US1316573A - Player-piano mechanism - Google Patents

Description

S. R. HARCOURT.

PLAYER vRMN() MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED Aus.25, |915.v

wv w S. R. HARCOURT.

PLAYER mno MEcHANlsM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-25. I9I5.

1,316,573. Patentedsgpt. 23, 19.19.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2. I

I LN

STILL-WELL R. HARCOURT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PLAYER-PIANO MECHANISM To all whom it may concern.'

Be itfkn'own that I, `STILLWELL R. HAR- CoURi, a citizen of the United States, re siding at Chicago7 in the county of Cook and State of Illinois,-have invented a certain new and usefull Improvement in Player- Piano Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, "1

reference being hady to the accompanying drawings', forming a part of this Vspeciiication. f

n player-pianos, and is concerned-particularly with such instruments that are operated pneumati'cally,` atleast so far asthe progression of the usual music-sheet is concerned.

roll a' spool carrying a sheet of music is associated. A pneumatic motor is provided to operate either the spool or theroll, in' rewinding or playing, respectively,and my invention is concerned'with the control f this pneumatic motor. More specifically, my inventioii is concerned with the control ofthe motor during the playing operation,-that is, while the motor-power is applied to the takeup roll.

provided in devices of this kind for the'purwhich suction is to be applied, the reservoir continual.

" Voir with the motor, and inlthe prior art it a preliminary adjustment.` y

My invention is concerned with phrasing the music. lThat is, it is concerned withA means for temporarily retarding or accelerating a phrase in the music being played, entirely independently of the governor control, so that it is possible to quicken the pace n of the" music for a moment, or to retard it,

` in `order to get the most 'artisticeffeca without interfering with the rate at which the piece of music as a whole isset to be played.

My invention is ofsuch a nature that it may readilybe applied to any player piano,

and, physically, involves the employment of specification Letters Patent. ,i-Pafentd Sept, 23, Application iledy August 25,v 1315. `Serial No. 47,239.

a valve-boX which provides for-closing olf the flow cfrom the motor and also for temporarily?*shunting the governor which has beenl referred to. Y

'i *Other featuresL offmy invention will bey"come clear as this description proceeds.

" My'linvention is illustrated in -the accompanying drawings, in which vFigure 'l' is a front elevational view of a Y player; piano-embodying the features of my l inventiomfparts of the casing being removed *My invention relatesv to' piano players, or

in yorder to reveal-the interior construction Fig. -2`is-a sectional view=-on an enlarged scale,'-showing the valve-boXa-nd controlling -=mechani`sm of my3 invention; f

4AFig. 3 is a sectionalview taken on th y MVpla'ne of the line 3 3 of Fig. 2 and looking In devices of this kind, a so-called "take-up roll isprovided, and withthat in the direction indicated by the arrows; 1 Figi 4 `is ase'ctional view taken on the plane of the line 4 4 of 'Fig 2 and looking inlthedirection indicated by the arrows;

- iF ig. -5 is a plan-view of one of the controlling buttons', which will be referred to; "and Fig?. 6 is--an enlarged vertical sectional view take-Ir ontheline 6 6 of Fig. l.V

flReerring;irst,`toFig. l, it will be seen thatthere isillustrated apiano casing 6,

the key-board being shown at 7. Properly l, fniounted'in the'lower part of the casing It is well known that a pumper-bell'ows is is asupporting-board 8, which carries the Ypumper-bellows 9V and 10, operated by the poseof exhausting thel air, by successive impulses, from` a so-called reservoir, which 'l in `turn is connected with the devices' to `and"l2, respectively. The Ipassageway 13 'connects the bellows 9 and the reservoir ll,

and a-'pas'sageway 14- connects the bellowslO and theV reservoir l2. Each of the.l

reservoirs is provided with a spring 15 ytd-keep itnormally distended, and it will now be4 understood that the suction `impulses from'the respective bellows causev a steady suction-tof bemaintained by the reservoirs."

Thefactiom withth'e details oi'iV which I am not concerned, `is illustrated' broadly at 16,*and it will be seen that-the reservoir l1 action by meansTr of the -air line 17.

v A"go vernor 1S is provided adjacent the reservoirllQ, and a passageway 19'connects the interiorof the governor with the resisfflconn'ected with the wind-chest `of the ervoir. "Theron's'truction of this governor c is well known in the'art, and it is sufficient' tosaythatfupon its interior the movable board ofthe governor, which is constructed Alike abellows, is provided with a valve 20,

suction the greater will be the tendency to close the port, thus compensating, in a complementary way, for increased suction in the reservoir 12. It will thus be seen that, with the inlet to the governor of a determined size, the suction controlled by the governor will remain substantially constant.

A spring 22 tends to keep the governor distended.

In the upper part of the piano casing a rail 23 is mounted, and a roller-box 24 is set upon this rail, this roller-box having mounted therein the music-roll 25, the musicspool 26 and the tracker 27, set in such position therebetween that the paper passing from the spool to the roll may slide over the tracker. A pneumatic motor 28 is also mounted upon the rail 23, and, by means of transmission-mechanism 29, the power of the shaft 30 of the motor is conveyed to either the spool 26 or the roll 25.

Since this invention is not concerned with the rewinding of the music-sheet, I shall assume, for the purposes of this description, that the transmission-mechanism is insuch condition that the power of the motor is applied to the roll 25. That is the playing condition.

