US1102269A - Mechanical musical instrument. - Google Patents

Description

H. S. HORNBEGK. MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT;

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3, 1910.

1 102,269, Patented July 7, 1914.

4 SHEETB-SHBET 1.

WITNESSES:

A TTORN E Y5 H. s. HORNBEGK. MEGHANIGAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3,1910.

Patented July 7, 1914.

4 SHEETSSHEET 2 H. s. H ORNBBGK. MBGHANIGAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE'3,'1910.

1,102,269. Patented July 7, 1914;

N 4 SHEETS-SHEET s.

H. S. HORNBEGK.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION. FILED JUNE 8, 1910.

Patented July 7, 19M

4 SHEE TSSHEET 4.

the upper part of hammer rest rail of different character. 12 lS a view in front elevation, with the r icru rnn s'rnrns ra rnn r @hhiltlht taste.

' To allwlzom it may concern."

Be it known that l, HENRY S. Honnenon, a citizen of the United States, residing in Elizabeth, in the State of'New Jersey, have invented certain new. and useful Improvements in hllechanical Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

' his invention relates to mechanical play ing devices for musical instruments and construction, support-and operation of those 'ofthe playlng devices or controlling by which the throw of the hammers is varied devices at will to produce solo efiects.

. The invention will be more fully explained hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which it is illustrated, and in which I Figure l is a view in front elevation, with the case removed, of a pneumatic player piano to which the improvements are applied. 'Figs. 2 and 8 are detail views showing, in diflerent positions, the controlling handle and the connections therefrom to the hammer rest rail. Figs. l and 5 are detail top views of the controlling handle or lever and its supporting devices and intermediate connections, the handle being shown in difierent positions. Fig. 6 is a detail view in section on the plane indicatcdhy the line Get) of Fig. l, looking in the direction of-the arrows. Fig. 7 is a top view of the pneumatic controller and its immediate connections. Fig. 8 is a view of the same, partly in ele ation and partly in vcrtica'l section. Fig. .9 is a detail view in section through the terminal board and swinging head shown in Figs. 7 and 8, but on a larger scale, and Fig. 10 is a similar viewv of a modification. Fig. 11 is a view i similar to Fig. 9 showing the application of the controller handle to the operation of a front casing removed, of a player piano which embodies a rest rail of the character of that indicated in Fig. 11.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed June 3, 1910. Serial No. 564,601.

rail f is swung i i nanny s. nonunnon, or ELIZABETH, new JERSEY.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Patented July fl, 18 14.

In the embodiment of the invention illus trated in Figs. 19 of the drawings, the frame a of the piano supports, in usual manner, the finger keys 6, the tracker-box 0, the bellows mechanism indicated by the bellows pedals (Z and the wind box (shown in dotted lines) cl, and the hammers e which are ac tuated as usual.

The devices by which the throw of the hammers is varied, either to soften all tones or to soften the tones of the harmony or accompaniment, while permitting the tones of the melody to stand out more prominently, with a solo efiect, while of the same general nature as heretofore devised, are nevertheless so constructed and combined, in the present instance, as to constitute an attachment, complete in itself, which can be applied readily to any ordinary player piano in which there is sufficient room for the attachment, without requiring modification of the plan ing devices of such piano. As thus constructed, the attachment comprises a bar a which may be secured in the frame a in any suitable manner, from which is hung, by suitable hinges a a swinging main rail or support f. Independently movable sectional. rest rails g are supported by the main rail f, each of which is adapted to cooperate with a relatively small number of hammers e and is carried by the movablemember of a corresponding sectional bellows g mounted on the main rail f. Each of the bellows g is held normally expanded by a spring 9 and is collapsed through connection with the vacuum system as hereinafter described. Means are also provided, as hereinafter described, for bringing the main rail f and therefore all of the sectional rest rails together toward or from the strings, so as to limit the throw of the hammers more or less, and the relations of the parts are such that when the main rail is swung so as to carry all of the sectional rails toward the strings, so as to soften all the tones, as in the posi* tion shown in Fig. 2. and thereafter any one of the bellows g is collapsed, the correspondin sectional rail 9 will be moved away from the corresponding hammers to permit such hammers to have their full throw, whereby, through a proper selection of the bellows g, the melody is made to stand out with a solo effect while the tones of the harmony or accompaniment are subdued more or less according to the extent to which the main rest 7 toward or from the strings.

