US1377940A - Sound-concentrator for telephone-transmitters - Google Patents

Description

E. TAYLOR. SOUND CONCENTR ATOR FOR TELEPHONE TRANSMITTEBS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-23. 1919- I I I Patented May 1%,11921.

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ZELMEB EVEB'I. TAYLQR, O15 LOUGOTJTEE, DJDMNA.

SQfiND-CONCENTRATOE F03, TELEPHONE-TEANSMTTEEfi.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented May it}, 1921i,

Application filed September 23, 1919. serial No. 325.7629.

To all whom it maconcem:

Be it known that ,ELMER Evnn'r Tarron, a citizen of the United States, residing at Loogootee, in the county of Martin and State of Indiana, have invented a new and.

such as a small battery, and connectionswhereby the whole instrument is individual 'to the deaf person, the battery and transmitter being carried on the person in convenient position to be reached by sound waves and the receiver being at one-end of a flexible cord connected at the other end to the transmitter so that the receiver may be conveniently placed at the ear of the wearer. Such instruments are, however, subject to distracting influences but such distracting condltions are eliminated bythe invention which comprises a. cap to fit snugly over the sound receiving mouthpiece of the transmitter. The cap has a face portion with a sound transmitting" opening therein similar n exterior contour to an ordinary transmltter mouthpiece, but of a depth to space the sound receiving-opening a: suitable dlstance from the mouthpiece ofthe transmitter to which the-cap is applied. The interior of the cap is provided with a concentrating cavity of a nature todirect sound which might otherwise confuse the. impingement of the received sound onto the diaphragm of the transmitter so that such formerly confusin sounds are all reflected and diverted direct y onto. that portion of the transmitter diaphragm most susceptible to the received sounds. The result is that the received sound is clarified and so made more distinct and is also concentrated onto the central portion of the transmitter diaphragm in such manner as to greatly amplify or magnify the received sound, with the further result that the reception of the sound is made clearer and more intense than has heretofore been the case.

The invention will .be best understood from a consideration of the following detalled descrlption taken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification, with the understanding,

however, that the invention is not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawing, but may be changed and modified so long as-such changes and modifications mark no material departure from the salient features of the inventionas expressed in the appended claims. 1 ][n the drawing Figure 1 is a perspective view of a form of local telephone for use by a deaf person, with the invention applied.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the transmitter with some parts in section.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the sound concentrator as viewed from the rear face.

Referring to the drawing, there is shown a telephone transmitter 1 which may be of any suitable type such as is adapted for use in connection with instruments for aiding hearing by the deaf The transmitter is mounted upon a suitable battery 2, of which only the casing is shown in the drawing, for neither the interior construction of the transmitter nor the interior construction of the battery is illustrated in the drawing, these parts following .the usual custom and in their details forming no part of the invention. The transmitter 1 has a mouth piece portion 3 with a ledge d and shoulder 5 about its periphery, the construction of these parts being such' as is customarily employed and therefore requiring no particu-.

lar description. The transmitter 1 is provided with a loop 6, whereby the transmitter with the battery 2 may be fastened to the clothing of the wearer, preferably in front of the chest as a convenient location for receivin sound waves from'a person talking to t e wearer of the transmitter. ast to the transmitter is one end of a flexible cord 7 the other end of which is attached to a telephone receiver 8 adapted to be placed against the ear of "the user. The

receiver 8 is provided with suitable switch mechanism of which a manipulating fingerpiece 9 only is shown, for the switch may be of 'known construction and requires no special description, nor need its specific construction be indicated in the drawing for an understanding of the invention. The finger-piece 9 is moved in one direction to couple up the battery, transmitter and receiver for listening purposes, and is moved in the other directlon to cut out the battery flected by the walls 16, 18 and 19 in paths when the instrument is not in use.

The instrument so far described is of commercial form and is found upon the market and is especially adapted for the application of the invention without any change whatever or necessitating the use of tools or the modification of the invention or instrument.

The invention is best shown in Figs. 2 and 3 which illustrate sectional and interior views respectively, while the exterior configuration of the invention best appears in The invention comprises a cap 10 of open cylindrical form at one end as shown at 11, and terminating in a circumferential flange 12 shaped to snugly fit over the ledge 1.

From the flange 12 the exterior of the cap 10 is frusto-conical as shown at 13, the eX- terior wall being ultimately returned upon itself and toward the flange 12 with the return portion approaching the longitudinal axis of the cap to provide an inturned conical mouthpiece or duct 14 with a central opening'or passage 15 for sound waves, the passage 15 providing for the entrance of the sound waves into the interior of the 'cap 10. The mouthpiece 3 of the transmitter bulges outwardly from the shoulder 5 for a short distance and that wall of the cap 10 toward the'flange 12 is thickened to provide a cylindrical inner wall 16 of an axial depth approaching about half, or a little more, of the full depth of the interior of the cap 10,

where the cap when applied to the transmitter mouthpiece defines a cavity 17.