A suction-tube 31 leads from the motor 28 and goes to a valve-boX,32, mounted upon the rail 23. For the purpose of clearness, I have omitted the front wall of the valvebox so as to show the interior construction, and I shall describe it more fully presently by reference to the other figures. I may say now that the valve-box has three compartments, 33, 34 and 35. The compartment 33 is connected with the governor 18 by means of an air line 36, in which a valve 37 is interposed. As shown in Fig. G the valve 37 is capable of various degrees of opening or closing and is adapted to remain in any set position, being manually controlled by means of a forwardly extending valve stem 50. By means of a direct air line 38, the compartment 35 is connected directly with the reservoir 12. By directly I means to convey the idea that the air line 38 is a path of lower resistance than the air line 36, which includes the governor. The tube 31, which has already been referred to, is connected with the compartment 34. It now will facilitate this description to refer also to Figs. 2 to 5. It will be seen that the compartments 33 and 35 may be connected by means of an opening 39, which, however, is normally closed by a valve 40. The compartments 33 and 34 are normally connected by means of an opening 41, which may, however, be closed by a valve 42. These valves, as clearly shown in the drawings, slide in guideways 43, 43, mounted upon the partition 44. The openings 39 and 41, as clearly shown in Fig. 3,

are preferably triangular, so that the opening of one and the closing of the other may be gradual. Each of the valves is provided with a downwardly-extending stem 45, which passes out through an opening in the base of the valve-box, and at its lower end is connected with a swinging lever 46, pivoted at 47 in the back of the key-slip. The other end of each of the levers is provided with an actuating-button, which is exposed through the key-slip. The button 42', which operates the valve 42, may have any suitable mounting, but the button 40, which controls the movement of the valve 40, has a special mounting, illustrated in Figs. 2 and 5. The button 40a is pivotally mounted upon its lever 46, at 48, and the opening 49 in the key-slip, through which the button extends, is of such size as to permit a slight lateral. play of the button. The upper end of a spring 51 may be secured at 52 to the opposite end of the lever 4G, whereby the lever 46 and button 40a are normally held in the raised position as shown in Fig. 2. The button itself is provided with a notch 50, which is to coperate with a catch 51, secured to the top of the key-slip and so disposed that when the button 401 is depressed and moved slightly to the right the notch. will. engage with the catch to hold the button 402L in its lowermost position against the tension of the spring 51 and to lock it in that position, so that the valve 40 may be kept open without further attention, if desired.

The operation of my device will now be clear. A certain tempo being ascribed to a piece of music to be played, the valve 37 is primarily adjusted to correspond to the required rate. This rate, as before eX- plained, is maintained by the operation of the governor 18, since, under normal conditions, the suction is applied to the motor exclusively through the intervention of the governor, the valve 40 being completely closed, and the valve 42 being entirely open. If it is desired to temporarily retard the tempo, the button 42L is correspondingly depressed and the valve 42 more or less closes the opening 41, completely closing it to stop the motor, if desired. However, immediately upon the release of the button 42a, the tempo immediately returnsto the rate as determined by the valve 37.

I hen, on the other hand, it is desired to accelerate momentarily, the button 40aL is depressed and the valve 40 is opened, thus temporarily transmitting the ungoverned suction of the reservoir to the motor. Here, again, immediately upon the release of the button, the spring 51 closing the valve 40, causes the motor to return to its preliminarily-determined speed. If, as before described, the button 40 is depressed and then moved slightly to its right, the valve 40 may be locked in its open position, so that it will remain open without further attention on the part of the operator. This throws the governor entirely out of use until the button .is again released, and during such period it will be seen that the operator may govern the tempo by his own pumping, as is frequently the case when the operator may, at the same time, be playing some other instrument.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Iatent of the United States:

l. In a player-piano, an action, note-sheet mechanism for said action, a pneumatic motor for operating said note-sheet mechanism, a suction reservoir, an air line connecting the motor with the reservoir, a valve chest interposed in said air line, the air line between the valve chest and the reservoir'being divided into two independent branches, one of said branches having free and open connection with the reservoir, and a governor interposed in the other branch, and a valve in the valve chest, independently controlling the connection thereof with the motor.

2. In piano player mechanism, an action having a wind chest, note-sheet mechanism for said action, a pneumatic motor for operating said note-sheet mechanism, a suction reservoir, an air line connecting said motor and said reservoir, a governor in said air line, a second air line connecting said motor directly with said reservoir, a manually operated valve in said second air line, a manually operative valve for cutting oil3 both said air lines from the motor, and means for applying suction to said wind chest whether vsaid valve is open or closed.

3, In piano player mechanism, an action having a wind chest, note-sheet mechanism for said action, a pneumatic motor for operating said note-sheet mechanism, a suction reservoir, an air line connecting said motor and said reservoir, a governor' in said air line, a second air line connecting said motor directly with said reservoir, a normally closed manually operated valve in said second air line, a normally open manually operative valve for manually cutting off both said air lines from said motor, and means for applying suction to said wind chest whether said valve is open or closed.

4L. In piano player mechanism, an action having a wind chest, note-sheet mechanism for said action, a pneumatic motor for operating said note-sheet mechanism, a suction reservoir, an air line extending between said motor and said suction reservoir, a portion of said air line being dividedl` into two branches, a governor' in one branch, a valve in the other branch, and a valve in an undivided portion of said air line.

5. An independently removable valve boX for attachment to a pneumatic motor in a player-piano, provided with inlet and two independent outlets connected to the wind chest of the player, one of said outlets being a direct connection, and the other having a governor interposed therein, a valve controlling the inlet, and a valve for shutting off the direct connected outlet from the governed outlet and from the inlet.

6. An independently removable valve boX for attachment to a pneumatic motor in a player-piano, comprising three compartments, an inlet for one of the compartments and an independent outlet for each ofthe others, one of said outlets connected directly to the suction chamber of the player, and the other connected through a governor to said suction chamber, a valve controlling a piassage between the inlet compartment and the outlet compartment connected with the governor, and a separate passage between said outlet compartment and a valve controlling said separate passage.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 18th day of August, A. D.

STILLWELL R. HARCOURT.

-opies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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