US1232217A - Means for coincidently playing pianos and organs. - Google Patents

Description

Patented July 3, 1917.

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MEANS FOR COINCIDENTLY PLAYING PIANOS AND ORGANS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I I. I9I6.

L r 1 1 l l l l I I l I Illl Patented July 3, 1917.

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E. CAMP.

MEANS FOR COINCIDENTLY PLAYING PfANos AND URGANS.

APPUCATION FILED SEPT. Il. |916.

mam/to@ ERNEST Camp @Hof/wu,

E. CAMP.

MEANS FOR COINCIDENTLYPLAYING PIANOS AND ORGANS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. II. |916.

1,232,21 7. f Patented July 3, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

@waan/to@ ERNEST CHP/IF UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST CAMP, OF EAST SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.

MEANS FOR COINCIDENTLY PLAYING PIANOS AND ORGANS.

Application led September l1, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST CAMP, a citizen of the United States, residing at East San Diego, in the county of San Diego and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Coincidently Playing Pianos and Organs, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to musical instruments and particularly to means whereby one musical instrument, as for instance an organ, may be played from or by the keys of another musical instrument such as a piano.

In theaters, moving picture houses and like places it is oftentimes desirable to play an organ in conjunction with a piano without the necessity of having an extra musician to play the organ.

'Ihe general object of my invention is to provide means whereby this may be done at a relatively small expense, this means being so arranged that it may be attached or used with either an ordinary piano or a player piano and with either a player organ or an .ordinary organ.

A further object of the invention is the provision of an attachment of this character which uses for its operation the ordi.- nary pneumatics commonly found in player pianos and player organs, thus reducing the cost of the attachment to a minimum.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated diagrammatically in the several views in which- Figure 1 is an end elevation of a piano showing only those parts of the piano which case showing the manner in which my invention is applied to a player organ of a common type;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary front view of a f piano partly broken away to show the interior construction and this view also illustrating the stop operating mechanism;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of one of the valves whereby the admission of air Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented July 3, 1 91 7.

Serial No. 119,537.

to the bellows is controlled, this view showing the valves applied to operating the stop board of an organ;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary under side view of the vents controlled by the piano keys;

Fig. G is a fragmentary perspective view of the front of the piano showing the stop controlling slides;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary top plan view of two rows or banks of reeds and the controlling boards 21 therefor; and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary section of a. portion of a piano key, the board 12 and the valve or pad which controls the passage of air through the pipe 13.

Referring now to Fig. 1, 10 designates a piano which may be an ordinary piano or a player piano and 11 designates one of the keys of this piano, it being understood that the mechanism which is used with one key is used with all of the keys. Disposed above the key 11 is a longitudinally extending supporting board 12 from which extends a series of pipes 13, there being as many of these pipes 13 as there are keys and each pipe 13 opens upon the under face of the board, the opening of each pipe in the under face of the board being surrounded by a. felt pad 14. Each key 11 carries upon its upper face a felt pad 15 which when the key is raised bears against the under face of the felt pad le and prevents air from entering the pipe 13. When the key is depressed air can enter the pipe 13 and pass from there to the primary and secondary valves controlling the bellows which actuate the organ valve.

On the left hand side of Fig. 1 I have illustrated diagrammatically a portion of an organ. In this view 1G designates the wind chest of the organ, 17 the valve which. controls the passage of air from the wind chest to the reeds or pipes, 18 and 19 designate two oppositely disposed reed cells or ducts leading to organ pipes, and 2O designates the valve stem. I have illustrated two sets of reed cells 18 and 19 each closed at its outer end by means of a register or stop board 21, hingedly mounted at 22. Ihen one of these stop boards is closed it stops the sounding of all notes of that bank of reeds in the usual and ordinary manner. When either of the stop boards is open of course the corresponding reeds speak. All of these parts are of any well-known or suitable construction and I have not attempted to illustrate the full mechanism of an organ but only suliicient oitl the mechanism to indicate the manner in which my invention is to be applied thereto.

rl`he pipe 13 leads into the organ case and to a valve casing 23 such as illustrated in Fig. el, this valve case having a partition 24 and a partition 25. The partition 24: is adjacent the bottom of the valve case and is formed with a central opening supporting a diaphragm or pouch 26, While the lpartition 25 has a central opening 27. rIhe top or the valve case is formed with an opening 2S and with an opening 29 leading into a vbellows'30 of the usual form. Disposed within the valve case is a valve stem 31 which at its lower end rests upon the diaphragm 26 and which carries the valves 32 and 33. ldlhen the valve 32 is seated in lthe opening 27, t-he valve 33 is unseated from the opening 28 and vice versa. Thus when the Vdiaphragm is down, atmospheric air can come through the openinO' 23 and pass into the bellows. TWhen the diaphragm is raised, however, then coinnninication is established between 'a pipe 3% and Ethe bellows, this pipe el leading to a; vacuum chamber 35. It is to be understood that l have shown a very simple formof valve `for controlling the bellows 30 but l do not wish to. be limited to this aslthe forms of primary and secondary valves commonly found in player piano and player organ mechanism might be used.

