Books › The violin, how to make it, 1880 › scan 26
Scan 26
The violin, how to make it, 1880
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 20. See the scan on archive.org.
1Claviol, or Keyed Violin. In 1800 this gentleman patented an invention applicable to pianofortes and other stringed instruments, including the Violin, whereby the belly of the Violin was exposed on both sides, the instrument having no back, but a firm wooden rib or bar placed under the breast, and a spring underneath the sound-post, for the purpose of resisting the tension of the strings. Such was the enthusiasm of the inventor, that he actually carried this process into execution upon a Stradivarius Violin, by removing the back and substituting the foregoing contrivances, and with what result may be easily imagined, as the instrument was rendered utterly worthless so far as quality of tone was concerned, although the mere loudness was little diminished. In 1788, C. Claggat patents an invention, whereby the tail-piece of the Violin may be brought to any desired angle, and as a consequence, a diminished pressure on the breast of the instrument may be produced, with greater facility of fixing and altering the sound-post. Another invention for keeping the strings of the Violin and other musical instruments always in tune, was patented during the same year by Peter Litherland; whilst an invention for a somewhat analogous purpose was patented by Jubb in 1805.
3Perhaps the strangest of English bow-instruments was that of Mr. Edwards, announced in 1823 as the "Semi-Luna, and yielding a fine tone without the aid of wind or strings." Nothing could scarcely have been more simple. A number of short iron pins, or stout wires, are set on the edge of a half moon, or curve, which curve forms the exterior of the half transverse section of a hollow cylinder, to which a bow is applied which produced a feeble tone from each.
5In 1835, T. Howell claims certain improvements in the construction of the Violin, Violoncello, and Double-Bass, by increasing the length of the neck for greater facility of fingering, whilst the upper ends of the instrument are proportionally shortened, and two years afterwards an invention is patented by J. F. Grosjean, consisting in the application of vitreous or crystallized substances to the surfaces of stringed instruments, including the Violin. In 1852, R. H. Brooman patents an improvement in the Violin and other similar instruments by a contrivance for
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