EP2529368A1

EP2529368A1 - Improvement for a harmonica provided with an air distributor

Info

Publication number: EP2529368A1
Application number: EP11708523A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Jean-Claude Bibollet
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-01-29
Filing date: 2011-01-28
Publication date: 2012-12-05
Anticipated expiration: 2031-01-28
Also published as: EP2529368B1; WO2011092407A1; FR2955966A1; FR2955966B1

Abstract

The harmonica according to the invention comprises: a main hollow body, the front surface of which is open so as to act as a bell while the opposite rear surface is bored with mouthpiece holes (200); a plurality of walls that define air flow channels (30, 31); and two blade holders (4, 5) on which a plurality of vibrating sound blades are mounted, wherein said sound blades are positioned in correlation with the above-mentioned air flow channels. Said harmonica is characterized in that it comprises an air distributor (6) enabling the selective supply of air from a single mouthpiece hole (200) to two air flow channels (30, 31) that are placed side by side.

Description

Improvement for harmonica equipped with an air distributor

Technical field and object of the invention

The present invention relates to an improvement aimed firstly at sealing against air leaks and at optimizing the flow of airflows with the aim of improving the performance of harmonicas of the type possessing a dispenser. slidably mounted air for selectively feeding to a first channel, feeding at least one blown blade and at least one aspirated blade, or to a second channel, also feeding at least one blown blade and at least one aspirated blade, air sucked or the air blown by the player into a mouth hole common to these two adjacent air channels

A second object of this invention is to provide a harmonica whose thickness is less than that of harmonicas of this type existing in the prior art and to ensure better ergonomics as much at the mouth as at the level the holding in hand while enjoying the additional compactness of the instrument very appreciable.

A third objective of this invention is to propose a disposition of the sound waves adapted to facilitate certain game techniques known under the French terms of alteration, over blowing and suraspirations more known under the English terms of bends, overblows and overdraws allowing obtain intermediate notes between the basic notes, natural, different blades that the instrument contain said "altered" notes being particularly difficult to obtain with the harmonicas of the prior art, which makes them virtually inaccessible to gamers not having a long practice of the instrument. A fourth objective is to propose interior arrangements to the harmonica providing a solution to acoustically limited acoustic performance of the harmonicas of the prior art which, because of their very design, do not make it possible to offer air flow sucked and blown optimized flow and angle of attack relative to the blades necessary to ensure the vibration of the sound waves with force, without delay and the slightest breath of air. The aforementioned internal means integrated in the instrument and not requiring any maintenance being intended to replace the elements generally referred to as valves that the instruments require. of the prior art, these valves being difficult to set up and therefore expensive while remaining fragile and requiring thereby a binding maintenance and periodic replacement. Indeed, if the harmonicas of the prior art suffer from a poor performance on the aeraulic plan, and therefore consequently on the sound level, this is due to both the very penalizing air leaks as well as the poor design of the air channels which force sudden changes of direction in the airflow making it difficult and laborious to simultaneously vibrate several sound waves necessary to produce chords as well as to vibrate sufficiently powerful sound waves to generate an acoustic sound strong enough to avoid having to resort to a sound amplification system.

Concerning more particularly blade holders, if there are already certain improvements aimed at reducing unplanned air leakage between the edges of the window through which oscillates the free part of a sound blade and the edges of said blade these improvements use special molding blades which require sophisticated equipment and a high level of precision for their production, which results in high production costs. Moreover, since these technologies systematically involve the use of a material, generally of the thermoplastic type, very different from the metals used for the production of the sound strips themselves, it results from this heterogeneity of large disparities in the behavior and in the coefficients of expansion between the sound blades and the blade holder which is obviously very detrimental to the final performances. It should also be known that most thermoplastics are moreover sensitive to the phenomena of moisture uptake, resulting in limited dimensional variations admittedly, but which are nevertheless disadvantageous when blades and blade holders have to be adjusted relative to one another with a very high accuracy much easier to achieve and maintain over time by using for the blades and the blade holders metals having very close expansion coefficients between them.

Regarding the improvement of the performance of the harmonica according to the invention, as regards the blade holders themselves, one of the objectives is therefore to provide directly adaptable arrangements on blade holders of the prior art or on blade holders achievable with the same technologies and using the same materials and production machines as those of the prior art thus achieving high performance without investment for manufacturers and therefore the best price for users. The arrangements of the instrument proposed in this invention therefore constitute a relevant answer to the aforementioned problems encountered in the harmonicas of the prior art and they make it possible to obtain on the one hand a harmonica with a powerful sound thanks to the possibility of being vibrated. sound blades thicker than those of the prior art and they allow on the other hand to lower the threshold of vibration of the sound waves which then becomes possible at the slightest breath of air which allows a greater expressiveness of game ranging from pianissimo to fortissimo. Beforehand, to facilitate the description and the understanding of this document, we first agree that the mouthpiece constituting the part of the instrument in contact with the musician's mouth constitutes the upper part of the instrument while the opposite part, the flag, through which emitted sounds is the lower part of the instrument.

We further agree that the harmonica according to the invention, which may be of symmetrical or non-symmetrical external shape, is here positioned in such a way that its mean longitudinal plane Px is arranged vertically, said plane Px being the vertical plane passing substantially to mid-thickness of the instrument and thus passing substantially mid-thickness of the mouth thus passing substantially through the middle of the mouth holes and also passing substantially mid-thickness of the flag so close to the middle of said flag of the instrument. Of course, in the case where the entire part of the instrument disposed on one side of said mean longitudinal plane Px is identical to the entire part of the instrument disposed on the other side of this mean longitudinal plane Px, this plane Px constitutes then also the longitudinal plane of general symmetry of the instrument.

Finally we agree to call blades bladed blades fixed on the face of the blade holder oriented on the inner side of the air channels while the blades said sucked will be the blades fixed against the face of the blade holder located outside the air channels. In the present description, therefore, we will not take into account the fact that the so-called blown blades, whose main purpose is to enter into vibration by producing a sound when the player blows into the instrument, may in certain game techniques, enter in action even during aspiration. The same applies to so-called aspirated blades that can come into action during blowing in certain game techniques that occasionally force the blades to vibrate under the action of a directional flow of air contrary to that for which they have originally designed, but which, of course, remains their main mode of vibration. In the same way when, for the blade holders, the text mentions the term air intake face, it is always the face through which the air to pass through the window concerned, causing the corresponding blade to vibrate, and conversely, when the text evokes the term exhaust face, it is the face through which the air leaves after being passed to the through said window and this always with reference to the type, respectively sucked or blown, of the lamella associated with the window concerned.

This agreed, the instrument according to the invention consists of the following elements:

a main body, the peripheral shell of which makes it possible to grip the instrument, said main body being constituted by an elongated bell-shaped hollow element whose lower face is open to serve as a flag for the instrument. The upper face of the main body, opposite to the flag, constitutes the mouth of the instrument in which are arranged the mouth holes through which the musician insufflates or sucks the air which vibrates sound reeds, or blades sound, of the instrument. The outer shell of said main body may be symmetrical or not with respect to the mean longitudinal plane Px of the instrument and may also be generally symmetrical or not with respect to the vertical plane passing through the mid-length of the instrument,

an element called box spring or comb arranged in part at least inside the cavity in the main body. In this comb, which is or not a monolithic assembly with the main body, are arranged a plurality of air channels whose respective lengths are related to the length of the blades they feed,

- At least one blade holder held pressed against the corresponding bearing areas of the comb, which bearing zones being formed in particular by the edge of the walls Iséparant laterally the air channels between them.

Several vibrating sound blades, of the free reed type, consisting of thin generally metal slats secured by one of their ends to the blade holder by any means of attachment such as rivet, staple, screw, glue, welding point or clipping. Under the combined action of the force of the air sucked or blown by the musician and the flexural elasticity of said slats, the free end of these slats can oscillate on either side of a position of equilibrium passing through a window slightly larger dimensions arranged through the plate-bearing concerned.

Pressure means for applying the blade plate or plates against the comb and, if appropriate, additional sealing means for avoid air leaks between the different elements: the blade plate (s), the comb and the main body.

According to a first characteristic when the harmonica comprises two blade holders, the two planes passing through the faces of the blade holders bearing against the corresponding faces of the bed base can be parallel to each other or on the contrary be concurrent then constituting a dihedral or the edge common to said two planes is positioned on the side of the flag of the instrument, in the space beyond it and said dihedron is then open towards the mouth of the instrument is on the contrary the two planes are concurrent between them so that they constitute a dihedron whose common edge is positioned on the side of the mouth of the instrument in the space beyond it and said dihedron is then open towards the flag of the instrument. According to another characteristic, to allow the realization of channels associated with internal arrangements such as deflectors which will be described later in this document, the bed base can be advantageously made in two parts assembled together, for example at the level of the longitudinal longitudinal plane Px of the instrument, by gluing, welding clipping or by any other means and in particular simply by screwing the fixing screws of the blade plates which through said bed base sandwiched between them, this method of assembly providing advantage to keep the possibility of separating at will the two half box springs for easy cleaning.

According to another characteristic, the bed base may advantageously be made of a slightly elastically deformable material in order to fit any deformation of the blade-holding plates, thus avoiding any air leakage between the faces of the blade carriers and the corresponding faces of said bed base.

According to another characteristic of a particular embodiment, the bed base is a monolithic assembly with the upper cover and / or the lower cover.

The different arrangements proposed for the air channels are primarily intended to facilitate the circulation of air flows by avoiding swirling movements that penalize the responsiveness of the sound waves by delaying their vibration and braking when the flow of air. air reverses in the same channel, passing from a blown stream to a sucked flow and vice versa, which is very frequently the case during the game. A second objective is to ensure that the flow of air blown as the air flow aspirated orientation of the air streams in such a way that their angle of attack relative to the sound waves they drive are optimal thus allowing air savings opening the possibility of animating blades more powerful and / or more serious and / or more numerous.

To do this, according to a first embodiment, at least some of the air channels are conical, their width at the mouth face being greater than their width at their bottom, or end, located on the side of the flag of the instrument and this to increase the pressure of the air blown at the free end of the blown blades.

According to another embodiment, the width of at least some of the air channels, measured in the longitudinal direction of the instrument, is, at mid-length of said channels, a value greater than the width of said channels measured at level of the mouth of the instrument and also a value greater than the width measured at the bottom of the channel located on the side of the flag of the instrument.

According to another embodiment, the two lateral flanks of at least some of the air channels are helically shaped to create a double vortex in each of said channels, the two vortices being arranged symmetrically in each channel with respect to the plane passing through the axis. of the two blades concerned. In this embodiment for the first face of the bed base against which the first blade rests, the longitudinal edges of the channel considered generally go away from each other when one moves away from the mouth of the instrument to approach the flag in other words said edges of said channel are closer to each other at the mouth of the mouth of the instrument they are at the level of the zone d end of the channel and vice versa, for the same channel, on the other side of the bed against which rests the other blade holder, the longitudinal edges of said channel are generally approaching one another when the one moves away from the mouth of the instrument to get closer to the flag, in other words said edges of said channel are farther apart from each other at the mouth of the mouth of the instrument. are at the end zone of the canal

Such an arrangement also makes it possible to give priority to the ability of the instrument to produce the natural basic notes of each of the blades under the aspirated or blown air streams which correspond to their specificity or, on the contrary, to favor the ability of the instrument to produce so-called "altered" notes that require the sound blades to be solicited under suction or blown air flows in the opposite direction to those corresponding to their specificity. Thus, so that the instrument is primarily specialized in the production of natural basic notes, the blade holder supporting the suctioned blades will then be mounted against the face of the bed base in which, for each channel considered the longitudinal edges of said channel are closer to each other at the mouth face than they are near the bottom of the channel and the blade holder supporting the blown blades will then be mounted against the face of the bed in which, for each of the channels considered the longitudinal edges of said channel are further apart from each other at the mouth face than they are near the bottom of the channel.