The bellows 30, as illustrated in Fig. 1, has a fixedbottom board 36 and a movable upper board 37 which is provided with a slotted arm 38 which embraces the valve stem 2O and rests upon a stop 39. Normally the ,bellows is filled with air and is expanded and the valve 17 is held against its seat, preventing the passage of air from the wind chest 16 to the reeds or pipes. lVhen, however, the key 11 is depressed it opens the fair inlet through pipe 13 and atmospherie air passes through the pipe 13 into the space below the diaphragm 26. rhis raises the, rdiaphragm and allows the valve 32 to establish communication between the vacuum chamber and the bellows,'causing the bellows 30 to collapse, depressing the valve 17 and allowing the air to pass to the reeds. Whether the air will pass from the wind chest to one'bank 'of Areeds or to both banks of reeds will depend upon whether one or both of the controlling boards or valves 21 are open or closed. It

will of course be understood that small bleed opening 40 is termed in the partition 2:1

so that when the inlet to the pipe 13 is closed by the release 'of the key 11, the pressure on opposite sides of the diaphragm 26 will becomeequalized by the withdrawal of air from beneath the diaphragm 26, this bleed opening, however being so small as not toafeet the vacuum between the partitions 'slides are opened or closed.

24 and 25 when atmospheric air is admitted to the pipe 13.

For the purpose of operating or controlling the stop boards 21 which control the speaking of the different sets of reeds, I have provided practically the same mechanism as for operating the organ valves. This mechanism is illustrated in F ig. 1 and Fig. et. Extending from the front of the piano in any convenient position, preferably below the keys 11, are a plurality of pipes 41, two pipes bein@p shown, but it kbeing understood that there are to be as many pipes as there are stops or banks of reeds. Each of these pipes al1 leads to a valve casing` 23 of the same character as the valve casing'23 heretofore described and having the same arrangement of partitions and valves. vThis valve easing communicates with a bellows 30a, the free side of whichhas a projecting arm 42 which vengages with a pin 43 pro-` jecting from the corresponding stop board 21. Now it will be obvious that when air is admitted to one of the Ypipes Ll1 that this atmospheric air will push up the diaphragm 26 and open communication Vbetween 'the bellows 30a and the vacuum chamber 35, thus causing the bellows to'collapse and this will lift up on the correspondingstop 'board 21 which will permit that set or bank of reeds to speak. For the purpose 'oi' 'controlling the admision of air to the pipes al1, l provide Vopenings lain the face of the piano case and the admission'of air to each opening is controlled by a slide e5, as illustrated in Fig. 6, this slide vbeing shown as slotted and mounted upon'a guide pin 17. The extremity 'of each slide is outwardly bent as at 48. The slides may thusbe individually 'manipulated vto close or open the stop boards 21 of any particular bank of reeds but for the purpose of simultaneously operating all of the slides, I provide a shiftable rod 49 having a handle 50 and formed with upwardly extendingpins 51 which eX- tend up on each side of the tingerpiece a8, these pins, however,'being spaced siithc-iently tar apart as to permit the shitting of the slide independently of the rod 4-9. "When, however, the rod e9 is shifted all of the The openings 44 may be made and preferably are made in a separate board which l will hereafter term a stop control board, thus avoiding marring the piano, there being flexible tubes leading from the openings 4/-1 of the stop control board to the several valve casings 23 which control the operation of the bellows 30?. It will of course be understood that while l halve'only shown two pipes Ll1 and twosets of banks of reeds, yet this is purely for illustrative purposes and thatthe same controlling means can be used for any'number of stops, banks or sets of notes.

