A METHOD OF PRODUCING FROM VIBRATING SUBSTANCES A TONE OR MUSICAL SOUND, THE PECULIAR POWERS IN THE MANAGEMENT WHEREOF ARE ENTIRELY NEW, AND WHICH MUSICAL INSTRUMENT I DENOMINATE THE 'SOSTENENTE PIANOFORTE
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISAAC
HENRY ROBERT MOTT, of Brighton, in the County of Sussex, Teacher and
Composer of Music, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of February,
in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Isaac Henry Robert Mott, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, His. especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Isaac Henry Robert
Mott, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during
the term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within.
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A METHOD OF PRODUCING FROM VIBRATING SUBSTANCES A TONE OR MUSICAL
SOUND, THE PECULIAR POWERS IN THE MANAGEMENT WHEREOF ARE ENTIRELY NEW,
AND WHICH MUSICAL INSTRUMENT I DENOMINATE THE 'SOSTENENTE PIANOFORTE;""
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the
said Isaac Henry Robert Mott, shall not particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
I

page_text: •
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Isaac Henry Robert Mott, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in-and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and
the following references or or description thereof (that is to say):-
One great distinction between my method and those before discovered
(which requires particular notice) is that in my method the wires (strings or
other materials of which the scale may be formed) are compelled to vibrate
from and to their sound board or support in a direction approaching to and
receding from the roller or other rotary body or moveable apparatus, thereby
giving out their tone from any degree of delicacy or softness to their fullest
extent of power, causing the vibrations to be so made as to be capable of being
increased, sustained, or diminished, as the performance may require, or the
performer's fancy dictates. A scale may be constructed for the purpose, of
wire, catgut, springs; or other material or materials which will give sounds
by vibration, capable of being regulated in agreement with the musical science
(see one degree of such scale at a, a, Fig. 1 and 2), but in this instance no
claim is made for such formation of the scale. For example, suppose the
scale of vibrators to be constructed of wire or catgut, as the strings of a
pianoforte, pedal harp, or other suitable musical instrument, 1st, a fine silken
line, thread, hair, 'or some other substance or substances may be suspended
(by pins, springs, or other apparatus) in a convenient direction, crossing and
almost touching the strings at or near the places where the hammers usually
act, or in any other suitable part of the vibrating body. This is useful as an
auxiliary in attaching or detaching the sostenente apparatus, but the tone
can be produced without it (sec red line, Fig. 1 and 2.) 2nd, a little silk,
cotton, hair, or some other suitable material or materials should be made to
pass round, inclose, connect, or communicate with the aforesaid silken line,
or other detacher (if any be made use of), so as to inclose, include, connect
with (or communicate from) one or more of the unisons or vibrating bodies
in such a manner that when both ends of each connector are brought together
and it is suspended in a line, it may appear to intersect the string or strings at
about right angles (sec b, b), or in any other suitable manner, thus proceeding
with each remaining degree of the scale. It may be useful in this place to
observe that the composition and quantity or thickness of these connectors or
communicators (for which I prefer silk) may vary according to the size

page_text: of the vibrating bodies. 3rd, a grooved, roller, barrel, pulley (c, c), or other
suitable apparatus, which can (according to any known principle of mechanism)
be made to partake of a rotary or reiterated motion, should be placed near the
strings or other vibrating bodies which form the scale. A portion of each
groove, or of the moveable body or rotary apparatus, may (or may not) be
wound or wrapped with silk or other suitable. matter, and a little powdered
rosin, or other suitable material or composition, should be applied. The
aforesaid connecting material or materials which communicate from the
vibrating body or bodies may lay upon or be brought into contact with the
roller, barrel, or other rotary apparatus, and those communicating from unisons
should occupy one or more of the said grooves, or in any other suitable manner.
I do not confine myself to dimensions, or to any material in particular of which
to form the roller or other rotary apparatus, but give the preference to metal
or a compound, for the sake of impetus and its possessing a less liability to
warp. I also find it useful in general to diminish the circumference gradually
towards the gravest part of the scale, in the proportion of about one half
more or less in 5 or 6 octaves. Thus, if my roller or other rotary apparatus
be nine inches in circumference at the most acute side of the scale, it may
be about four and a half at the most grave. 4th, a silken thread, hair (d, d),
or some other material or materials, should be made fast at one end to the
aforesaid connector or connectors, communicator or communicators (described
in Number 2), so that about th or th, more or less, of the circumference of
the roller, barrel, or other rotary apparatus, or of the groove or grooves
therein, may receive the said connector or connectors, communicator or
communicators, after the said silken. thread or other conductor is made
fast to it or them. Sometimes I occasionally attach fine wire springs
(e, e), weights, or other suitable apparatus for improvement of tone, or for
forming a convenient communication or connection between the keys or
levers and the materials which press upon the roller, barrel, or other rotary
apparatus (and produce this tone from the vibrating body or bodies), and
also for causing the lever to return to its proper station; but although
my methods (of bringing the said connector or connectors, communi-
cator or communicators, into action upon the roller or other moveable
apparatus) are various, according to circumstances, this explanation of one
or two I expect will be sufficient for every purpose (see the silken or other
chords, var. h, h, h,) and dotted line, Fig. 1; h, h, h, which is attached at one
or both ends to the regulator g. 5th, I adjust a set of levers (see one .f, f.)
to the keys above their centres in a moveable bar or frame, to which the
hitherto loose extremities of the silken threads, hairs, or other conductors