Conversely if one wishes to find a compromise allowing to obtain of course the natural notes of the blades but however less stable than in the aforementioned assembly while facilitating the obtaining of the so-called notes "altered" it it will suffice to make a bed base inverted by symmetry with respect to the longitudinal longitudinal plane Px of said bed base so that for the blade holder supporting the blown blades for each of the channels considered the longitudinal edges of said channel are closer to each other at the level of the mouth face that they are in the vicinity of the opposite end of the channel and the blade holder supporting the suctioned blades will then be mounted against the face of the bed base in which, for each of the channels considered the Longitudinal edges of said channel are further apart from each other at the mouth face than they are in the vicinity of the opposite end of the channel.

Finally, according to another feature of a particular embodiment intended to facilitate and make more comfortable the game technique known to those skilled in the art under the English term of "Tongue blocking" the axis of the hole of mouthpiece feeding the sharpest blade of the instrument is advantageously located at a distance from the end

corresponding mouth of the lower mouth face to the distance at which is positioned the axis of the mouth hole feeding the most serious blade of the instrument relative to the corresponding end of said mouth face.

According to another characteristic, for at least some of the sound waves that comprises the harmonica according to the invention, the window through which the oscillating blade concerned is partly covered by a wall arranged obliquely to serve as a deflector, said oblique wall being positioned beyond the area swept by the oscillating portion of the sound blade. The end of the deflector located on the side of the free end of the sound blade concerned is located at a distance from the end of the window located on the side of said free end of the blade, between one quarter and three quarters of the total length of the window through which oscillates said blade. The baffles associated with the extracted sound blades are positioned between the blade holder and the inner face of the hood corresponding while the deflectors associated with the blown blades are positioned inside the air channels arranged in the bed of the harmonica.

Each of the deflectors in the form of a tunnel whose bottom is closed cul de sac, the opening of the tunnel being oriented on the side of the free end of the sound blade to which this deflector is associated while the vault of said tunnel progressively away from the blade holder, on which its base is plated, as one approaches the free end of the sound blade with which it is associated. Each of the deflectors associated with a soundblown blade, and therefore therefore positioned inside the bed base, is closed on three of its sides or by walls starting from its vault to join the face of the blade holder against which it is plated either directly by the side walls separating the air channels when it constitutes a monolithic assembly with the bed base. Likewise, each of the baffles associated with a blade that is sucked up, and therefore thus disposed outside the bed base, is closed on three of its sides either by walls directly belonging to said baffle and which join the blade holder to ensure that sealing to the air flows concerned either directly by the members of the counter-comb or cover concerned when said deflector constitutes with one or other of these a monolithic assembly.

According to a characteristic of a first embodiment, at least some of the deflectors associated with the blown blades are integral with the bed or comb of the harmonica with which they constitute a monolithic assembly. According to a variant of this embodiment the baffles corresponding to the blown blades are constituted by independent elements, reported therefore, which are either glued, or clipped to the bed base or simply sandwiched between said bed base and the corresponding face of the blade holder concerned .

According to another characteristic of an embodiment, at least some of the deflectors associated with the aspirated blades are integral with the corresponding cover of the harmonica with which they constitute a monolithic assembly. According to a variant of this embodiment, the baffles corresponding to the suction blades consist of independent elements, reported therefore, which are either glued or clipped to the corresponding cover or simply sandwiched between said cover and the corresponding face of the blade holder concerned. According to another feature of another embodiment, at least some of the deflectors associated with the suction blades are integral with a counter-comb or counter-bed frame inserted between the blade holder concerned and the inner face of the corresponding cover. These deflectors may either constitute with said counter-comb a monolithic assembly or be constituted by independent elements, reported therefore, which are either glued, or clipped on the counter-comb or simply sandwiched between the corresponding inner face of the comb-comb and the corresponding face of the lamellar concerned.

According to another embodiment, the baffles corresponding to the suction blades and / or the baffles corresponding to the blown blades together with the corresponding blade holder a monolithic assembly. According to another embodiment, the deflectors corresponding to the suction blades and / or the baffles corresponding to the blown blades consist of independent elements fixed to the corresponding blade holder by screwing, riveting, clipping, gluing or by any other removable fastening means or not. According to a preferred embodiment, the blade holders are of conventional design known to those skilled in the art, they are made from a metal plate in which are cut the windows through which the sound waves oscillate and the baffles are secured to said blade holder with the help of screws, possibly associated with nuts, so as to be removable, in particular to allow the change of the defective vibrating blades. In this embodiment, the conventional fastening rivets sound blades are therefore advantageously replaced by screws taking the sound blade concerned sandwiched between the blade holder and the insert element constituting the deflector which thus ensures the attachment of the blade concerned sound against the corresponding face of the blade holder. This type of assembly thus makes it possible to consider the easy and rapid assembly of said deflectors on all types of conventional blade-holders simply by replacing the original fastening rivet of the sound blade with a screw associated with a corresponding threaded deflector or equipped with an attached nut that allow to remove said deflectors selectively for some blades or for all blades according to the preferences of the harmonica player.

Finally, according to another embodiment, the deflectors corresponding to the aspirated blades are replaced by a simple deflector plate extending in the longitudinal direction of the instrument from the most serious blade to the highest blade of the instrument. Side flag of the instrument, along its length, the base of the baffle plate is kept pressed against the outer face of the blade holder concerned to prevent air streams from passing between these two bearing faces. The plate is then bent away from the blade as the mouth of the instrument is approached. located outside the space swept by the sound waves during their oscillations. The camber of said plate and the width of this plate, measured in the mouthpiece direction of the instrument, are of course calculated in such a way that the longitudinal edge of this plate-deflector is located below the free end of the blades. so that it thus covers only partially said blades substantially under the same conditions of distances as those described above for the deflectors.

Unlike the deflectors described above, the curved plate does not necessarily have walls arranged perpendicularly to the mean longitudinal plane Px of the instrument the objective being to constitute a simple springboard so that the air streams arriving from the flag leap over a portion of the area of the blades disposed between their free end and the attachment area of the blade to better focus on the free end zone of the blade where their efficiency will be optimal.

This plate-deflector, because of its simplicity of realization of course has advantages over the aforementioned deflectors individualized for each blade which are therefore more expensive to produce and especially longer to set up. .

According to another preferred embodiment, each of the air circulation channels feeds at least one blown blade and an aspirated blade. The two blades served by the same air channel are disposed in line on either side of the respective blade carrier and their respective longitudinal axes are coplanar with the longitudinal axis of said air channel while the oscillating free parts of said two sound waves stretch in diametrically opposite directions with respect to each other. The suction blade is fixed against the outer face of the blade holder and against the face of the blade holder oriented on the side of the corresponding cover of the harmonica while the blown blade is fixed against the face of said blade holder pressed against the bed base. The fixed end of each of the two blades can be fixed and held pressed against the blade holder either by welding, gluing, riveting or even better with the aid of one or more screws. According to a preferred embodiment of this embodiment, one or more screws pass through each of the two baffles associated with the two blades concerned as well as the blade holder and the bead of the two blades so that a single screw or possibly two screws are sufficient to ensure the assembly and the holding in position of said blades and said baffles relative to the blade holder. Such an arrangement proves very easy and very quick assembly and therefore very economical while offering the great advantage of being easily removable as well for the effective cleaning of the instrument for change easy of a failing sound blade. The aforementioned deflectors may be made of metal as well as thermoplastic material or thermosetting material.

When the baffles are attached parts fixed to the blade holder with screws they can be advantageously tapped to allow direct screwing of the corresponding screw.

According to a preferred embodiment, said deflectors are advantageously made of a slightly elastically deformable material so that, under the clamping pressure exerted by the fixing screw, they can deform slightly to fit perfectly the face of the holder. blade against which they are pressed and so as to avoid any air passage between said parts. Furthermore, given this slight elastic deformation by creep of the deflector, it is possible to achieve through said deflector a hole of a diameter slightly smaller than that of the fixing screw so that it is thus braked so that it will not be unintentionally unscrewed by the vibrations generated by the instrument. This represents a very big advantage in terms of safety because we must know that a sound blade attached to the blade holder with a simple screw as is the case in conventional harmonica repair in the prior art can always unintentionally unscrew and the player then has every chance to swallow, or even to inhale playing, said blade with all the dangers that can represent such a thin and sharp piece in the lungs of the harmonica player.

According to an alternative embodiment, if the material selected for the production of the deflectors is too flexible to provide sufficient strength by direct screwing of the fastening screw in the deflector said screw can then advantageously be associated with a conventional metal nut which may be partially at least drowned in a housing of appropriate shape arranged in said deflector. According to a particular mounting mode the baffles are removable and fixed to the corresponding blade holder by fixing screws and several baffles equipping adjacent sound blades can be advantageously joined together so as to constitute a monolithic assembly avoiding them to move by rotation under the effect of the vibrations generated by the sound blades while also offering the advantage of a cost more interesting than when they are each independent and therefore produced individually. According to another preferred embodiment, the deflector, in collaboration with the corresponding assembly screw, advantageously constitute an effective means of fixing an inserts strip cut in a flexible and resistant material to form an opposing sealing valve. to the air inlets, through the window concerned, in the opposite direction to that corresponding to the specificity of the blade. The width and the length of this leaflet are greater than the corresponding dimensions of the window concerned so as to that the periphery of said blade can come to bear directly on the face of the blade holder to ensure a satisfactory seal. On the blades of the prior art these lamella-valves, well known to those skilled in the art, are glued which makes it difficult and difficult to install and replace them; Moreover, their behavior in time is often low because of the solvents contained in the fixing adhesive used which alter the properties of said valves made in plastics often sensitive to said solvents, which solvents also constitute a danger for the user. because of the vapors that it inhales during its play time.

Fixing said valves with the fixing screw associated with the deflector concerned is therefore a relevant answer to the problems discussed above and this method of mechanical attachment and not by gluing offers the very interesting possibility of allowing the use of materials. plastics such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) often known as "Teflon" or polyolefins which have extremely interesting characteristics in terms of resistance to alternating flexion and especially anti-adhesion but which therefore can not be glued and are not therefore not usable in the embodiment of the prior art.

In this embodiment, the assembly screw and the baffle thus sandwich between them both the sound blade concerned, the blade holder and the valve leaflet described above.

According to another particular embodiment, the valve as described above constitutes a single monolithic assembly with the deflector of the opposite blade. This very advantageous embodiment is applicable when the blades sucked and blown are connected in pairs being arranged in line on either side of the blade holder concerned their respective longitudinal axes being coplanar with the longitudinal axis of the air channel unique that serves them. In this preferred embodiment, at least some of the pairs of sound blades may therefore be associated with a deflector covering a portion of the length of the window of the blade carrier through which the first sound blade oscillates, which is either of the suction blade type. either of the blown blade type. The deflector is extended by a thin flexible blade extending in the opposite direction to the free end of the sound blade of which it constitutes the baffle and this flexible blade constitutes the sealing valve of the second sound blade fed by the air channel concerned. The length and the width of the flexible blade are greater than the dimensions of the window through which oscillates this second sound blade which is of the opposite type to the first blade, so respectively either a blown blade or an aspirated blade. When the flow of air is opposite to that which corresponds to the type of the second sound blade, it comes to press the flexible blade against the face of the blade holder thus completely closing the air passage window of the second blade sound and thus forcing the entire air flow to pass through the window of the first blade whose type sucked or blown corresponds to it in the direction of the current flow.

