms, the better to denote the different notes, whether full tones or
semitones, and they may be of various forms, such as hexagonal, or polygonal,
or spherical, or other form, so long as they preserve the character of stops or
studs, and on the same finger-board some studs may be of one form and some
of another form, though we prefer the forms shewing by the Drawing. And
the better to denote the position for each note, this arrangement may, if
desired, be combined with letters, figures, or devices placed on the said studs
or stops or on the finger-board close to the said studs or stops.
This Invention can be applied with good effect to larger instruments than
those ordinarily used.

page_text: thereto; Fig. 2, a side view of the same; Fig. 3 a view of one of the studs
or projecting pieces.
The said Drawings have a to denote the finger-board, and b to denote the
studs, some only being marked 1* (at Fig. 3), denoting the shank of the stud,
which is to fit tightly in the keyboard, and 2* (at Fig. 3), denoting the
projecting head of the stud, which stands up beyond the surface of the key-
board, as shewn by Figs. 1 and 2. c denotes the strings of the instrument.
The shank of the stud might, if thought desirable, be threaded and fit into a
screw socket in the finger-board.
Note. In playing, the fingers should be placed not on the stud but on
the back of the stud nearest to the neck of the instrument. The studs may
be of mother-of-pearl, ivory, bone, horn, wood, or other suitable substance.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we hereby
declare that we claim the improved arrangements for facilitating the teaching
and playing on stringed instruments of the character of the violin, viola,
violincello, double bass, and guitar, consisting in the adoption of studs or
projecting pieces of the character, in the manner and for the purposes herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Brooks and Charles Inwards,
: set our hands hands and seals, this Third day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight.hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
GEORGE MARSHALL.
ROBERT BROOKS.
(L.B.)
CHARLES INWARDS. (L.S.)