Edward Light designed and marketed several novel string instruments during the early 19th century. Patented in 1816, the dital harp has a thumb-operated key mechanism that allows the player to raise the pitch of each string a half step by pressing on buttons (so-called ditals) on the back of the instrument. Derived from the Italian word dito (finger), a dital is a key that, when pressed, draws a string down against a fret to change its pitch. Like most of Light’s creations, this instrument is varnished a dark color to contrast its gold-colored decoration.