The baffle and the thin blade constituting the valve may advantageously be produced, in particular by molding, at the same time and in the same material to then constitute a single-component monolithic assembly as well as being made in two-material injection from two different materials. but nevertheless compatible with each other. Of course, the material selected for producing the valve leaflet and, if appropriate, for producing the baffle may advantageously be of the thermoplastic type by selecting a material having the appropriate characteristics in terms of flexibility, resistance to tearing and tearing. alternating bending, anti-adhesion, and elastic memory.

According to another characteristic, when they are fixed to the blade holder by means of a screw, the baffles advantageously comprise a lug projecting from their bearing surface against the blade holder, said lug coming from housed in a correspondingly shaped hole made in the blade holder to oppose any inadvertent rotation of the deflector concerned.

According to a particular embodiment in which the blown blade and the corresponding sucked blade are disposed diametrically opposite each other on either side of the blade holder, the deflector associated with the blown blade and / or the associated deflector the suction blade has a small anti-rotation pin protruding from its bearing surface against the blade holder, said pin being housed in the thickness of the blade holder in the window in which oscillates the blade opposite to that for which it plays the role of deflector.

According to a characteristic of a preferred embodiment, in logical correlation with the respective amplitudes of the oscillations of the free end of each of the sound waves which are themselves directly related to the respective lengths of said sound waves at least at the level of the free end of the sound waves, the thickness of at least one of the blade carriers that comprises the harmonica is advantageously degressive continuously or by palliating serious blades acute blades and consequently, the height of at least one of the side faces of the window through which oscillates the lowest blade of said blade carrier is greater than the height of the corresponding lateral face of the window through which oscillates the highest blade of said blade holder.

According to a preferred embodiment, the harmonica according to the invention comprises a comb in which is arranged a plurality of walls delimiting air circulation channels feeding two blade holders arranged on either side of the mean longitudinal plane ( Px) of the harmonica each of said blade holder supporting a plurality of sound vibrating blades of the same type, drawn or blown, positioned in correspondence with the aforementioned air circulation channels. The longitudinal axes of the two sound waves, one of the blown type and the other type sucked, fed by the common channel concerned are advantageously coplanar in a plane disposed perpendicularly to the mean longitudinal plane Px of the instrument.

Between the mouth face of the instrument and the vibrating sound blades that it comprises is implanted a sliding air distributor, intended to selectively direct the air blown or sucked by the player towards one or the other of two air circulation channels fed by a mouth hole common to said two air channels, each of which can in turn supply at least one blown blade and at least one aspirated blade. For each of the mouth holes, the two aforementioned air circulation channels fed by said common mouth hole are arranged side by side, being separated from each other by a separating wall disposed perpendicularly to the longitudinal plane. average Px. One end of said partition wall abuts against the relevant face of the first blade holder while the other end of said partition wall bears against the corresponding face of the second blade holder. The sliding air distributor moves in axial translation in the longitudinal direction of the instrument to move from its first position, in which it conceals the entrance of the second air circulation channel and directs the air flows to the first channel feeding at least one blade of the first blade holder and at least one blade of the second blade holder, to its second position in which it conceals the inlet of the first air flow channel and directs the flow of air to the second channel feeding at least one blade of the first blade carrier and at least one blade of the second blade carrier.

According to a first embodiment, the air distributor is of the pushing type and is automatically returned to its maximum output position of the body of the harmonica by the return means and the player must therefore exert a bearing on the corresponding control member to bring it from its first extended position to its second retracted position. According to an inverted mounting mode, unlike the previous one, the air distributor is of the pulling type and it is automatically returned to its maximum retracted position in the harmonica by the return means and the player must therefore exercise a pulling on the corresponding control member to bring it from its first retracted position to its second extended position.

According to an important characteristic, the harmonica according to the invention comprises means that are directly accessible from the outside without requiring dismantling of the instrument, making it possible to adjust directly by hand using a wheel or with the aid of of a tool prestressing the means ensuring automatic return to the non-output position of the sliding air distributor if it is of the pushing type or in the retracted position of said distributor if it is of the pulling type and so as to easily adapt said prestressing to wishes of the player.

According to another characteristic of the preferred embodiment described above, the air distributor is in the general shape of a scale consisting of two longitudinal elements arranged substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the instrument interconnected by transverse elements. each associated with a mouth hole of its own.

The face of each of the transverse elements disposed substantially parallel to the mouth face of the instrument comprises in the vicinity of its two lower free edges small returns arranged projecting from said face so that the extreme edge of said returns is farther from the mouth of the instrument than is the extreme edge of the wall separating two adjacent channels of air circulation fed by a common mouth hole. These small protruding returns are intended to provide a seal against side air leakage by forming a baffle when they bear against the corresponding face of the upper part of the partition wall separating two adjacent channels fed by the same mouth hole.

According to another very important characteristic of the preferred embodiment described above, over at least part of their length the above-mentioned transverse elements of the air distributor are generally profiled prismatic shape and the width, measured in the longitudinal direction of the 'instrument, said prismatic elements is generally degressive as one moves away from their face closest to the flag of the instrument to get closer to the mouth face of the instrument and each of the two side walls of the mouth hole and / or the comb against which the corresponding face of said transverse element bears is of shape and inclination substantially complementary to those of the corresponding faces of said transverse elements in such manners as said surfaces; can marry each other to ensure an optimal seal against air leaks.

According to another feature, to improve the seal between the faces of the baffle in contact with the corresponding faces of the mouthpiece element and / or the comb, at least some of said parts may advantageously be covered with a slightly flexible coating and elastically deformable even be constituted in part or in whole of a slightly elastically deformable material.

According to another characteristic, the upper end portion of the comb, or bed base, constituted by the upper edge of the walls separating between them two adjacent air circulation channels fed by two different mouth holes is located closer to the face of the mouth of the instrument that is the lower face of the mouthpiece element in the upper face of which are formed the mouth of the instrument holes and the upper part of the partition walls mentioned above has come s nesting in a housing of complementary shape arranged in the corresponding lower part of said mouthpiece member.

The above described air distributor whose inclined faces act as deflectors allow optimal directivity and with the least possible pressure drop of the air flow thus making it as well to make it less difficult to vibrate the blades. than to expand the range of musical expressiveness compared to what allowed the air distributors of the prior art. The latter are in fact constituted by a simple sliding plate in which holes are arranged which are placed opposite the channels concerned, said plate being arranged perpendicular to the mean longitudinal plane Px of the instrument flow flows air both blown and sucked is very disturbed by the perpendicular faces it encounters and weakens it strongly and make it swirling, forcing the player to compensate by forcing its action which is uncomfortable and which especially excludes the possibility to achieve pianissimo requiring a very low airflow thus reducing the possibility of expressiveness of the player. According to another feature, the mouthpiece element in the upper face of which are implanted the inlet faces of the mouth holes is secured to the comb by means arranged inside the harmonica and which are directly accessible when the instrument covers were removed. The aforementioned fastening means may advantageously consist of nuts and / or knurled screws so that they can be removed by hand without tools. . According to a particular embodiment, the harmonica according to the invention comprises a jaw-shaped comb open towards the mouth of the instrument whose conicity of the faces is complementary to the conicity of the corresponding faces of the comb also. conical in this embodiment so that said corresponding faces are therefore parallel in pairs, and each of the two blade holders of the instrument is sandwiched between the face of the comb and the corresponding face of the counter-comb. Means generating a thrust tending to bring the counter-comb to the mouth face of the instrument ensure the veneer of the blade holder against the comb According to a particular embodiment, the aforementioned thrust means consist of a blade flexible or a flexible rod of round section or any other shape extending in the longitudinal direction of the instrument coming to dock with the comb itself and / or the covers or the peripheral shell of the instrument.

According to another feature of another embodiment, each of the air circulation channels feeds at least two blown blades and two aspirated blades and the four blades served by the same air channel are arranged head to tail on both sides. the other of the respective blade holder and their respective longitudinal axes are arranged parallel to each other on either side of the plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the channel, the oscillating free parts of said two sound blades stretching in two opposite directions; one with respect to the other.

According to another characteristic, the harmonica according to the invention comprises openings arranged through at least one cover, said openings being positioned at the level of the oscillating free part of the aspected sound strips concerned, in particular for the low suction blades of the instrument that require a large air supply often penalized by the prior arrangements in which said aspirated blades are trapped at the bottom of the cul de sac represented by the hood concerned.

Brief description of the drawings Other advantages and features will emerge more clearly from the following description of the various embodiments shown by way of nonlimiting examples and represented in the accompanying drawings, in which: FIGS. 1 to 23 correspond to a first embodiment of FIG. a harmonica according to the invention.

FIGS. 24 and 25 are enlarged partial views showing a second embodiment of the air circulation channels and of the air distributor respectively in the two extreme positions, recessed and outlet that can occupy said sliding air distributor,

FIGS. 26 and 27 are partial enlarged views showing a third embodiment of the air circulation channels and the air distributor respectively in the two extreme positions, driven in and out that can occupy said sliding air distributor,

Figures 28 and 29 are enlarged partial views showing a fourth embodiment of the air flow channels and the air distributor respectively in the two extreme positions, recessed and output that can occupy said sliding air distributor,

FIGS. 30 and 31 are enlarged partial views showing a fifth embodiment of the air circulation channels and the air distributor respectively in the two extreme positions, recessed and outlet that can occupy said sliding air distributor,

FIG. 32 corresponds to perspective views of the preferred embodiment shown in FIGS. 28 and 29,

FIG. 33 shows different views and different sections of a harmonica according to the invention, the faces of the combs against which the blade holders rest are parallel to each other and of which said blade holders are equipped with attached deflectors each secured to said blade holder by means of a screw and a nut which furthermore ensure the fastening and the plating of the corresponding sound blade against the face of the blade holder concerned,

FIGS. 34 to 37 show another embodiment of a harmonica according to the invention comprising two blade holders and whose body and mouth constitute a single monolithic assembly.

FIGS. 38 to 50 show another embodiment of a harmonica according to the invention comprising a single blade holder supporting all the aspirated blades and all the blown blades. Detailed description of several embodiments

Prior to the explanations that follow, it is important to specify that to make the drawings more readable and more explicit, in some of the figures in this document, the thicknesses of the cutterheads as well as those of the soundblades and, if appropriate, that of the slats sealing have been voluntarily greatly increased compared to their actual thickness. Similarly, the lateral games between the lateral edges of the sound waves and the corresponding edges of the windows through which they oscillate as well as the gaps between the end of said lamellae and the corresponding slice of said windows which in reality are of the order of 5 to 10 / 100th of a millimeter have been greatly expanded here to facilitate understanding of the drawing.

