US1354045A - Expression device for automatic musical instruments - Google Patents

Description

H. I. LA JOIE. EXPRESSION DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

. APPLICATION FILED IUNE IT. I9IB- 1,354,045. PatentedSept. 28, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1- (fa J1 762%88 z Him 65x6 ezfda H. J. LA JOIE. EXPRESSION DEVICE FOR. AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 17, ms. 1 54,045. Patented Sept. 28, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

2 J6 Pea-all Zuer UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT J. LA J OIE, OF ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 AUTOPIA'NO COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW' YQRK.

EXPRESSION DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT J. LA Join, a citizen of the United States, residing at Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Expression Device for Automatic Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an expression device for an automatic musical instrument, and more particularly for a player piano or organ. In such devices it is desirable that provision be made for increasing the air tension on certain notes to accent the melody or to otherwise vary the expression.

It is the general object of myinvention to provide an improved and simplified mechanism for thus increasing the air ten- SlOIl.

In the preferred form of my invention all of the air from the action or from a section thereof passes through a tension regulating pneumatic. The air normally passes therefrom to the exhaust through a connection regulated and controlled by-a valve in said pneumatic, but an additional normallyclosed connectionis provided between the pneumatic and'the exhaust, so devised that it may be opened by a separate mechanism sheet-controlled from the accent-opening in the tracker'bar. When this additional connection is open,ithe air from the action still passes through the regulating pneumatic but is no longer controlled by the regulating valve. This provision of separate connections from'the regulating pneumatic to the exhaust, controlled by entirely different devices is an important feature of my invention.

Another object of my invention is to provide means for varying the air tension in a section of the action independently of the sheet-controlled mechanism. For this purpose, in my preferred construction, I provide a hand lever so connected that the corresponding tension regulator may be positively expanded thereby to permit greater air tension than that fOPWhlCll the regulator spring is adjusted- An additional feature of this part of my invention relates to the provision of means for rendering the sheet-controlled 'mechanism operative by continued movement of said hand lever. In this manner maximum air tension the'actioll is secured.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 28, 1920.

Application filed June 17, 1918. Serial No. 240.306.

Other features of my invention relate to arrangements and combinations of parts herelnafter described and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

A preferred form of my invention is shown diagrammatically in the drawings, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of my expression mechanism and the parts associated therewith;

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of a. portion of my expression mechanism on an enlarged scale, and

Fig. 3 is a side view of the hand levers.

Referring to the drawings I have indicated a tracker-bar 10 over which a note sheet 11 is drawn by driving mechanism not shown. Pipes 12 and 13 lead from the treble and bass actions respectively to tension regulating pneumatics 14 and 15. The pneumatic 14 is shown in section in Fig.2, and is connected through a vertical passage 16, a horizontal passage 17, and a second vertical passage 18 to a valve box 19, and a pipe 20 leading to the exhaust or source of air tension, not shown. It is to be understood. that the words vertical and horizontal refer to the parts as shown in the drawings and not to their actual arrangement in the instrument.

r A valve 21 is positioned at the upper end of the passage 18 and is connected to a flexible diaphragm 22 covering a pocket 23 to which is connected a tube 24. The tube 24 leads to an outlet in a'block 25 (Fig. 1) normally closed by a flat spring 26. The usual re-roll lever 2 is provided with fan extension 28 adapted to engage the spring 26 as the lever is moved in the direction of the arrow ain Fig. 1, thereby depressing the spring 26 and opening the tube 24 to the atmosphere. Atmospheric pressure is thus exerted on the upper side of the diaphragm 22, depressing the valve 21 and closing the passage 18 by which the actions are connected'to the exhaust. When the lever 27 is returned to initial position, the spring 26 again closes the outlet of the tube 24 and the usual bleed opening 29' exhausts the pocket 23 and permits the valve 21 to be raised by the tension of the exhaust.

An expression valve 30 (Fig. 2) is hinged to the fixed leaf of the expression pneumatic 14 and is held in yielding engagement with a stop 31 secured to the movable leaf of the pneumatic 14. As the air tension in the pneumatic increases the movable leaf is drawn upward against the tension ofthe spring 32 (Fig. 1) and the i' 'alv'e30 is thus permitted to move nearer to the inlet of the passage 16, thus reducing the air tension in the pneumatic. The expression. pneumatic itself forms no part of my invention and the operation just described is the usual operation thereof. I provide, however a second vertical passage :33 leading from the pneumatic l4: and connecting to a cross passage 34;, shownin dotted lines in Fig. 2 and forming. a connection between the passages 33 and 16." The passage 33 is provided with a port 35 normally covered by a swinging gate valve 36. The valve 36 is connected by a link 37 with themovable leaf of pneu matic 38 connected by'a pipe 39 to a' valve chamber 40. g I 1 The valve chamber is normally connected to the atmosphere by an opening 41 and a second opening 42 between the valve chamher and the exhaust passage 17 is normally clo'sed by a double valve 453; The valve :rod 44:0f the double valve a3-is provided at its lower end with a head 45 en gaging a diaphragm 46. The diaphragm 46 covers a pocket i7 having the usual bleed opening. '48 and connected by a .pipe 50 to a' tracker ;opening 51. When the tracker opening 51 is uncovered; atmospheric pressure will be exerted through the pipeg50 against the lowerside' of the diaphragmdfi, thus raising the valve 43 and connecting the-pneumatic 38 to the exhaust.

