US1557732A - Note sheet - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 20, 1925.

c. F. STQDDARD NOTE SHEET Original Filed' July '7, 1908 animator Egg 61% 440 11 9 Patented Oct. 20, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES F. STODDARD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR T0 AMERICAN PIANO GOM- PANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

NOTE SHEET.

Original application filed July 7, 1908, Serial No. 442,288.

Divided and this application filed March 13, 1922.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES F. Sronniinn, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Note Sheets, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to perforated note sheets for automatic musical nstruments such as player pianos and the like and has for one of its objects the improvement in the relative location and arrange ment of note soundin and expression con trolling perforations 1n the sheet whereby, in cooperation with appropriate mechanism, the operation of an instrument, partrculan ly as to the tone intensity, may be more advantageously controlled. The present application is filed as a divison of a copending application originally filed by me on July -7, 1908, Serial No. 442,288 and renewed on October 27, 191?, Serial No. 198,880, upon which said application a patent has been granted. No. 1,409,478 of March 14, 1922. i

For purposes of illustration and description, the embodiment of the present invention shown and described in the above mention copending application has been selected and shown in the accompanying drawing.

In my above mentioned copending application there is shown and described a preferred embodiment of a certain invention in expression governing mechanisms for antomatic musical instruments with which the illustrative note sheet of the drawings was primarily designed to cooperate. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that a note sheet embodying the present invention may be designed to cooperate with expression mechanisms other than that just referred to. Therefore for the purposes of this application it is deemed unnecessary to explain an expression mechanism with which the note sheet of this application may cooperate. Reference may be had to the above mentioned copending application if necessary.

It is sufiicient for the purposes of this application to show in the accompanying drawings a tracker T provided with the usual tracker vents for the sounding of notes and with additional tracker vents which may be connected with suitable expression Patent No. 1,409,478, dated March 14, 1922.

Serial No. 543,148.

mcclninism in order to control the intensity of playing. In the specific illustration six expression controlling vents are provided and identified by the letters A to F inclusive. In order to understand the present invention it may be assumed that vents A, C and E when opened separately operate to decrease playing intensities, each to a different extent and that the opening of vents B, D and F will negative the efiect of opening vents A, C and E respectively. It may further be assumed that the respective effects obtained by the opening of any one of vents A, C or E may be superposed upon the elfects obtained by the previous opening of any other of these three vents to produce the combined effect of the combination; the result being maintained until ncga tived by the appropriate opening of the cancel vents B, D and F. For a further explanation reference may be had to the above mentioned patent.

It is assumed that the note sheet is adapted to move over the tracker bar in the direction of the arrow, that is, downwardly. The vertical dotted lines at the right of the sheet are for the purpose of making the alignment of perforations and tracker vents more apparent and the transverse dotted lines are for the purpose of showing more plainly the alignment of note sounding and expression controlling perforations.

Referring first to the group of note sound ing perforations and expression controlling perforations at the upper part of the sheet, it will be seen that perforations A O and E will, when registering with their respective vents in the tracker bar, operate to de crease playing intensities to the minimum for which the instrument may be adjusted. When the note perforation i 1 opens its corresponding vent in the tracker bar a note will be sounded with minimum intensity. As the note sheet progresses across the tracker bar, expression controlling perforation F will open its corresponding vent, thus canceling the effect of perforation E and raising playing intensities slightly so that when note perforation N registers with the tracker bar its corresponding note will be sounded with increased intensity. [is the note sheet progresses further the perforations E and D will open their corresponding vents and restore the effect pro- Vii duced by erforatioln E while c'a'hizeih the efi'ect pro need by the perforation C nasmuch as the increase in playing intensity, due to the ing of vents E, C and A may be progressively inthe ordermed t'he result will be that u on the registration of note sounding per oration N with the tracker bar its note will be sounded with still greater intensity. Inasmuch as the perforation F will register with its vent in the tracker bar before the next note sounding perforation N sounds a note, the cited. of the previous perforation IE will be cancelled and playing intensity still further increased before N sounds its note.

In similar manner playing intensities may be gradually increased as the note sounding perforations N N, N, and N come into registration with the tracker, for example, prior "to the sounding of a note by N, perforaticn B will have cancelled the eflect of A, perforation C will have restored the efl'ect of perforation C and perforation E will have restored the efieot of E". Thereafter the efiect'of IE will -be cancelled by the intensities inperfor'atio'n F" and play lilngs (y f e oun mg 0 a creased slight gI before note by 'N. en'fiieperforation D will cancel the effect of perforation C while the effect of perforation .1 will be restored by perforation E before the soundfiig of a note by perforation N". 1h order to reduce the maximum intensit it is then 0113?; necessary for perforation to register its vent in the tracker bar thereby canceling the elfedt of 'E and raisin the playing intensity to the maximum. 7

The foregoing serves to illustrate a preferred arrangementjo f expression controlling erforatlons themselve but i't will at once apparent to those skilled in the art that other arrangements of expression controlling erforations may be used in carrying out t e present invention; the foregoing being one of several possible plans or atrangements.