This specifies, in the views 1 to 23, the harmonica 1 comprises: a mouthpiece element 2 in the outer face of which open the mouth holes 200 by which the harmonicist sucks or insufflates air that oscillates the sound waves of the instrument, each of the mouth holes 200 serves two air circulation channels 30 and 31 each feeding at least one blown sound blade and at least one aspirated sound blade,

a comb 7 or bed base in the thickness of which are made a plurality of aforementioned air circulation channels 30 and 31 arranged side by side, being separated from each other by lateral walls arranged transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the instrument and substantially perpendicular to the mean longitudinal plane Px, one of the ends of each of said partition walls coming to bear against the relevant face of the first blade holder 4 while the other end of said partition wall is supported against the corresponding face of the second blade holder 5, the blade holders 4 and 5 being arranged obliquely with respect to one another, the planes passing through their respective bearing faces against the corresponding bearing faces of the comb constitute here a dihedral open towards the mouth face of the instrument,

an air distributor 6 interposed between the mouthpiece member 2 and the comb 7, said air distributor 6 is intended to selectively direct the air blown or sucked by the player towards one or the other 31 of the two air circulation channels fed by a mouth hole 200 common to said two air channels 30 and 31, - A counter-comb 8 in the form of a jaw or counter-wedge whose conicity of the faces, open towards the mouth of the instrument, is identical to the conicity of the corresponding faces of the comb 7 so that said corresponding faces are therefore parallel in pairs and that each of the two blade holders 4 and 5 of the instrument is sandwiched between the face of the comb 7 and the corresponding face of the counter-comb 8,

means, here constituted by a flexible blade 9 extending in the longitudinal direction of the comb, generating a thrust tending to bring the counter-comb 8 closer to the mouth face of the instrument and, in this way, thanks to the conical shapes complementary to the comb 7 and the counter-comb 8, this axial displacement of the counter-comb 8 in the mean longitudinal plane Px ensures perfect plating of the blade-holders 4 and 5 against the corresponding faces of the comb 7 without requiring any use of any screws for fixing the blade holders unlike the harmonicas of the prior art.

- Two covers 10 and 10 for holding in hand the harmonica and ensuring the amplification of sounds and their projection towards the flag of the instrument. To facilitate sound projection, openings 100 are arranged at least in the lateral face of the hoods 10.

For each of the two air circulation channels 30 and 31 fed by a common mouth hole 200, the air distributor 6 moves by axial translation in the longitudinal direction of the instrument to move from its first position, in which it conceals the entry of the second air circulation channel 31 and communicates the mouth hole 200 concerned with the first channel 30 feeding at least one blade of the first blade carrier 4 and at least one blade of the second 5, in its second position in which it conceals the entrance of the first air channel 30 and communicates said mouth hole 200 with the second channel 31 also supplying at least one blade of the first door -lames 4 and at least one blade of the second blade holder 5,

Return means here constituted by a torsion spring 11 ensure the automatic return of the air distributor 6 in the extended position as soon as the user stops exerting pressure on the control member of said distributor 6.

An elastically deformable damping element 12 constituting a stop in the retracted position at the maximum of the air distributor 6 is interposed between said distributor and the face concerned of the comb 7 while a second elastically deformable damper 13 forming a stop in the extended position of the air distributor 6 is interposed between the distributor 6 and the relevant face of the mouthpiece member 2. The mouthpiece element 2 is secured to the comb 7 by two knurled nuts 14, operable by hand without requiring the use of a tool, said knurled nuts being positioned inside the body of the harmonica not to constitute roughness on the mouth face of the instrument as is the case with the assemblies of the prior art whose screw heads disposed in the mouth face are often aggressive to the lips.

Note that to facilitate the understanding of Figures 5 and 6 the blade holders 4 and 5 and the counter-comb 8 and the flexible blade 9 are not shown while in Figure 7 the blade holder supporting the blades blown to has been added to Figures 5 and 6. As shown in FIGS. 10, 14 and 15 as well as FIG. 8, which corresponds to an enlarged cross-section of the complete harmonica made according to the cutting marks A'A 'of FIG. 7, the harmonica according to the invention has thin walls 700 and 800 partially covering the windows through which flow of air to animate the sound waves.

Thus the window of the blade holder 4 through which oscillates the suction blade 400 is covered over more than half of its length by a thin wall 800 disposed between the inner face of the corresponding cap and the blade holder supporting said blade 400. The thin wall 800 which is positioned beyond the space swept by the aspirated blade 400 as it oscillates constitutes a deflector intended as much to direct the air flows towards the free end portion of the blade as to to oppose the leakage of air sucked or blown between the longitudinal edges of said sound blade and the corresponding edges of the relevant window arranged in the blade holder thereby rendering superfluous the installation of additional sealing devices, referred to as valves which equip the so-called chromatic harmonicas of the prior art. The interest of the deflectors described above is all the greater as it allows to achieve a harmonica particularly leakproof air without requiring the use of expensive valves and tedious maintenance, which valves also remove the possibility of use certain game techniques such as blast and suraspirations to obtain particular notes that are interesting in terms of approval and expressiveness while these particular techniques are used with a harmonica equipped with baffles according to the invention. In the embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 23 The deflector blade 800 associated with the aspirated blades is here secured to the counter-comb 8 with which it forms a monolithic assembly.

To achieve the same objectives as before exposed, a blade-deflector 700 positioned beyond the space swept by the blown blade 500 and also extending over more than half the length of the window concerned has been disposed to Inside the air circulation channel concerned and it is here a monolithic assembly with the comb 7 itself. It is important to note that one of the particular objectives of the original design of the harmonica according to the invention is to obtain an instrument that can be quickly completely dismounted without tools such as a key screwdriver or clamp necessary with the harmonicas of the prior art. . For this reason, on the one hand, the blade holders are not secured to the comb by screwing according to the conventional method, but they are sandwiched between the internal faces of the comb and the corresponding outer faces of the comb and on the other hand the screws for securing the mouthpiece element 2 are knurled in order to be actuated by hand while in the heads of the fastening screws of the hoods 10 are provided slots of a width greater than one millimeter and a half which allow either to train them by screwing or unscrewing with the help of a thumbnail or to train them with a simple coin that everyone has at the bottom of his pocket. Such an arrangement has multiple advantages for the user who can thus easily access directly to the sound blades for both cleaning and maintenance or for a last minute adjustment before entering the scene. Moreover, as shown by the different views and sections illustrating this first embodiment of the harmonica according to the invention, the arrangement of the blade holders 4 and 5 has been reversed with respect to the conventional arrangement in which, when the instrument is in play position the blade holder supporting the suction blades is disposed in the lower part of the instrument while the blade holder supporting the blown blades is disposed in the upper part of the instrument while in the harmonica shown in these views, when the instrument is in play position, the blade holder 4 supporting the suction blades 400 is disposed in the upper part of the instrument while the blade holder 5 supporting the blown blades 500 is disposed in the lower part of the instrument. . The inverted arrangement in which the blade holders 4 and 5 are implanted here makes it possible to greatly facilitate the evacuation directly to the outside of the instrument of saliva and micro-detritus whereas with the conventional arrangement those they find themselves trapped in the cul-de-sac formed by the bottom of the canal from which they can not escape to because of the closed area at acute angle constituted by the fixed part of the suction blade arranged in the lower part of the channel concerned. Conversely, the proposed inverted arrangement allows said waste to be easily discharged to the outside through the window of the blade holder in which oscillates the free portion of the blown blade concerned which is located at the bottom of the instrument and this evacuation to the outside is all the more effective because it is provided by the self-cleaning effect conjugate gravity, blown air flow and oscillations of the blown blade.

FIG. 17 groups together different views and sections illustrating a particular embodiment of the blade holders whose areas in which the windows are made through which the sound waves oscillate are of decreasing thickness in steps when going from the serious blades to sharp blades. Thus, in the area concerned by the first six blades of each of the two blade carriers, the thickness e1 is greater than the thickness e4 of said blade carriers measured at the sharp blades. However, to ensure a better rigidity of said blade-holders thus guaranteeing the flatness of their bearing surface coming to rest against the comb, it will be noted that the thinning above-mentioned does not concern the part of the blade holder located on the side of the face mouthpiece of the instrument, which part here retains its full thickness e1 to form a straight beam.

Figures 18 and 19 show exploded perspective the harmonica shown in Figures 1 to 23. Figures 20 to 23 show in more detail the particular design of the mouthpiece element 2 and the distributor 6 corresponding to the embodiment illustrated in the preceding figures. As shown in FIG. 20 and in the enlarged view 21, the air distributor 6 occupies its first position, said outlet at the maximum, and for each of the mouth holes that the harmonica comprises the element 60 of said distributor both muzzle the inlet of the channel 31 and directs the air flows towards the channel 30 by gradually diverting them to said channel 30 with the least loss of strength and speed of said flows through the curvilinear inclined shape convex side of its flanks being placed in the extension of the corresponding concave curvilinear inclined flanks of the transverse element 201 concerned separating two contiguous mouth holes 200.

FIG. 22 and the corresponding enlarged view 23 show the path of the air flows when the harmonicist presses on the control knob of the air distributor 6 bringing it into its second position, said retracted, in which the transverse element 60 is positioned so that it blocks the inlet of the channel 30 and directs the air flow to the channel 31. Due to the symmetrical shape of its inclined lateral faces in general dihedral shape open towards the flag of the instrument, the transverse element 60 is of generally triangular cross section and its shape is therefore generally prismatic three-sided over its entire length and furthermore each of said transverse members 60 is associated with a single mouth hole of its own.

As shown in these four figures 20 to 23, each of the two lateral faces of each of the transverse elements 60 is inclined at the angle λ with respect to the plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the channel concerned, said plane being otherwise perpendicularly disposed. in the longitudinal plane Px of general symmetry of the instrument. The two inclined lateral faces are of convex curvilinear shape complementary with the corresponding concave curvilinear bearing faces of the mouthpiece element so that when these faces are in contact with each other, they marry to the maximum to guarantee a perfect airtightness thus avoiding parasitic air leaks.

According to a preferred embodiment, the angle λ, open towards the mouth of the instrument, is greater than 10 ° (ten degrees) preferably greater than 15 ° (fifteen degrees) and in particular greater than 20 ° (twenty degrees)

To further perfect the seal against parasitic air leaks the lower face of each of the transverse elements 60, disposed substantially parallel to the mouth face, has at its two lower edges small returns 600 and 600 in prominence by relative to said lower face so that the extreme edge of said returns is further away from the mouth face of the instrument than is the extreme edge of the wall separating between them two adjacent flow channels of Air supplied by a common mouth hole 200.

Each of said returns 600 is extended over the entire length of the two lower side edges of said element 60 to form a sealing lip which is wedged against the corresponding face of the upper part of the wall separating two air circulation channels fed by the same mouth hole. When the transverse element 60 occupies one of its two extreme positions, the relevant sealing spoiler 600 is housed in a rabbet of complementary shape to said spoiler arranged in the upper part of said partition wall so as to provide a seal maximum effect by baffles against parasitic air leaks. Also to prevent air leakage between two adjacent channels, as shown in Figure 21, the ends of the walls separating two neighboring channels fed by two different mouth holes are nested in slots of complementary shape fitted in the face rearward of the mouthpiece member 201 and, for this purpose, the ends of said walls are situated at a distance d from the mouth face which is less than the distance D separating said mouth face from the upper end of the dividing walls. between them two air channels 30 and 31 fed by the same mouth hole.

It is also noted in these Figures 20 to 23 that the wall separating between them two channels 30 and 31 fed by a common mouth hole is thicker than the wall separating between two channels fed by two different mouth holes and this in the to have a sufficient width to be able to develop in the upper part of the thick wall the aforementioned sealing rabbet. This difference in thickness of said walls is also reflected in the fact that the distance separating the adjacent longitudinal edges of two adjacent blades fed by the same mouth hole is greater than the distance separating the two contiguous longitudinal edges of two adjacent blades fed by two different mouths.