The pneumatic is thus deflated and acts.

through the link 37 to move the valve 36 to the left and open the port :35; The pipe 12 from the action is thus connected directly,

through the passage 33 and the cross pas sage 35 to the passage16 leading'to the exhaust. The full tension of the instrument is then exerted upon the action regardless of the positionofthe valve 30. An opening 52 maybe provided in'the valve 30 if necessary to permit unrestricted passage :of air through the interior of the pneumaticzto the passage 33.

:It will thus appear that all of the air from the treble action passes through the regulating pneumatic 14 but that two sepa rate connections, are provided between the said pneumatieand the exhaust, the pas sage '16 7 being conti'olled by the regulating tohavea direct connection from the action 7 to the exhaust so that the tension may be regulated by :varying the operation of the exhaust bellows. Accordingly I provide a cut-out box 54 .(Fig. 1 through which the pipes 50 and 53 are conducted, and I provide outlets 55 and 56 in said box for .said pipes 50 and 53respectively. hese outlets 55 and 56 are normally covered by an arm 57 pivoted on the box 5% and positioned by a lever 58. Ifunaccented note sheets. are tobe used the arm 57 may be swung upward to the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1, thereby uncovering the openings 55 and 56 and permitting the neumatics :38 to open the swinging gate val-ves'36, thus connecting the actions directly withthe-exhaust.

It is sometimes desirable to vary the action of the tension regu'lating valve 3 0 and to thereby vary th expression of the'instr'ument independently of the accent openings in the note sheet. Such conditions arise for instance when it is desired to increase or de;

crease the prominence of the accompaniment; 'themelody'being controlled by' the accent openings ofthe sheet.

For this purpose I provide hand levers 60 and 6l (Fig.3), the lever 60 being mounted upon a shaft 62 extending beneath the key-board and to the rear end ofwhich an arm 63 is secured. The lever61- is mount ed upon a sleeve 64: surrounding the, shaft 62 and an arm 65 is similarly secured to the rear end of the sleeve 64. A branch p'ipe66 leads from th'e tube50 'to anaoutlet in a block 67 normally covered by .aspring 6.8-, the end of the spring being in the path of: movement of the end of the arm The arm-63 isalso connected bya link-69 tothe movableleaf of-the expression 'pneumaticlk When the lever 60 is moved in the direc tion ofthe arrow 5 (Fig; :1.) the arm -63 is swung downwardly and acts through "the link 69 to depress the :movable leaf of the pneumatic 14, thereby moving the valve-3O exhaust; The operationof the 'hand lever 61 and arm 65J-is precisely similar-with the exception that an intermediate level" 170 is 7 provided to reverse the motion;

By this manual means it is therefore VIPOS;

sible to secure any air-tension up to and including the 'full exhaust i'tension'of the V instrument," .regardless of. the itension for which the spring :32. is adjusted and also regardless :of the operation .of the accent openings in'the musicrsheet.

The mechanism controlled by the handle 60 and 61 may also be used as an expression device with unaccented note sheets if desired, and in this event the openings '55 and 56 gill be closed as when accented sheets are use It will thus appear that I have provided simple and reliable mechanism for automatically controlling the expression of the instrument and accenting any desired notes, and that I have also provided manually operated mechanism for varying the expression of the instrument independently of the pneumatic mechanism.

While I have shown the mechanism as designed for use with a divided action it will be understood that the entire action may be controlled by a single set of mechanism if desired.

Having thus described my invention it will be evident that changes and modifications can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention as expressed in the claims. Therefore I do not wish to be otherwise limited to details herein disclosed, but what I claim is 1. In an expression mechanism for automatic musical instruments, a player action, an exhaust connection, a tracker-bar having an expression opening therein, pneumatic means'to increase the air tension in the action, controlled from said tracker opening, an expression regulating pneumatic through which the air is exhausted, and manual means to positively expand said pneumatic to increase the air tension on the action.

2. In an expression mechanism for automatic musical instruments, a player action, an exhaust connection, a tracker-bar having an expression opening therein, pneumatic means to increase the air tension in the action, a tube connecting said means to said tracker opening, said tube having a normally closed branch outlet, an expression regulating pneumatic, and means to manually expand said regulating pneumatic to increase the air tension in the action, said means being also effective to open said branch outlet on further movement thereof, to thereby render said pneumatic means also operative.

3. In an expression mechanism for automatic musical instruments, a tracker bar, a player action, pneumatic means to increase the air tension in the action, a tube connecting said means to a tracker opening for sheet control of said means, said tube having an outlet intermediate its ends, and a manually operable device which may be set to remain in either of two operative positions, said device in one of its positions closing said outlet to render the sheet control operative and in its other position opening said outlet to render the sheet control inoperative.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto aifixed my signature.

HERBERT J. LA JOIE.

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