1n Fig. 2 I have shown the construction described.

ingaat? as applied to the control of a player organ. The piano mechanism is precisely the same as heretofore described and hence the same reference numerals are used for it but in this case the pipes 13 extend into the organ case and are connected by means of Ts 52 to the pipes 53 which terminate adjacent the keys 54, these keys carrying the usual valves 55 which when the key is depressed move away from the opening of the pipe 53 so as to permit atmospheric air to pass up through the pipe 5B to the usual valve mechanism contained in the valve case 56. This valve mechanism controls the bellows 57, each bellows being operatively connected to the valve pin 58 which permits the passage of wind from the wind chest to the separate reeds. The sounding or speaking of the several banks or sets of reeds is controlled in the same manner as heretofore described by the stop boards 59, these stop boards being controlled by a bellows 60, in turn connected to the valve mechanism illustrated in Fig. e and actuated by means of air passing through the controllingpipes '61, these pipes 6l leading back into the piano and opening upon the controlling board, as heretofore described, and being controlled by the mechanism illustrated in Fig. 6 and heretofore In Fig. 2 I have merely illustrated in a general way the ordinary mechanism of a player organ and have not attempted to show the details of construction for the reason that these details form no aart of m invention and are well known to all those skilled in the art. It is reiterated that the illustration in Fig. l and Fig. 2 is largely diagrammatic and while I have illustrated the pipes as leading downward beneath the piano and beneath the floor and up into the organ, it is of course to be understood that these pipes may lead directly from the back of the piano through the back of the organ. The pipes which conneet the piano to the organ will be preferably oit flexible material such as rubber and hence will permit the piano and organ to be disposed in any suitable positions with relation to `each other.

It will be seen that by the use of the mechanism which I have -described it is possible to play a number of key actuated instruments simultaneously and that it is not necessary for any one buying the mechanism which I have described to use any special kind of piano or special kind of organ. The piano is connected up with whatever form of organ may be in the theater or auditorium, whether this organ be a common reed organ or an expensive pipe organ, and the organ is played from the piano key board. There are today a great many player organs which have lost their popularity with the public but which may be put to use by installing them in small theaters and like auditoriums and playing them `from the usual piano key board, thus securing effects not otherwise possible at a very cheap cost.

IV hat I claim is:

l. Mechanism for coincidently playing a wind instrument having a controlling valve and a piano, including a pneumatic operatively connected to a controlling valve ot the wind instrument, an air pipe having an air entrance opening, a piano key, and a pad carried by the piano key normally closing said opening of the air pipe but permitting the admission of air thereto upon a depression of the key.

2. The combination with a piano and an organ, the piano having keys and the organ having the sound controlling valves, of air pipes, one :for each valve and key, each having an air entrance opening disposed in proximity to a corresponding piano key, and a pad carried by each piano key and normally closing the opening of the corresponding pipe but permitting the inlet of air thereto upon a depression of the key whereby to coincidently operate a pneumatic controlling the corresponding valve of the organ.

3. Mechanism for controlling the operation ot organ banks from pianos including a controlling device normally preventing the speaking of a plurality of wind operated sound creating devices, means for shifting the controlling device comprising a. pneumatic operatively connected to the controlling device, means on the piano for operating the pneumatic comprising a pipe leading from the pneumatic to the piano, and a manually operable member controlling the admission of air to the pipe.

4. Mechanism for controlling the operation of organ banks from pianos including a plurality of controlling devices normally preventing the speaking of a plurality of sets of wind operated sound creating devices, means for shifting the controlling devices comprising pneumatics each operatively connected to a controlling device, means on the piano for operating the pneumatics comprising a plurality of pipes leading from the pneumatics to the piano, manually operable slides each controlling admission to one of said pipes, each slide being operable independently of any other slide, and means for simultaneously operating all of said slides.

5. Mechanism for controlling the operation ot organ banks from pianos including a plurality or'l controlling devices normally preventing the speaking of a plurality of sets of wind operated sound creating devices, means for shifting the controlling devices comprising pneumatics each operatively connected to a controlling device, a plurality of pipes leading from the pneu- Ina-tios to the piano, Va plurality vof manually operable slides keach zoontrol-ling admission to one of said pipes, each slide having an outwardly projecting thumb pierce,

, and means for simultaneously operating all of said slides including a slidable Arod having pairs of pins, each pair of pins being disposed -on opposite sides of 4the thumb piece of one slide7 `the space between each pair of pins being sufficient to permit the individual operation of the slide.

6. The combination With a vpiano 'including a series of keys and an organ including a series of val-ves, of `means for operating said valves from the piano keys comp-rising a series of pneumatios operatively connected tothe Valves, a supporting member extendingfacross and aboye'the pianokeys and `having a series of pelforations, one for each key, pipes connecting saidseries of pettorations 4each with one of said pneumatica and pads carried upon lthe piano keys and normally closing vsaid .perforations but Vmovable from the ypeiforations -to Ipermit the entrance 4of air upon the depression of the keys.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature 'in `the presence of ytwo Witnesses ERNEST CAMP. Witnesses z "S. B. CAMP,

SERGENT.

Copesof this patent may be obtained for vecents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washingtomll C.

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