In this embodiment, shown in Figures 20 to 23 as well as in the variants shown in Figures 24 to 27, the seal between the transverse elements 60 of the distributor 6 and the transverse elements 201 of the mouthpiece element 2 is thus ensured laterally by the close and therefore tight contact between the relevant lateral faces of said elements 60 and 201 and not by the contact between the top face of the transverse elements 60 of the air distributor 6 against the corresponding lower face of the transverse elements. 201 of the mouth member 2 as is the case for the other embodiments shown in Figures 28 to 31.

Figures 24 to 29 are partial cross-sections showing further embodiments of the transverse members 201 of the mouthpiece member 2 and the transverse members 60 of the air distributor 6. Each embodiment is illustrated by a figure showing the position occupied by said elements 201 and 60 when said air distributor occupies its extended position and by another figure in which said air distributor occupies its retracted position. These embodiments differ from the embodiment shown in the preceding figures in that the contact faces between the mouthpiece element 2 and the transverse elements 60 are flat, but they all have in common the interest of having transverse elements. 60 of generally shaped shape and whose width, measured in the longitudinal direction of the instrument, is generally degressive as one moves away from their face closest to the flag of the instrument to get closer to their face located closest to the mouth of the instrument.

Indeed, the planes passing through the lateral faces of said transverse elements 60 constitute a dihedron open towards the flag of the instrument according to the average angle respectively, β which amounts to saying that the planes passing through the inclined lateral faces 601, 601 located opposite each other of two neighboring transverse elements 60 are a dihedral also of respective value α, β but which is open towards the mouth of the instrument. the inclined lateral faces of two neighboring transverse elements therefore constitute a hopper effectively directing the air flows towards the selected air circulation channel and this as well when the air distributor 6 occupies its "out" position as its position " This hopper-shaped configuration of the side faces 601 of the transverse members 60 of the air distributor 6 is further reinforced in its efficiency by the inverted hopper-shaped configuration of the inclined flanks 2010,2010 of the corresponding mouth hole 200. whose planes here constitute a dihedral angular value γ open towards the flag of the instrument. The inclination of the lateral faces 601, 601 of the transverse elements 60 of the air distributor 6 is substantially identical to that of the lateral faces 2010,2010 of the transverse elements 201 of the mouthpiece element 2, which allows, on the one hand, optimally widening the passage taken by the sucked or blown air flows arranged between the mouth face and the underside of the air distributor 6 and secondly optimizing the flow of said flows by creating the less possible turbulence and the least cavitation phenomena unlike that experienced by the air flows in the harmonicas of the prior art whose corresponding arrangements include changes in direction at right angles which result in significant loss of speed and forcibly air flows and therefore ultimately by a longer response time or responsiveness in the oscillation of the blades.

FIGS. 26 and 27 show an embodiment in which the lateral faces of the transverse elements 201 of the mouthpiece element 2 arranged perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the instrument comprise recesses with recesses of dimensions complementary to the shapes and dimensions of the corresponding lateral faces of the transverse elements 60 of the air distributor 6 so that when the air distributor 6 occupies its fully retracted position or its fully extended position, said respective lateral faces come into close contact with one another against the another marrying as well at their respective inclined lateral faces as at the level of the upper horizontal facet of the transverse elements 60 of the air distributor. These recesses, or steps, thus constitute transverse baffles guaranteeing an optimal seal against parasitic air leakage and thanks to these close contacts between said elements 201 and 60 both in the horizontal sliding plane of the distributor 6 and in inclined planes according to the lateral facets concerned.

FIGS. 30 and 31 show an alternative embodiment in which the lateral faces 602 of the transverse elements 60 of the distrubutor 6 have a double curvature, the lower part of which is closest to the horn is convex while the upper part is closest to the horn. mouthpiece is concave. The two mean planes passing through the inclined lateral faces of the transverse elements 60 of the distributor 6 constitute a dihedral of angular value δ open towards the flag of the instrument while the two mean planes passing through the inclined lateral faces of the transverse elements 201 separating two contiguous mouth holes are concurrent and constitute a dihedral of angular value ε open towards the mouth of the instrument.

FIG. 32 shows two perspective views of the mouthpiece element 2 and of the air distributor 6 corresponding to the embodiment illustrated by FIGS. 28 and 29. It should be noted that the configurations described above in correspondence with FIGS. 28 to 31, on the one hand, have the advantage of a very reduced translational travel of the air distributor 6 to move from its extended position to its retracted position and vice versa and, on the other hand, the advantage of guaranteeing in all respects the race of said distributor a permanent seal between two neighboring air channels fed by two different mouth holes. Indeed throughout the sliding path of the air distributor 6 the upper face of each of the transverse elements 60 is constantly in contact with the corresponding lower face of the mouthpiece member 2 thus avoiding any air passage very detrimental between two neighboring channels powered by two different air holes as is the case with the harmonicas of the prior art whose windows arranged through the blade constituting the air distributor moves a channel of air to the neighboring channel fed by another mouth hole thereby inadvertently communicating said channels when the air distributor is halfway.

Figure 33 shows a particular embodiment in which the faces of the comb against which bear the blade holders are parallel to each other. 33a is a cross-section of FIG. 33 according to the RR mark with localized detachments of the spoiler 701 making it possible to see the fastening screw heads of the deflectors 16. Figure 33b is a front view of a portion of the blade holder 5.

Each of the sound blades is secured to the corresponding blade holder by being sandwiched between the face of said blade holder and an insert member constituting a deflector 15, 16 secured to the blade holder by a screw and a nut.

To avoid the total unscrewing of the screw and the nut securing the baffle 16 and the blown blade corresponding to the bladed blade holder 5, the comb comprises a spoiler 701 partially covering at least the head of said screw while the corresponding cap 10 cover him the nut which, thus, can not escape him either. In the same way to prevent the total unscrewing of the screw and the nut securing the deflector 15 and the sucked blade corresponding to the aspirated blade holder 4, the comb comprises a second spoiler 702 partially covering at least the head of the screw concerned while a spoiler 82 partially covering at least the nut is formed in an attached element 800 held pressed against the blade holder 4 by one of the screws ensuring the fixing and the plating of the two blade holders 4 and 5 against the corresponding faces of the comb 7.

The cross-section of FIG. 33 shows that in this embodiment the comb occupies a position that is off-center in the lateral direction with respect to the mouthpiece and therefore with respect to the mean longitudinal plane Px even though said mouth as well as the outer faces of the two covers are arranged symmetrically with respect to said mean longitudinal plane Px. This off-center arrangement of the blade-holders beneficially exploits the fact that the blade-holder 4 supporting all the aspirated blades of the instrument imposes to have more space between the inner face of the corresponding cap and the outer face of the blade-holder 4. against which are fixed said blades sucked whereas contrario the blown blades supported by the blade holder 5 being fixed against the inner face of said blade holder 5 can, for their oscillations, be satisfied with a smaller space between the face outside said blade holder 5 and the inner face of the corresponding cover. The face of the comb 7 against which rests the blade holder 4 supporting the suction blades 400 is therefore positioned at a distance D2 from said mean longitudinal plane Px less than the distance D1 at which the face of the comb 7 against which presses the blade holder 5 supporting the blown blades 500.

This original off-center arrangement of the comb thus makes it possible to produce a thinner harmonica, which is of great interest for holding the instrument in hand compared to the corresponding harmonicas of the prior art. The baffles 15 associated with the suction blades are positioned outside the comb and therefore disposed between the outer face of the blade holder 4 and the inner face of the bonnet concerned while the baffles 16 of the blown blades are arranged inside them. of the air circulation channel concerned. The deflectors 15 associated with the suction blades are configured in the form of a closed element over at least a portion of the length of its sides by lateral sealing walls which come to join the corresponding face of the blade carrier 4 while being in position. outside the space swept by the sound blade concerned while the central face of said deflector 15 disposed vis-a-vis the corresponding face of the sound blade concerned is located beyond the space swept by said sound blade when its maximum oscillations so that said soundblade can not at any time come into contact with one or the other of the inner walls of the deflector 15. For the same reasons, said upper face of the deflector 15 is advantageously of convex shape in the longitudinal direction of the channel concerned so that it can at the same time marry at best the arched shape of the sounding blade in motion and to present an outer face with rounded shapes in order to to penalize and disturb as little as possible the flow of the sucked air streams that run along said deflectors 15 before rushing into the window through which oscillates the sound blade concerned.

The deflectors 16 associated with the blown blades are positioned inside the channels arranged in the comb and their width corresponds to the width of said channels. It is the side walls separating the channels between them which ensure the lateral sealing and the internal deflectors 16 are thus reduced to a wall disposed outside the space swept by the sound wave concerned during its oscillations. The baffles 15 and 16 cover the blade attachment area as well as the fixed part of the blades with which they are associated and they extend towards the free end of said blades sucked and blown in such a way that their end is located respectively at a distance Da from the end of the window adjoining the free end of the aspired sound blade concerned and at a distance Ds from the end of the window adjoining the free end of the concerned blown sound blade.

The distance Da being less than the total length La of the window in which the aspired sound blade oscillates concerned as well as the distance Ds is less than the total length Ls of the window in which the respective blown sound wave oscillates. According to a first embodiment, the value of the distance Da is advantageously between one-third and two-thirds of the value of La and the value of the Ds distance is advantageously between one third and two thirds of the value of Ls.

According to a preferred embodiment, the value of the distance Da is advantageously between one-quarter and three-quarters of the value of La and the value of the distance Ds is advantageously between one-quarter and three-quarters of the value of Ls.

Of course, at least some, if not all, of the outer deflectors 15 relating to the suction blades can be grouped together in a single plate held pressed against the outer face of the blade holder 4 supporting the blades sucked by the screws ensuring the assembly and fixation of the or blade holders against the corresponding face or faces of the comb 7.

FIGS. 34 to 37 show another embodiment of a harmonica according to the invention, of which the two figures 34 and 35 are respectively front and side views of the mounted harmonica whereas FIG. showing the assembly of the different pieces constituting this harmonica. In this embodiment, the covers and the mouth face constitute a monolithic assembly configured as a bell-shaped peripheral shell 18 open on the instrument's side and having on the opposite face constituting the mouth face of the mouthpiece. the instrument the mouth holes 200 by which the harmonicist sucks or blows air which vibrates the sound strips sucked 4 or blown 5 through the channels of circulation of air flows.

An opening arranged in the upper part of one of the faces of the shell 18 allows the introduction of the air distributor 6 inside the shell 18.

After the blade holders 4 and 5 have been mounted on the comb and held in place either by the counter comb 8 or by means such as clipping for mounting and dismounting without tools, the comb thus already supporting the blade holder is introduced inside the hull 18 and then slidably placed in the direction of the mouth, its good positioning being guaranteed by positioning and guiding means, not shown here, made inside the hull 18 collaborating with additional arrangements made on the comb and / or against the comb 8. It is then sufficient to set up the flexible blade 9 whose thrust towards the mouthpiece face of the instrument ensures the maintenance of the various elements between them ensuring on the one hand the minimum clearance between the upper face comb and the lower face of the sliding distributor 6 and secondly a sufficient thrust against the counter comb 8 so that it can ensure optimum veneer of the blade holder 4 and 5 against the corresponding faces of the comb 7.

To ensure that the counter-comb 8 has sufficient rigidity so that it can effectively press the blade-holders against the comb 7, said counter-comb comprises ribs 80 arranged in the field relative to the faces of the blade-holders 4 and 5 which chords 80 are positioned at the right of the walls of separation of the channels by slipping between the sound waves concerned.