The force with which the melody or solo tones is produced is modified for expression in any usual manner, as by the action of the feet on the pedals. The normal position of the main rest rail f is shown in Fig. 2, in which all the tones are softened, while the position of the main rail in which all the tones may be produced with full force is represented in Fig. 3.

The several sectional bellows g are adapted to be severally connected with the vacuum systemfat the will of the performer, through a pneumatic controller hwhich is mounted on the supporting bar a and forms a part of the attachment. Such controller consists of a terminal board It provided with a series of ports 71 arranged in the arc of a circle and connected respectively, by flexible tubes 71 with the corresponding bellows 9. On the terminal board h is mounted an oscillating slide valve or head is, adapted to be oscillated by the performer through suitable means hereinafter described and having two chambers is and is", open on the underside of the head. The chambers is and are of different size, the one, 70', being adapted to register completely with only one port 7& at a time, while the other, 70 is adapted to register with several ports k at one time, so that, at the will of the performer, any single bellows g, or any succession oftwo or more bellows simultaneously, may be placed in communication with the vacuum system. In order that one or the other of the chambers 70, 70 may be placed in communication with the vacuum system at the will of the performer, the two chambers are connected, through flexible pipes 70 is, with a double valve action Z which in turn is connected by tube at with the vacuum system, as at d. The connections of the tubes is and 70* with the vacuum system are controlled respectively, in the usual manner, by valves Z and Z which in turn are placed under the control of the performer, in usual manner, through tubes Z and Z, the terminals of which, located on the controlling handle or lever hereinafter referred to, are normally. closed by spring valves Z and Z in convenient position to be opened by the fingers of the performer.

Obviously the partition k between the chambers 70 and 70 of the head 70 must be of such character, or of such thickness, as to prevent the possibility of a single port 7L2 being simultaneously in communication with both chambers in and 70 also provision should be made whereby the port 7L2 adjacent to that which is in communication with the chamber 70 may be in communication with the chamber k so that there shall not be of necessity any dead port between the two chambers. This desirable result is accomplished, in the construction shown in Fig. 9, by giving the partition is substantial thickness, at least as great as the diameter of each one of the ports [L2, and by forming therein a passage 70, which opens through the bottom of the head and communicates, through one side of the partition, with the chamber is, its mouth being covered by a check valve 767. Whenever the chamber 10 is in communication with the vacuum system the check valve 70' permits air to be drawn through the passage 70 from the port It" with which the passage in happens to be in communication; but if the chamber 7: alone is in communication with the vacuum system, then air can be drawn only through that port k which is in communication with the chamber is and cannot be drawn from the chamber 70 even thou h the assage k part1 overlaps a port h w ich is in communicatlon with the chamber k, because of the check valve 1: provided at the mouth of the passa e In.

It is conceivable that with the construction shown in Fig. 9 the head It might stand in such a position, with the wall to the right of the passage 70 standing over the middle of one of the ports k that the vacuum in chamber 70 might be broken by leakage of air from chamber 70 and pipe 70 To prevent this and to make the chambers 70 and if more independent and distinct in function, the constructionof the valve head might be further modified as shown in Fig. 10, in which the passage is communicates also with the chamber is through an opening provided with a check valve 70*, opening away from the chamber is, while the pipe js is provided with a check valve 70- which opens away from the chamber is. Thus, when a full chord is to be produced with full tone, all of the ports b covered by the head 70 will be in communication with the pipe k, with no breaking of the vacuum through the pipe 7: while, for solo effect, no other ports h are placed in communication with the pipe [a than those covered by the mouth of the chamber is" The main rail f is provided with a yoke f to which is pivotally connected one end of a link 7, the other end of whichis pivotally connected to the combined controlling lever which is conveniently located below the key bottom (1 This controlling lever is so constructed and arranged that through its movements up and down the main rail f can be swung toward or from the strings, while by its movements from side to side, the pneumatic controller is can be moved to place the desired bellows g in communication with the vacuum system. Moreover, besides carrying the terminal valves 1 and Z by which the performer is enabled to place any one or several of such bellows in connection with the vacuum system, the controlling lever can be turned" back under the key bottom out of the way and out of sight at p.

