GB231523A - - Google Patents

Abstract

231,523. Kucharski, S. March 29, 1924, [Convention date]. Players for keyboard instruments; actions; tune-sheets; winding-mechanism.-In an apparatus for playing keyboard instruments, depression of an auxiliary key or keys simultaneously advances the tune-sheet step by step and depresses the playing-keys by means of fingers which are drawn under a movable plate by electric means. The tune-sheet apertures and the tracker contacts are arranged in, say, four rows enabling the apparatus to be made narrow. The sheet 8 is of celluloid, paper, &c. about 35 mm. wide, and on contact of a pin 20 with a wire 31 taking place through an aperture, an electromagnet 26 is energized to draw an armature 4, formed as a vertical finger, under a spring-controlled plate 3. Depression of an auxiliary spring-controlled key 2 depresses the plate 3 and thereby also the fingers 4 resting on the playing-keys 5. The plate 3 also carries a lug 12 which, engaging a spring 11 attached to a cranked lever 7, advances the tune-sheet a step by means of grippers 9 engaging in feed holes at the side of the sheet, excess motion of the plate 3, after the grippers engage a stop 17, being taken up by the spring 11. The plate 3 may be divided and the parts placed under the control of different auxiliary keys 2, so that the expression of the melody and accompaniment may be separately controlled. The sheet as it is fed forward is received in a curved spring 32. The fingers 4 may be returned after depression by horizontal springs. The apparatus is provided with positioning-plates which engage between and behind non-playing black keys 5 at the ends of the keyboard. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 (3) (a) states that mechanical means, consisting of falling levers directly connected to the fingers 4 may be used instead of the contacts 20 and electromagnets; also that the tune-sheet may be of metal. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.