As shown in the various previous figures, each of the two blade holders 4 and 5 only supports blades of the same type which are aspirated blades 400 for the first blade holder 4 and blades 500 blasted for the second blade carrier In other words, all the blades of the same type as the harmonica according to the invention comprises are mounted on the same blade holder and this arrangement of the blades makes it possible to advantageously reduce the overall thickness of the instrument since the comb 7 as well therefore, the blade holders and the counter-comb 8 which it supports can advantageously be mounted in an off-center position with respect to the plane PX of symmetry of the shell. Indeed, if it is necessary to provide a large space between the blade holder 5 and the corresponding face of the interior of the shell 18 to allow the free end of the blades of the aspirated disposed outside of the carrier blades and turns in addition to the mouth of the instrument, contrario the holder-bladders 4 supporting the blown blades can be, him, positioned very close to the corresponding inner face of the shell 18 since on the one hand these Blown blades are positioned inside the comb and on the other hand their oscillating free end is turned to the side of the flag of the instrument. This amounts to saying that the comb 7 as well as the blade holders 4,5 and the counter-comb 8 that it supports are off-center in the lateral direction with respect to the mean longitudinal plane Px passing through the mid-thickness of the instrument. at the mouth and the mid-thickness of the instrument at the flag, the face of the comb 7 against which rests the blade holder 4 supporting the aspirated blades 400 being positioned closer to said plane Px that does not is the face of the comb 7 against which rests the blade holder 5 supporting the blown blades 500 which is also to say that the face of the comb 7 supporting the blade holder 4 of the suction blades 400 is positioned at a distance of the inner face of the corresponding cap greater than the distance at which the face of the comb 7 supporting the blade holder 5 of the blown blades 500 is located relative to the inner face of the corresponding cap.

From the off-center mounting position inside the shell 18 as described above, it follows that the ribs 80 of the counter-comb 8 located on the sides of the suctioned blades are lower than are the corresponding members located on the side of the blades sucked and to ensure a better rigidity in particular in longitudinal and transverse bending, side blown blades the ends of said frames are advantageously interconnected by a transverse bar 81 located beyond the space swept by said blown blades.

Finally, it is necessary to underline the very particular interest that the arrangement of the channels as described in the various embodiments presented in this document have with respect to the configuration of the harmonicas of the prior art for this type of harmonica with which the harmonicist can access a double register of notes generally shifted relative to each other by a semitone hence the term chromatic harmonica generally used to designate this type of instrument. In fact, in the chromatic harmonicas of the prior art, the two sound blades, one of sucked type and the other of blown type, supplied when the air distributor occupies its first position, said outlet, are both positioned. side by side and both located on the same side of the harmonica with respect to the longitudinal plane PX of general symmetry while the other two sound blades fed by the same mouth hole when the distributor occupies its second position, said return, are positioned side by side and both located on the other side of the PX plane. This amounts to saying that in the prior arrangement each of the two channels that can be selectively supplied by the air distributor and each containing a suction blade and a blown blade are arranged symmetrically relative to each other with respect to the plane Px mentioned above and that consequently these two channels are separated from each other by a wall extending in the longitudinal direction of the harmonica, the median plane of said wall being parallel and generally even coplanar with the plane Px. each of the channels is closed on three of its four sides since side walls arranged perpendicularly to the plane Px ensure the separation between a pair of channels fed by the same mouth hole and the pair of neighboring channels fed by the hole mouthpiece next. This earlier concept consisting in juxtaposing two channels in the direction of the thickness of the instrument results in an addition of the travel dimensions of the ends of the sound waves to which is added in addition the thickness of the medial partition wall and this accumulation dimensions results in a substantial thickness of the instrument which is penalizing for the grip.

Conversely, in the harmonica 1 according to the invention the two blades, one sucked and the other blown, contained in a channel 30 fed when the air distributor 6 occupies its first position are arranged vis-à- screw one of the other on both sides of the plane Px of general symmetry of the instrument, in the same way as the other two blades one sucked and the other blown, contained in the contiguous channel 31 fed when the air distributor 6 occupies its second position, are also arranged vis-à-vis one another. The air circulation channels are thus closed both on their two lateral faces by partition walls arranged parallel to each other and positioned perpendicularly to the plane Px of general symmetry of the instrument. the absence of partition walls disposed in the longitudinal direction of the instrument thus allows the blade holders to be brought much closer compared to the previous arrangement, and this in view of the fact that the blades that are sucked and blown are arranged head to tail, which makes it possible to avoid a collision between their respective free ends when they oscillate and it follows a significant and very appreciable thinning of the thickness of the comb of the instrument and therefore a significant reduction in the overall thickness of the harmonica which makes handling easy even by holding a microphone in the palm of your hand. It is also important to note that if all the figures shown show a comb whose two planes passing through the bearing faces of the blade holders are either parallel to each other or form a dihedral open towards the mouth of the instrument it would not be outside the scope of the invention if the harmonica had the characteristics of this invention by associating them with a comb whose support faces of the blade carriers would be arranged in such a way that the planes containing them constitute a dihedral open towards the flag of the instrument.

FIGS. 38 to 50 show another embodiment of a harmonica according to the invention, in which all the extracted sound blades 211 and all the blown sounding blades 212 are supported by the same blade holder 21.

Said aspirated blades 211 and blowers 212 are arranged head to tail in a row on either side of the blade holder 21 to which they are secured in pairs by a common screw passing through the internal deflector 27, the heel of the blown blade 212, the blade holder 21, the heel of the sucked blade 211 and the outer baffle 26 to be screwed into a nut embedded in the outer baffle 26.

The respective longitudinal axes of the sucked blade 211 and the blown blade 212 are arranged parallel, and even coplanarly, with the longitudinal axis of the single air channel 220 which serves them and the free oscillating parts of said sound blades stretch. in two diametrically opposite directions with respect to each other.

The single blade holder 21 is arranged obliquely with respect to the mean longitudinal plane Px which cuts said blade holder 21 in an area between the two opposite free ends of the sucked blade 211 and the worst blown blade 212 the most serious fed both by a common channel 220. It should be noted that the single blade holder 21 disposed here obliquely with respect to the plane Px could equally well be arranged parallel to the plane Px without thereby departing from the scope of the invention. The air circulation channels 220 arranged in the comb 22 do not pass through the entire thickness of said comb so that they are closed by a wall extending in the longitudinal direction of the harmonica, said longitudinal wall comb thus constituting one of the two outer longitudinal faces of the peripheral shell of the instrument. Due to the oblique arrangement of the blade holder relative to the mean longitudinal plane Px of the instrument, the air channels are advantageously of substantially conical shape and therefore of generally degressive section when moving away from the mouth of the nozzle. instrument to get closer to the pavilion. This configuration results in an inclination of the average longitudinal axis of the air circulation channels with respect to the plane Px according to an angular value φ such that the overall mean plane of the face of the mouth of the instrument is not arranged perpendicular to the average longitudinal plane Px according to the conventional mode of the prior art but inclined by an angular value advantageously substantially equal to φ relative to said plane perpendicular to the plane Px and the value of the angle φ is advantageously between ten degrees and 30 degrees.

It should be noted that the arrangement of the blade holder and the comb can be reversed with respect to the arrangement shown in FIGS. 38 to 50 in which, when the harmonica occupies its play position, the plane Px being then disposed substantially horizontally, the The single blade holder 21 is disposed above the comb 22 in which the channels 22 are arranged. In the inverted arrangement, not shown in these drawings, when the harmonica occupies its play position, the plane Px then being arranged substantially horizontally, the single blade holder 21 is then disposed below the comb 22 in which the channels 22 are arranged. . As shown in FIGS. 38 to 50, the blade holder 21 is not secured to the comb by screws which must be disassembled in order to separate it from the comb as is the case for the harmonicas of the prior art but is taken sandwiched between said comb 22 and the cover 23 acting as a presser exerting a support on the one hand at least at the longitudinal edge of the blade holder extending on the side of the mouth 24 and at the edge longitudinal of said blade holder extending along the roof and secondly at a plurality of support members 230 integral with the cover 23 arranged substantially perpendicular to the mean longitudinal plane Px. Each of the support members constitutes a reinforcing rib of the cover 23 and is in the form of a wall whose median plane is advantageously arranged coplanar with the median plane of the corresponding wall 221 separating between them two contiguous channels 220 comb 22. The pressure means tending to bring the cover 23 closer to the comb 22 consist here of screws 37 passing through said cover, as well as, where appropriate, a corresponding frame 230, then the blade holder 21 to be screwed into the comb 22. Of course the screws can be arranged in the opposite position, their heads then being located on the side of the comb 22 and their rods coming to screw into the cover 23. Each of these screws may also be replaced by a pair consisting of a female screw associated with a male screw whose respective heads open out of the cover 23 and the comb 22.

The harmonica according to the invention comprises at least one pressure screw 37 implanted in the part of the instrument between the two planes arranged perpendicularly to the mean longitudinal plane Px of the instrument and passing through the longitudinal axis of the instrument. air circulation channel feeding the most serious blade of the instrument and the other by the longitudinal axis of the channel feeding the highest pitch of the instrument.

According to another characteristic, the longitudinal axis of at least one of the clamping screws of the pressure caps is positioned at a distance from the mouth face lower than the distance separating said mouth face from the bottom of the channel of air circulation 220 feeding the worst blade of the instrument.

According to another feature, to maximize the plating force of the blade carrier 21 against the comb 22 exerted by the pressure cap 23 on the side of the mouth face of the instrument pressure means consisting of pressure screws 37 are located as close as possible to said mouth face and that the rod of said screws does not come to encroach inside an air circulation channel 220, at least some of said air channels 220 are oriented in a slightly oblique manner with respect to the mouth face of the instrument so that, while respecting strictly without increasing the spacing Ex between mouth holes, at least some of the lateral separation walls 221 channels between them go widening when one moves away from the mouth face for this. bring closer to the flag of the instrument thus quickly offering a width sufficient for the pressure screw 37 concerned can be implanted between two contiguous sound waves and even between the fixed base and the free end of said adjoining sound blades.

As shown in Figure 38 to allow the implantation of the pressure screws 37 as close as possible to the mouth face as described above, the air flow channels 220 that includes said comb 22 are divided into five groups. Each of said groups here consists of four contiguous channels corresponding to two contiguous mouth holes. Within each of these five groups, the longitudinal axes of said channels 220 are advantageously parallel to each other while said longitudinal axes 220 of one of said groups of channels are divergent with respect to the longitudinal axes of the channels of another group of channels. adjacent channels so that the partition wall separating the two contiguous air channels belonging to two neighboring groups widens as one moves away from the mouth face to approach the face of the roof of the roof. instrument.

As illustrated in FIG. 38 only the longitudinal axes of the four channels 220 corresponding to the mouth holes 5 and 6 and constituting the central group are arranged perpendicularly to the mouth face of the instrument while the longitudinal axes of the channels other groups of channels are oriented obliquely symmetrically with respect to each other with respect to the plane perpendicular to Px passing through the middle of the space separating the two mouth holes 5 and 6.

As shown in FIG. 38 for at least some of the pressure screws 37, the straight line passing through the longitudinal axis of said screws passes through a wall 221 separating between them two adjacent air circulation channels 220 whose respective longitudinal axes are divergent when the one moves away from the mouth face of the instrument to get closer to the flag of the instrument and the longitudinal axis of said clamping screws of the presser cover 23 is positioned at a distance from the mouth face of the mouthpiece. the instrument below the distance from said mouth face at which is the bottom of the shorter of the two air channels 220 adjacent the wall in which is implanted the clamping screw concerned.