" the arm 79 in one direction minal valves Z and Z, above mentioned.

l\ ear its pivot 0 the inner arm of the lever 0 is cranked or bent, as at 0 and on the dropped part 0 an arm 7) is pivoted, as A spring cam latch p is secured to the pivoted arm 12,- so that the arm 0 and the pivoted, arm p may be connected so as to move together as one arm, and so that the arm p may he disengaged from the arm 0*. A. sto pin n is secured in the underside of the plate lever n to limit the movement of and a stop pin a is also secured in the underside of the plate lover a to limit the movement of the arm 0 and the arm p in the other direction: Connected to the arm 79, preferably by a yieldingspring arm 19 so that the up and down movements of the lever may be accommodated, is a link 9 which at its other end is connected to an army of a vertical rock shaft The rock shaft 91 carries the pneumatic controller head 70, so that by the proper movement of the handle 0 of the lever 0 to one side or the other, and by the proper manipulation of the valves Z and Z, the performer is enabled to place any one or any succession of the bellows g in communication with the vacuum system.

In order that the performer may have before him a visible indicator to show the position of the controller head in its relation to the note perforations. of the music sheet the rock shaft 9 is provided with an arm g which is connected by a link with a lever r mountedon an arm a extended from the supporting bar a, The lower end of the lever r is connected to a secondary lever r which in turn is connected by a link 1' with a rod 1' mounted to slide in suitable guides on the tracker-box and carrying a suitable indicator plate 1- in front of the music sheet.

"It will now be understood that through the pressure of the hand of the performer on the handle 0, and of the spring 71?, the mainor supporting bar f may be swung toward or from the hammers to vary the throw of the hammers and that by the movement of the handle to one side or the other the connection of the bellows (7' with the vacuum system may be controlled so that one or another of such bellows may be collapsed to give the corresponding hammers full threw for the purpose of bringing out the melody or solo tones. When the use of the automatic playing devices is discontinued, the handle 0' is carried to the left until the movement of the pivoted arm 2 is stopped by the stop pin n Stronger pressure on the handle 0' to the left then disengages the arm 0 from the pivoted arm 7) and permits the handle, which at the same time is further depressed, to be swung under the key bottom a out of the way and out of sight. lVhen the automatic playing devices are again to be used the handle 0 is pulled down and pulled out from beneath the key bottom a and is pushed to the right until the arm 0 is engaged by the spring latch 79 the arm p being held from movement to the left by the stop pin a", which also limits the movement of the arm 0 to the left.

In Figs. 1 to 9 of the drawings, the controlling handle is shown in connection with the pneumatic controller for the sectional rest rails, but obviously the advantages of the improved controller handle may be realized without the pneumatic controller and a different application of such controller h andle is illustrated in Figs. 11 and 12. In the con struction shown in said figures the controller lever comprises, as already described, a primary plate lever 72, a secondary lever 0 and a pivoted arm 27 adapted to be connected to the lever 0 by the spring clip 72 while the plate lever n is provided on its miderside with stop pins a and a The handle 0 also carries spring terminal valves Z and Z. The inner end of the plate lever it, however, is connected by the link f with an arm f 'on a rock shaft f which has arms f one of which is shown in Fig. 10, to cooperate with the single rest rail f, which is carried, as usual, by the pivoted arms 7, one of which is shown in Fig. 10. The movements of the controlling lever in a vertical direct-ion therefore serve to move the entire rest rail toward and from the strings to limit the throw. The arm 79, through the spring arm 79 and link 8, is connected to a lever s which in turn is connected by the link 8 with a sliding bar 8 which actuatcs the tempo control in the usual manner and carries an indicator .9". The terminal valves, only one of which Z is shown, are connected through. flexible tubes Z with pneumatics Z and Z which, through bellows 1 and t respectively, control valves at t and i by which connection is established between the vacuum system and one part 2% or the other part 6" of the wind chest or trunk t, with which are connected player pneumatics t By this means, through the manipulation .of the terminal valves Z and Z, the connect-ion between the vacuum system and the player pneumatics of the one part or the other part of the scale may be throttled so that the tones produced by the operation of such pneur30 matics shall be softened, while the tones produced by the other pneumatics are produced with full force, except as all tones are softened more or less by the movement of the rest rail f toward or from the hammers to limit their throw.

Various other applications of the controlling lever will readily suggest themselves and it is to be understood that the invention,

matic controller mounted on the supporting bar, connections from the controller to the plurality of bellows and fromthe control- .ler to the vacuum system, means having a common actuator to swing the movable rail toward and from the strings and to shift the pneumatic controller to place one or another of the bellows in communication with the vacuum system.

2. In a mechanical musical instrument,

.the combination of a series of bellows, a terminal board having a series of ports to which said bellows are connected respectively, a movable head having two adjacent chambers adapted to register severally with adjacent ports of said series, independent connections from said chambers respectively to the vacuum system, means to shift said head, and means to control the connections between said chambers and the vacuum system whereby any of said bellows in succession-may be connected with the vacuum system through one or the other of said chamhers.

3. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a series of bellows, a terminal board having a series of ports to which said bellows are connected respectively, a movable head having two chambers separated by a partition and adapted to register with said ports, said-partition having forn'ied. therein a passage adapted at one end to register with said ports and communicating at the other end with one of said chambers and provided with a check valve opening toward said chamber and means to place one or the other of said chambers in communication with the vacuum system.

4c- In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of series of bellows, a terminal board having a series of ports to which said bellows are connected respectively, a movable headhaving two adjacent independent chambers adapted to register severally with adjacent ports of said series and means to place one or the other of said chambers in communication with the vacuum system.

5. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a series of bellows, a terminal board having a series of ports to.

which said bellows are connected res ectively, a movable head having'two cham ers adapted to register with said ports, independent connections from said chambers respectively to the vacuum system, a controlling handle and connections whereby said head may be shifted, and means having operating terminals on said handle to control the connections between said chambers and the vacuum system.

6. In a mechanical'musical instrument, the combination of a series of bellows, a terminalboard having a series of ports to which said bellows are connected respectively, a movable head having two chambers adapted to register with said ports, independent connections from said chambers respectively to the vacuum system, a controlling handle and connections whereby said head may be shifted, pneumatics to control said independent connections, and controlling devices for said pneumatics having their terminals located on said handle.

7. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a series of bellows, a terminal board having a series of ports to which said bellows are connected respectively, a movable head having a chamber adapted to register with one of said ports and a larger chamber adapted to register with several of saidports, independent connections from said chambers to the vacuum system including each a pneumatic controlling device, a controlling handle and connections for the pneumatics having their terminals mounted on said handle.

8. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a movable rail, a plurality of bellows movable therewith, sectional rest 'r'ails carried by the bellows respectively, a

pneumatic controller and connections whereby any of said bellows may be connected with the vacuum system, a controlling handle movable in different planes, connections from said controlling handle to the supporting rail and connections from the controlling handle to the pneumatic controller.

9. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a movable rail, a plurality of bellows movable therewith, sectional rest rails carried by the bellows respectively, a pneumatic controller and connections whereby any of said bellows may be connected with the vacuum system, a controlling lever capable of movement up and down and capable of movement from side to side, connections from the controlling lever to said rail incense and connections from the controlling lever to said pneumatic controller.

10. In. a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a movable rail, a plurality of bellows movable therewith, sectional rest rails carried by the bellows respectively, a terminal board having a series .of ports to which said bellows are connected respectively, a movable head chambered for registration with said ports, connections from the chambered head to the vacuum system, a controlling lever capable of moveto register with said ports, independent connections from said chambers respectively to the vacuum system, a check valve in one of said connections opening from the adjacent chamber, and means to control the connections between said chambers and the vacuum system whereby any of said bellows may be connected with the vacuum system through one or the other of said chambers. V

12. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a series of bellows, a terminal board having a series of ports to which said bellows are connected respectively, a movable head having two chambers separated by a partition and adapted to register with said ports, said partition having formed therein a passage adapted to register with said ports and to communicate with said chambers respectively and provided with a check valve opening toward one of said chambers andwith a check valve opening from the other of said chambers, independent connections from said chambers respectively to the vacuum system, a check valve in one of said connections opening from the adjacent chamber, and means to control the connections between said chambers and the vacuum system whereby any of said bellows may be connected with the vacuum system through one or the other of said chambers.

13. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a series of tone producing devices, means to vary the action of all of the tone producing devices simultaneously, means to vary independently and selectively the action of said series of tone producing devices, a controller for said last named means, a controlling handle movable in different planes, connections from said controlling handle to said first named means, and connections from said controlling handle to said controller.

14. In a mechanical musical instrument, the combination of a series of tone producing devices, means to control the action of all of said tone producing devices simultaneously, a series of bellows and devices actuated by said bellows respectively to vary selectively the action of said series of tone producing devices, a pneumatic controller and connections whereby any of said bellows may be connected with the vacuum system, a controlling handle moving in diiii'erent planes, connections from said controlling handle to said first named means and con nections from said controlling handle to the pneumatic controller.

This specification signed and witnessed this 23rd day of May, A. D. 1910.

HENRY S. HORNBECK.

Signed in the presence ot'- M. Rmomnc, N. A. Sana-1a.

copies of this patent may be obtained. for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents 1 Washington, E. C.

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