US145532A - Improvement in electro-pneumatic actions for musical instruments - Google Patents

Description

W. F. SCHMOELE & H. SCHMOELE, lr.-

Electro-Pneumatic Actions for Musical lInstruments.

No. 145,532, Patented Dec.16,1873.

am@ y jfyJ/g UNITED STATES PATENT QEEIGE.

VILLIAM F. SGHMOELE AND HENRY SOHMOELE, JR., OF IITILADELPHIA, PA., ASSIGNORS OF ONE-THIRD THEIR RIGHT TO CHARLES SOIIMOELE.

IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRO-FNEUMATIC ACTIONS FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 145,532, dated December 1G, 1873; application filed March 7, 1873.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that we, WILLIAM F. Soi-IMOELE and HENRY SCHMOELE, Jr., of Philadelphia, lennsylvania, have invented an electro-pneumatic action for operating the pallets, slides, and pedal-pallets in organs, the keys and pedals in pianos, and the beater in drums, of which the following is a specification:

Our invention consists in the use of windpockets connected with and operated by an electric action, constructed and arranged as hereinafter described.

The magnet m is connected with its appropriate reader on the reading apparatus described in an application for a patent on a method and instruments for reading and performing music by electricity,77 filed October l2, 1872, and also with the corresponding key on an electric key-board, when this latter is inserted in the instrument for purposes of manual performance. The separate or adjunct reading-circuit described in said application of October l2, 1872, is dispensed with when the electro-pneumatic action is used, sufficient electricity for which can be passed through the thinnest metallic film or n ote. The magnet m is, therefore, placed in the same circuit with its reader, and operates its armature c, fastened to the short arm of the lever ab, at whose opposite end bis attached the screwthreaded wire bc. The primary pocket p1 is composed of a xed and a movable leaf, connected together by a fold or rib of kid or other soft leather. An opening, 0, in the fixed leaf communicates with the groove ozj in the bottom board of the wind-chest, or in any conduit containing wind, which groove, at its other end, terminates in two openings, i audj, both in line with each other, the one, i, entering the chest, and the other', communicating with the open air. Through these two openings i and j passes the screw-threaded wire bc, which swings with a free motion upon the lever bc, and has upon it two small nuts, u and c. The upper nut, u, is in the wind-chest, and is adjusted upon the threaded wire cb, so as to close the opening 'i into the chest when the lever ab is at rest. The lower nut, c, is in the open air,

and is adjusted. so as to close the lower opening when the magnet acts. Each nut has a piece of kid under it, in order to close the openings tight. Then the magnet acts, the opening t' into the chest is opened, and the lower opening,j, simultaneously closed, and the wind, entering the primary pocket, forces out its movable leaf. This leaf is attached, by the cord w, to the lever q of the valve s, which is thus opened when the wind enters the primary pocket. Attached to the valve s is a screwthreaded wire, sdg, bearing the disk d, which, like the lower nut, o, on the wire cb, is so adjusted as to close the exit j2 when the valve s is opened. A guide for this disk d is formed by passing the end g of the threaded wire sdg through the hole g in a piecey of metal bent in the shape of a U, with the perforation made in the crook or bend of the U. The secondary pocket p2 is constructed exactly like the primary, but on a larger scale, and when the valve s opens, through the action of the primary pocket, the disk d having simultaneously closed the exitj, the wind rushes into the secondary pocket, and forces out its movable leaf. This leaf is attached to whatever resistance, R, is to be workedto a pallet or a slide in the organ, a key or a pedal in the piano, or to the beater in the drum.

The position of the secondary pockets is immaterial, as the wind can be carried to them wherever they may be placed by lengthening out their grooves, thus leading the wind in any direction desired. In organs they are best placed under the wind-chest, immediately beneath the pallets they are to work, and upright on the sides of the chest when they are attached to the slides. In pianos they are located below the keys to which they are attached, and are arranged in several rows or tiers, as the width of the pockets exceeds that of the keys they work- The size of the pockets varies with the windpressure employed, decreasing as the latter is increased.

Then the piano is built alone, a bellows and. reservoir must be placed beneath, to supply the necessary wind. When attached to the organ, which forms a very effective and beautiful combination; instrument, the same bellows posed to each other on ai serew-tln'eaded wire, substantially as set forth.

3. The small or primary pocket with diminutive wf'alve to control the large or secondary poeket-7 Whieh operates the pallet or other resistance, substantially ns described and set forth.

WILLIAM FORD SGHMOELE. HEXRY SCHMOELE, JR. Witnesses:

H. SCHMOELE, M. D., CHARLES SCHMOELE.

Images