FIG. 39 shows an enlargement of the corresponding zone of FIG. 38 illustrating the embodiment detail of the device for adjusting the prestressing of the means ensuring the automatic return to the extended position of the air distributor 25 when the player does not press on the end of said distributor constituting its control button. These return means here consist of a helical compression spring 252 associated with a device for adapting the prestressing to the wishes of the player consisting of a bush 250, internally threaded, crimped inside said button and in which a threaded stud 251 can move axially by simply screwing or unscrewing, which can be operated directly from the outside, without the need to dismantle the instrument, using a suitable drive tool introduced through a hole made through the button control of the air distributor 25. As shown in FIGS. 38, 42, 45 and 47, at least some of the aspirated sound blades 211 are associated with a deflector 26 covering a portion of the length of the window of the blade holder 21 through which the sound blade concerned oscillates. the aforementioned deflector is extended by a thin flexible valve blade 260 extending in the opposite direction to the free end of the sound blade which it is the deflector and this flexible blade is the sealing valve of the blown sound blade 212 powered by the same air channel 220.

The length and the width of the above-mentioned soft blade 260 are greater than the dimensions of the window through which the blown sound wave oscillates 212, as shown, on the one hand, by the corresponding discontinuous lines on the valve lamellae corresponding to the powered channels 220. by the mouth-holes 3 and 4 as well as the localized tear-offs effected on the leaf-valves 260 of the air channels corresponding to the mouth-hole 5.

When the player sucks in the channel concerned inadvertent admissions of air through the window of the blown sound blade 212 come to press the flexible valve blade 260 against the face of the blade holder 21 thus completely closing the window of passage of air of said blown sound blade 212 and thereby forcing the entire intake of air flow to pass through the window of the aspirated blade 211, the type corresponds well, him, in the sense of the flow sucked. On the other hand, when the player blows into the channel in question, the unwanted air leaks through the window of the aspirated sound blade 211 come to press the flexible valve blade 270 against the face of the blade holder 21, thus closing the window completely. of air passage of said extracted sound blade 21 1 and thus forcing the entire flow of air blown to pass through the window of the blown blade 212, the type corresponds well, him, in the sense of flow blown.

The deflectors 26, 27 and the corresponding thin strip 260, 270 constituting the valve may advantageously be produced, in particular by molding, at the same time and in the same material, to then constitute a single-component monolithic assembly as well as being made by dual injection molding. -material from two different materials but nevertheless compatible with each other.

The deflectors 26 and 27 advantageously comprise a small anti-rotation pin, respectively 261 and 271, protruding with respect to their bearing face against the blade holder 21, said pin being received in the thickness of the blade holder in the window in which oscillates the blade opposite to that for which each of said deflector plays its role of deflector.

FIG. 44 shows that the assembly, against the corresponding face of the blade holder, of the bass blades having an excess thickness 100 at their free end constituting a ballast weight has been inverted compared to the assembly of the prior art. shown in Figure 43 wherein said low blades are mounted such that said extra thickness of the blades 100 and the redan that it constitutes are located on the face of the blade opposite to that which is pressed against the blade holder which causes a disruption of the laminar flow of air flows animating said blades. The proposed reverse arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 44 in which the face of the blade comprising the excess thickness 100 is oriented against the blade holder and the back of the blade is therefore perfectly smooth, which allows the air streams to flow. without disturbance by sliding on the end zone of the free portion of the blades without encountering obstacles that would create swirls prompt to cause twisting and therefore twisting of the blade which is very detrimental to its life and otherwise not very harmonious on the musical level.

As shown also in Figures 44, 44 Bis and 44 Ter as well to facilitate the initiation of oscillations of the sound blade under a small air stream to compensate, at the free end of the blade, the reduction of exhaust opening of the air due to the presence of the flyweight on the other side of the blade following the inverted assembly described above, recesses 101, shaped chamfers or leave, can be advantageously made in the blade holder. These recesses 101 may be made both at the end of the window concerned and on at least part of its longitudinal edges and in the face of the blade holder against which is plated the sound blade concerned.

FIG. 46 is an enlarged view of the corresponding zone of FIG. 45 showing an embodiment of an air distributor 25, at least some of whose faces comprise sealing baffles 253 intended to oppose leaks of unwanted air between said distributor 25 and / or the comb 22 and / or the mouth member 24 and / or the hood 23. These baffles 253 formed in the faces of the air distributor 25 extend in the longitudinal direction of the instrument and they consist of steps, and / or ribs and / or grooves of dimensions and complementary shapes perfectly adjusted to steps and / or ribs and / or complementary grooves formed in the corresponding faces of the mouth member 24 and / or the comb 22 and / or covers 23 against which slides said distributor. Figures 48 to 50 illustrate an alternative embodiment of the harmonica having a single blade holder shown in the previous figures.

At least some of the windows through which oscillate the audible blades 38 and blown 39 are partially covered by special baffles spoilers 35 and 36 arranged head to tail on both sides of the blade holder, said baffles constituting each a boss advantageously of convex shape in the longitudinal direction and in the transverse direction for constituting a spoiler or deflector aerodynamic forms allowing the air streams to pass, with the least possible disturbance, over the area in which are positioned both the rivet or the blade fixing screw and the vertical portion of the end of each of the windows located on the side of the fixed part of the sound blade concerned. Indeed, in prior art montages the protruding rivets fastening the blades to the blade holder as well as the vertical rectangular bottom and thus very little aerodynamic constituted by the edge of the windows represent as many obstacles opposing a fluid and continuous flow of air streams.

Each of these particular deflectors, respectively 35 and 36, consists of a curvilinear wall convex at least in the longitudinal axial direction of the sound blades concerned, said wall being positioned beyond the space swept by the blades during their maximum oscillations, and it covers continuously both part of the sound blade pressed against the same face of the blade holder as it respects 38 and 39, and therefore also the corresponding portion of the window which is associated with said blade, and a part of the window through which oscillates the sound blade fixed on the opposite face of the blade holder, respectively 39 and 38.

According to a first embodiment, each of the two spoilers extends continuously in the longitudinal direction of the two sound waves over an overall length such that, from the two opposite ends of the windows concerned, the two opposite ends of each of said deflectors-spoilers are at distances, respectively da1 and ds1 for the outer deflector 35 and da2 and ds2 for the inner deflector 36, less than three quarters of the length, respectively Da and Ds, of the windows through which the sound waves sway concerned 38 and 39.

According to a preferred embodiment, the deflectors extend over an overall overall length such that each of the distances da1 and ds1 for the outer deflector 35 and da2 and ds2 for the inner baffle 36 are less than two-thirds of the length, respectively Da and Ds, of the windows through which the sound waves concerned 38 and 39 oscillate. The internal spoilers 36 are positioned inside the air channels and they can be attached and fixed to the blade holder by any means such as for example a screw as shown in Figures 48 to 50, but these internal spoilers can also advantageously constitute a monolithic assembly with the comb while being independent of the blade carrier.

The outer spoilers are arranged between the outer face of the blade holder and the corresponding inner face of the cover 23 and they can also be reported and be fixed to the blade holder by any means such as for example a screw as shown in FIGS. to 50 but they can also advantageously be joined together to form a profiled element according to the required convex transverse profile, said element extending substantially in the longitudinal direction of the instrument being optionally connected to the frame of the cover 23.

As shown in Figures 48 to 50 baffles spoilers are here fixed together by a common screw which also ensures the attachment of the sucked blade 38 and the blown blade 39 against the corresponding faces of the blade holder sandwiched between said blades . Each of the two spoilers 35 and 36 has an anti-rotation pin which fits precisely in the window of the blade sucked for the inner spoiler 36 and in the window of the blown blade for the outer spoiler 35 Figures 48 to 50 show that at least some of the sound waves of the instrument are associated with at least one if not two fins, respectively 33 and 34, arranged on either side of the single blade holder 21. These two fins are asymmetric tapered cross section and their respective longitudinal axes extend in the longitudinal direction of the instrument substantially parallel to the plane Px.

The first fin 33 is disposed inside the relevant channel through which it passes right through the longitudinal direction of the instrument and its leading edge located closest to the mouth is positioned substantially opposite the free end of the suction blade 38 while the second fin 34 is implanted on the other side of the single blade holder, so between the outer face of the blade holder and the inner face of the cover. This second fin 34 is implanted such that its leading edge located closest to the flag of the instrument is positioned substantially opposite the free end of the blown blade 39. Each of these two fins has a slightly convex face which we will call intrados and a second face whose convexity is much more accentuated than we will call extrados, said extrados being oriented in the direction of the blade holder both for the inner fin 33 and for the outer fin 34.

FIG. 49 shows the operation of these arrangements when the player blows in the air circulation channel associated with the sucked blade 38 and the blown blade 39. The fin 33 divides the flow of initial blown air into two streams: a main stream and a secondary stream. The main flow passes between the underside of the fin 90 and the wall of the comb constituting the hood and closing the channels on their third side, This main air flow follows an almost straight path to reach by the shortest path the part free of blown sound blade 39.

At the same time, the second flow, considered as the secondary flow, bypasses the upper surface of the inner fin 33, passing between said extrados and the corresponding inner face of the blade carrier and between the extrados and the convex face of the deflector. internal spoiler 36. Due to the greater convexity and consequently the greater length of the extrados compared to that of the intrados, this secondary flow therefore follows a longer path than that which follows the main flow which imposes an increase velocity in the area of the extrados to the air streams of the secondary flow entrained in their race by the air streams of the main flow.

By Venturi effect, this rapid flow of the air streams of the secondary flow causes a slight depression in the area of the free end of the aspirated blade 38 which results in a suction acting on the free portion of the aspirated blade 38 tending to bring closer to the blade holder, along F1, the free portion of the suction blade 38 which thus closes the corresponding window formed in said blade holder. The depression created by the Venturi effect being low it allows only a slight bending of the suction blade just sufficient for it to be placed in the thickness of the blade holder by closing the window beneficially in the manner of a valve but this depression is not strong enough to cause parasitic oscillation said aspirated blade 38 which is perfect.

The secondary flow then slides on the convex wall of the spoiler 36, thus spanning the attachment zone of the blown blade, to join the main flow and both then escape towards the instrument horn, causing the oscillator to oscillate. Blown blade 39 during their passage through the corresponding window FIG. 50 shows the principle of operation of these arrangements when the player sucks in the air circulation channel associated with the aspirated blade 38 and the blown blade 39. The flow of air sucked between mostly in the harmonica directly by the opening 230 arranged through the cover and positioned vis-à-vis the area of the free end of the suction blade 38, a complementary flow however arrives from the flag of the instrument. Throughout the flag extends a burette 28 of triangular curvilinear section serving as an aerodynamic springboard for the air streams sucked by the flag which are thus mainly directed between the underside of the outer fin 34 and the corresponding inner face of the cover 23 and then follow a path almost rectilinear to reach by the shortest path the free part of the aspired sound blade 38.

A minority of sucked air threads, however, passes between the extrados of the outer fin 34 and the corresponding outer face of the blade holder and between said extrados and the convex face of the outer spoiler-deflector 35. Again, because of the greater convexity and consequently the greater length of the extrados compared to that of the intrados, this minority flow follows a longer path than that which follows the main flow from of the flag which imposes an increase of speed in the area of the extrados to the air streams of the secondary flow entrained in their race by the air streams of said main stream coming from the flag of the instrument.