From the outer margin of the wall 16 the interiorof the cap is formed with a conical .wall 18Mreceding from the flange 12 and wall .16 to about half the distance between the wall; 16, and the mouthpiece opening 15 and fromsuchpoint the cavity 17 is formed ,,with another wall 19 of conical. [form approaching the mouthpiece ofv the transmitter ,andthe longitudinal central axis of the cap until, it,reaches the,opening.;15., The cavity 17 therefore is in p the main of cylindrical conformation with; a portion immediately det id g 0 ba k f the s u r e i ,face ,of the cap ,,o'f reversely conical'shape ,2 with the small endof the outer. conical wall,

and the largejend of the inner conical'walll the point of, greatestdistance of the cavity 17 from the j mouthpiece of the transmitter.

merging? andfithere definin The result of such construction is that ,sound waves reaching the transmitter are directed through the Opening 15 into the cavity 17 directly toward the regular sound-receiving diaphragm of the transmitter. Or-

, clinarily but a relatively small part of the sound waves is caught by such diaphragm r and by far the larger portion is lost. With the cap 10 in place all the sound waves entering through the passage 15 either directly reach the transmit-ter diaphragm or are recausing the sound waves to ultimately strike the diaphragm of the transmitter. The quantityof sound waves so becoming effec-' tive include all or nearly all the energy represented by the originally projected sound waves and the intensity of the received sound and the energy transmitted to the telephone receiver at the ear of the hearer is greatly increased. Because of this the user is enabled to plainly hear the transmitted sounds because of their loudness while the direction of reflection or transmission of the sounds in the cavity or chamber 17 prevents interference of. these sounds and hence a clarity of the received sound greatly exceeding the usual reception of sound where the sound appears weak to the deaf person and there is loss of clearness due to the interfer-- ence of cross waves of sound caused by obstructing reflections of the sound in the usual forms of amplifiers.

The angular relation of the walls 18 and 19 to each other and to the cylindrical wall 16, and-also their relation to the transmitter diaphragm, are important as affecting the clearness and intensity of the sounds reachin the ear of the listener. 1

The walls 18 and 19 join at an obtuse angle to each other and the wall 18 joins the wall- 16 at an obtuse angle and as the walls are circular the sound waves reaching them that the invention is particularly designed and for which it is particularly adapted.

. I The instrument referred to employs a'tele- [phone transmitter to which the attachment ofjthe inventionis applied, and a telephone 1 receiver to, be held to the ear of the user. As

theinvention is useful for both the instrument for aiding the deaf to hear and the usual commercial telephone, the term telephone transmitter has been used in the 'description and claims as generic enough to 3 apply to such and to other acoustical instruments.

I What is claimed is 1. A telephone instrument provided with a sourceof electric energy, a microphonie telephone transmitter carried thereby, a telephone receiver connected to the transmitter,

and a soundclarifying and-amplifying cap adapted to fit snugly over the soundreceiving mouth-piece of the transmitter and producing a cavity in conjunction therewith, with a concentrating mouth-piece directed toward the transmitter diaphragm and shaped to form an inturned conical mouthpiece opening into a doubly conical cavity receding from the transmitter diaphragm and then approaching the diaphragm with the walls shaped to accumulate and direct the reflections of sound against the central portion of the transmitter diaphragm.

2. A sound concentrator for telephone instruments, comprising a cap for the mouthpiece end of the transmitter having a central sound transmitting opening over and approximately of the same size as that of the transmitter to snugly embrace the transmitter casing, with the depth of the cap such as to space the sound receiving face of the cap away from the transmitter by about approximately half the full depth of the cap and said cap having an interior cylindrical wall surrounding the transmitter mouthpiece with the outer end of the cap provided with trusto conical inner walls meeting intermediately between the cylindrical wall and there merging, whereby the inner walls of the cap constitute reflecting surfaces for sound' waves directing said Waves toward and concentrating them onto the central portion of the receiver diaphragm.

3. In a soundconcentrator. for telephone transmitters and other similar acoustical instruments, a cap for application to the sound receiving head of the instrument and having the head of the cap remotefrom that applied to the instrument provided with an opening for the admission of sound, with the size of the cap related to the size of the head of the instrument to form a cavity of substantially the diameter of the sound receiving head of the instrument and of a depth to provide a chamber, with said chamber having cylindrical side walls and end wall in which the sound receiving opening is located and said end of the head between the cylindrical side walls and the outer end of the head having obtusely joined conical walls facing toward the head of the instrument with. the outer conical wall extending from the sound receiving opening at the outer end of the cap.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto aflixed my signature.

ELMER nvnn'r TAYLOR.

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