In the above illustration i't haste assumed that each successive n e is struek with increasing intensity. viously the relative "arrangement of micesoiindihgper foration and expression controlling per tions may be varied-at will notes successively with decreasing intensity or in any manner desired or appropriate to the musical composition being fen I In the rendition -of a musical composition on an automatic instrlmient in such manner that the original playing of at; mean be faithfully reproduced, it is often desirable or necessary to accent a note or notes in a chord, that is, to sound with 'reater intensity one or more of a group 0 notes which are struck substantially simultaneously. It is to this ,problem that the present invention is particularly directed.

the last named Befflfihgkoiheillustltiv 1!! Dfinote sounding and expression can ing'perforations at the lower part of the drawing and assuming wi h wfii esl t' to pass over thortraeleeqiit wflhbe o rved 7 f;- that the note c'orres onding to the perforatio'niN' will be soun ed at an intensity somewhat less than the maximum by reason of the prior registration bf 'pemmE m 5 i its corresponding tracker Wait. The next group of notes sounded by the perforations N, N, and N will be sounded at a still lower intensig' due to the registration ofthe perforation with i'tscorrespond'ing vest 1n th tracker. of the next t'wbnotes N'flzsq 1 and N are indicatednpon the score to be summmisliy simultaneous! r it ma be (1 ired to accent tl x w trolled by' fr m a theme note, for

e ionflflaah flm case- (if I a endof'his iiote i ififf a Vance t tion may moved 's'lig'hm' he he normal positionahdthe centr c? ling p qfi r wh r w to reduce faithe'il l may be so u thatthehfitsdun'ddd'by "1. 1 perforation will not he i v but the indie sounded" foi'atibh NW i I willbe,astoitsintensi mewyg s 2 expression perforations and D. s J in order to seize the theme note 1 3 so that it shall more eminent um the accompurinient expres rolling peri forations A" arid D may the inten- 3 sity of the note eyed the acconrpan'i-- P A ment perforation the em fontion N b Ward on sheet so f1 3 that it ifll'be beyond the exact of the ina r i tensity A" and 19'. f In the between 0 oh inotes the 'efo'rscimsBw' *C ate to fflie existing at he i timeo fthesbun' "fling'oft'h'ehoteb pedal-a w tion N so that when the chord b perforaLtioiisiiI ',N";N" use Rflin can q e gm theme notgmjay be sounded insimuarma' nor, that s w-em biasimer eeenwmmq theme note. In this instancetbe themehtite N" is moved forward to be if-f yond the 'ihflue'nce g reducing perforation A. as accentpaniment nbte s of the chm-ears q wi tlzhhout the flielfle l us r p' Wen f? ofn'ote y rsfmmthe'irnatm'l rela- 60118, t I'- l "fies id-- vanced beyond the mfllflfl' the letter we placed properly in relation to the reducing iiohs toredflethehitenslty' of sea-.8 thereby. The i native note expression Dw-hich further memes gintehsities 'or to the sounding of a note th? while the expression controlling perforations B C and F operate to increase playing intensities before the sounding of a note by perforation N.

The advantages of the present arrangement whereby a selected note is accented will be apparent at once to those skilled in the art. n order to preserve the unity of a chord it is essential that the theme or accented note be not advanced or retarded to such an extent that the ear may easily detect the fact that it is not struck precisely simultaneously with the other notes in the chord. Therefore the interval for readjusting the degree of exhaust in the action wind chest is of necessity very small and the smaller it can be made the better will be the resultant musical effect. The degree of exhaust in an action wind chest may be adjusted to a lower level more quickly and surely than it can be to a higher level. Furthermore, the act of striking one or more notes tends to reduce, momentarily, the degree of exhaust.

The present arrangement enables the deree of exhaust to be adjusted to the proper intensity for the theme or accented note a substantial interval of time before the same is struck and immediately thereafter the degree of exhaust is reduced so that the accompaniment notes are struck with subdued intensity. The very act of striking the theme note reduces somewhat the degree of exhaust in the action wind chest and contributes to the reduction of the intensity of the accompaniment notes which are struck somewhat later.

' It is to be understood that the invention herein described is not limited to the preferred en'lbodimentthereof selected for illustrative purposes but may be modified and variously embodied within the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A perforated sheet for tone-governing apparatus comprising a plurality of perforations for tones to be played in a group substantially simultaneously, a perforation for a relatively loud tone being advanced beyond a perforation for a relatively soft tone; and an intensity-reducing perforation retreated rearwardly of the louder-tone per foration, to cooperate with the softer-tone perforation.

2. A perforated sheet for tone-governing apparatus, comprising a plurality of perforations for tones to be played in a group substantially sin'iultaneously; and an intensity-reducing perforation substantially aligned with one said tone perforation and to the rear of another such tone perforation.

2:). A perforated sheet for tone-controlling apparatus, comprising a plurality of perforations for tones to be played in a group substantially simultaneously; intensity-increasing perforations to cooperate with some of them; and intensity-reducing perforations substantially aligned with other tone perforations with which they eooperate.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification this 11th day of March, 1922.

CHARLES F. STODDARD.

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