By Venturi effect, this rapid flow of the air streams of the minority flow causes a slight depression in the area of the free end of the blown blade 39 which results in a suction exerted on the free portion of the blown blade 39 tending to bring closer to the blade holder, according to F2, the free portion of said blown blade 39 which thus closes the corresponding window formed in said blade holder. Again, the depression created by the Venturi effect is low it allows only a slight bending of the aspirated blade just sufficient for it to be placed in the thickness of the blade holder by closing the window beneficially in the manner of a valve but this depression is not strong enough to be able to cause unwanted oscillation said blade blown 39 which is perfect.

The minority flow then slides on the convex wall of the outer spoiler 35 and spanning the attachment zone of the suction blade to join the other two flows and all three then move towards the mouth of the instrument by causing oscillation the blade sucked 38 during their passage through the corresponding window

The invention is not limited to the embodiments shown or described herein, but it also includes all technical equivalents as well as combinations thereof.

Claims

I Claims

1 - Harmonica (1) comprising:

a mouthpiece (2) in the outer face of which open the mouth holes (200) by which the harmonicist sucks or breathes air that oscillates the sound waves of the instrument, each of the holes mouth (200) serving two air circulation channels (30,31, 220) each feeding at least one blown sound blade (500,212,39) and at least one aspirated sound blade (400,211, 38), a comb (7 , 22) or bed base in the thickness of which are formed a plurality of air circulation channels (30,31) said comb supporting at least one blade holder (4,5,21) on which are mounted sound slides ( 400,500,21 1, 212,38,39) oscillated by the air flows generated by the player,

an air distributor (6,25), interposed between the mouthpiece element (2) and the comb (7,22), said air distributor (6,25) being intended to selectively direct the blown air or sucked by the player to one (30,220) or the other (31,220) of the two air circulation channels fed by a mouth hole (200) common to said two air channels (30,31). , 220), a peripheral shell (17) or two covers (10, 23) for holding the harmonica in hand and ensuring the amplification of the sounds and their projection towards the horn of the instrument, said harmonica (1 ) being characterized in that: each orifice hole (200) feeds two air circulation channels (30, 31, 220) each supplying at least one blown blade (500, 212, 29) and at least one aspirated blade (400, 211, 38),

the longitudinal axes of the two blades (400,500,21 1, 212,38,39) served by the same air circulation channel (30,31,220) are coplanar with the longitudinal axis of said air channel

(30,31, 220),

for each of the mouth holes (200), the two air circulation channels (30, 31, 220) supplied by said common mouth hole (200) are arranged side by side and separated from one another by the other by a separating wall arranged transversely to the longitudinal axis of the instrument and substantially perpendicular to the average longitudinal plane Px passing substantially mid-thickness of the instrument and thus passing substantially through the middle of the holes of mouth (200) and passing near the middle of the flag of the instrument,

for each of the two air circulation channels (30, 31, 220) fed by a common mouth hole (200), the air distributor (6, 25) moves by axial translation in the longitudinal direction of the instrument to move from its first position, in which it obscures the entrance of the second air circulation channel (31, 220) and directs the air flows to the first channel (30, 220) feeding at least a first blown blade and at least one first blade sucked to its second position in which it conceals the inlet of the first air flow channel (30,220) and directs the air flows to the second channel (31, 220) feeding at minus a second blown blade and a second aspirated blade,

the air distributor (6, 25) is in the general shape of a scale consisting of two longitudinal elements arranged substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the instrument interconnected by transverse elements (60),

the above-mentioned transverse elements (60) are of generally profiled shape and their width, measured in the longitudinal direction of the instrument, is generally degressive as one moves away from their face nearest the flag of the instrument to get closer to their face located closest to the mouth of the instrument.

2 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that at least some of the faces of the sliding air distributor (25) comprise sealing baffles (253) which extend in the longitudinal direction of the instrument and which consist of steps, and / or ribs and / or grooves of complementary dimensions and shapes perfectly fitted to steps and / or ribs and / or complementary grooves formed in the corresponding faces of the element d mouth (24) and / or comb (22) and / or covers (23) against which slides said distributor. 3 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that:

for at least some of the sound waves that it comprises, the window through which the blade oscillates is partially covered by a deflector

(15,16,26,27,800,700) positioned beyond the area swept by the oscillating portion of the sound blade concerned,

- the end of the deflector (15,16,26,27,800,700) located on the side of the free end of the sound blade concerned is located at a distance (Da, Ds) from the end of the window located on the side of the free end of said blade, between one quarter and three quarters of the total length (La, Ls) of the window through which said blade oscillates,

- the baffles (15,26,800) associated with the suction blades are positioned between the blade carrier (4,21) and the corresponding inner face of the cover (10,17,23),

- The baffles (16,27,700) associated with the blown blades are positioned inside the air channels arranged in the bed base (7,22) of the harmonica.

4 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that:

it comprises a single blade holder (21) supporting all the aspirated blades (21 1) and all the blown blades (212),

the sucked (211) and blown (212) knives are united in pairs while being arranged in line and head to tail on either side of the blade holder concerned, their respective longitudinal axes being parallel to the longitudinal axis of the d-channel; single air (220) which serves them and the oscillating free portions of said sound blades extend in two diametrically opposite directions with respect to each other,

the air circulation ducts (220) arranged in the comb (22) do not pass through the entire thickness of the comb so that they are closed by a wall extending in the longitudinal direction of the comb; harmonica, said longitudinal wall of the comb thus constituting one of the two outer longitudinal faces of the peripheral shell of the instrument.

5 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 4, characterized in that:

at least some of the pairs of sound blades are associated with a deflector (26,27) covering a part of the length of the window of the blade holder through which oscillates the first sound blade of the concerned channel which is either of the blade type sucked (21 1) is of the blown blade type (212), said deflector (26, 27) is extended by a thin flexible strip (260, 270) extending in the opposite direction to the free end of the sound blade of which it constitutes the deflector, and this flexible strip constitutes the sealing valve of the second sound blade fed by the air channel concerned (220)

the length and the width of the flexible blade are slightly greater than the dimensions of the window through which this second sound blade oscillates which is of the opposite type to the first blade, and therefore respectively is a blown blade (212) or an aspirated blade (211)

- When the air flow is opposite to that which corresponds to the type of the second sound blade, it comes to press the flexible blade against the face of the blade holder and completely closing the air passage window of this second sound blade and thus forcing the entire airflow to pass through the window of the first blade whose type sucked or blown corresponds well, it, in the sense of current flow, 6 - Harmonica (1 ) according to claim 4 characterized in that:

at least some of the windows through which the aspirated (38) or blown sound waves (39) oscillate are partly covered by spoiler baffles (35,36) arranged head-to-tail on either side of the blade holder ,

the internal spoiler-baffles (36) are positioned inside the air channels while the outer spoiler-baffles (35) are arranged between the outer face of the blade carrier and the corresponding inner face of the cover (23)

each of these deflectors-spoilers (35,36) consists of a wall of convex curvilinear shape at least in the longitudinal axial direction of the sound strips concerned, said wall being positioned beyond the space swept by the blades when their maximum oscillations, and it covers continuously both a part of the sound blade pressed against the same face of the blade holder as it respects (38, 39), and therefore also the corresponding part of the window which is associated with said blade, and a part of the window through which oscillates the sound blade fixed on the opposite face of the blade holder, respectively (39,38),

- each of the two baffles - spoilers (35,36) extends continuously in the longitudinal direction of the two sound waves over an overall length such that, from the two opposite ends of the windows concerned, the two opposite ends of each of the said deflectors-spoilers are at distances, respectively da1 and ds1 for the outer deflector (35) and da2 and ds2 for the inner deflector (36), less than three quarters of the length, respectively Da and Ds, of the windows through which oscillate the sound waves concerned (38, 39). 7 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that:

it comprises two blade holders, one of which (4) supports all the extracted sound blades (400) while the other (5) supports all the blown blades (500),

the comb (7) and the blade holders (4,5) which it supports are off-center in the lateral direction relative to the mean longitudinal plane (Px) passing through the mid-thickness of the instrument at the level of the mouth and by the thickness of the instrument at the pavilion level,

the face of the comb (7) against which the blade holder (4) supporting the aspirated blades (400) rests is positioned closer to said mean longitudinal plane (Px) than is the face of the comb (7) against which rests the blade holder (5) supporting the blown blades (500).

8 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that:

- It comprises at least one blade holder (21) sandwiched between a pressure cap (23) and the corresponding face of the comb (22) under the action of pressure means tending to bring said pressure cap closer to said face comb,

the aforementioned pressure means consist of at least one pressure screw (37) implanted in the part of the instrument between the two planes arranged perpendicularly to the mean longitudinal plane Px of the instrument and passing through the longitudinal axis of the air circulation channel feeding the most serious blade of the instrument and the other by the longitudinal axis of the channel feeding the highest pitch of the instrument.

the longitudinal axis of at least one of the clamping screws (37) of the pressure cap (23) is positioned at a distance from the mouth face of the lower instrument to the distance separating said face from mouth of the bottom of the airflow channel (220) feeding the worst blade of the instrument.

9 - Harmonica (1) according to the preceding claim 8, characterized in that:

- The straight line containing the longitudinal axis of at least one pressure screw (37) tending to bring the bonnet (23) concerned of the corresponding face of the comb (22) through a wall (221) separating them two channels of adjacent air circulation (220) whose respective longitudinal axes are divergent when one moves away from the mouth face of the instrument to approach the flag of the instrument,

- The longitudinal axis of said clamping screw (37) is positioned at a distance from the mouth of the mouth of the lower instrument to the distance from said mouth face which is the bottom of the shorter of the two channels air (220) adjoining the wall in which is implanted said clamping screw (37). Harmonica (1) according to the preceding claim 1, characterized in that:

at least some of the sound blades of the instrument are associated with two fins, respectively (33) and (34), arranged on either side of the single blade holder (21), these two fins are of cross section tapered taper and their respective longitudinal axes extend in the longitudinal direction of the instrument substantially parallel to the plane Px,

- The first fin (33) is disposed within the channel (220) concerned that it passes right through the longitudinal direction of the instrument and its leading edge located closest to the mouth is positioned substantially in front of the free end of the corresponding suction blade (38),

- The second fin (34) is implanted on the other side of the single blade holder, and therefore between the outer face of the blade holder (21) and the inner face of the hood (23) and its leading edge located the most near the flag of the instrument is positioned substantially opposite the free end of the corresponding blown blade (39).

11 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises openings (230) arranged through the cover concerned (23) and in that said openings are positioned at the free oscillating portion of the aspirated sound blades concerned.

12 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that:

- It comprises a counter-comb (8) whose conicity of the faces is complementary to the conicity of the corresponding faces of the comb (7) so that said corresponding faces are therefore parallel in pairs,

each of the two blade holders (4,5) of the instrument is sandwiched between the face of the comb (7) and the corresponding face of the counter-comb (8),

- Means (9) generating a thrust tending to bring the comb against the mouthpiece face of the instrument ensure the veneer of the blade holder (4,5) against the comb (7).

13 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises two blade holders (4,5) and in that when the instrument is in play position, the blade holder (4) supporting the blades aspirated (400) is disposed in the upper part of the instrument while the blade holder (5) supporting the blown blades (500) is arranged in the lower part of the instrument. 14 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises a control device (250,251), directly accessible from the outside without requiring disassembly of the instrument, for adjusting the preload means (252) ensuring automatic return to the output position of the sliding air distributor (25) when the player does not press on the end of said distributor constituting its control button.

15 - Harmonica (1) according to claim 1 characterized in that the height (e1) of at least one of the lateral faces of the window through which oscillates the most serious blade of the blade holder (4,5 ) is greater than the height (e4) of the corresponding lateral face of the window through which oscillates the highest blade of said blade holder.