page_text: or auxiliary conductors communicate, or which the springs or other apparatus
which may be employed are to be attached, and in this latter case the hitherto
loose extremities of the conductors may communicate to these springs or
other apparatus which may be employed either immediately or by means of
other chords, springs, screws, or fit materials, by the, aid of which moveable
bar of leavers, and the aforesaid detacher or line on the opposite side of the
wires, strings, or other vibrators, the sostenente powers of the instrument
may be employed or not, at pleasure. 6th, sostenente instruments can be
made according to my Invention with 1, 2, 3, or more unisons to each degree
of the scale, and either horizontal, perpendicular, grand, or square, or
constructed in any other suitable manner. There are also various ways of
rendering instruments constructed according to my Invention capable of
being played by means of claviers, barrels, and other machinery, and also
various ways of applying and adding this my Invention, or so much of it as
may be necessary, to instruments which may or may not have been purposely
constructed to admit of such application or addition; but in all cases regulators
(see g, g,) by means of screws, springs, or other apparatus are useful, in order
to adjust the tension of the silken chords, connectors or communicators, and
conductors, so that the vibrating body or bodies may give out the degree of
tone required. 7th, by the application of an intersecting bridge or moveable
stay (, ) made to act or not by means of a stop or pedal against the wires
or strings at their proper points of division, the instrument is made to produce
peculiar harmonic sounds much above its natural tone. To this bridge is
attached buff leather, or other soft substance upon the edge, which touches
the strings also by means of a stop or pedal. The hammers or other agents
may be made to act or not at pleasure. 8th, a rotary or reiterated motion
may be given to the roller or rotary apparatus by means of a wheel crank
and pedal (Fig. 3), which latter I contrive so to hang or centre that when the
foot rests upon it the moveable frame of leavers having a communication or
connection with it, the leavers come in contact with the keys, so that when
the rotary apparatus is in motion the sostinente powers may be employed,
and the instant the foot is taken off the pedal the leavers are disengaged
from the keys, and those powers then remain silent. This pedal may also
be so centred or hung (by letting the centre of motion be underneath the sole
of the foot) as that when the heel rests upon it the crank may be forced
upwards, and when the toes press the crank may be impelled downwards, or
vice versa (see Fig. 3.)
I presume that any person or persons at all acquainted with the nature
of musical instruments, or their mechanism in general, would, upon perusing

page_text: the description and Drawings, be enabled clearly to understand my method,
and to produce the sostinente pianoforte powers of tone or a musical sound
from vibrating bodies, causing the vibrations to be made from and to the
sound board or support in a direction which approaches to and receeds
from the roller or other rotary apparatus, and in such a manner as to be
capable of being increased, sustained, or diminished, as the performance may
require, or the performer's fancy may dictate, which method I claim as my
Invention. Such person or persons would also, I presume, see many ways
of gaining a rotary motion, of contriving a stop or pedal to take off the
hammers, another stop or pedal to bring the intersecting bridge occasionally
into action, and would also sce a convenient way of raising or falling the
moveable bar of leavers by its connection with the pedal or pedals, without
any further explanation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Henry Robert Mott, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
ISAAC HENRY ROBERT (L.S.) MOTT.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of March,
c
T
ISAAC HENRY ROBERT (L.S.) MOTT.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of March,
in the year of our Lond 1817, the aforesaid Isaac Henry Robert Mott cam
before our said Lord the King in His 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 stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventeen.