US1570947A - Automatic stringed instruments of the viol class - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 26, 1926.

V N. B. CREGiER KUTOMATIC STRINGED INSTRUMENTS OF 'THE VIOL CLASS Filed Sept. 24, 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 26 19.26.

. I N. B. CREGIER AUTOMATIC STRINGED INSTRUMENTS OF THE VIOL CLASS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fi led Sept. 24, 1925 N N N QQR RR w BR Q A N QQ MTG a n u a o n n Patented Jan. 26, 1926.

UNITED STATES PA'lEN'l QFFIQE.

NATHANIEL BANKS GREG-113R, O3? CHIC! G0, ILLINQIFS, ASSIGNOR TO MILLS NOVELTY COMPANY, OF CHECAGO, ILLZNOES, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC STRINGED Il-TSTBUMENTS OF TEE VIOL CLASS.

Application filed September 24, 1923.

To all whom it may concern:

lie it known that l, Na'rrriiiqnu. Brutus Cnnornu, a citizen of the United States,

AL residing at Chicago, in the county 01 k/OUR and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful ln'iprovement in Automatic Stringed instruments of the Viol Class, 0t which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in the remote control of the playing of stringed instruments or the viol class and more particularly to improvements in nevices for the remote control of such instruments as described in the prior application B. E. Mills Patent No. 1,558,113, granted October 20, 1925. 7 i In the device described in the B. lb. Mills patent, just referred to, one or more stringed instruments of the viol class, and more particularly violins, are controlled in unison from a manually operated keyboard, for r:- ample, adouble banked keyboard oi the type employed in pianos, organs, and the like, the number of instruments played in unison being under the control of the operator. In playing such instruments in unison, as is readily apparent, but a single note may be played upon each string of the instrument in operation, and it is therefore impossible to produce double tones or chords which require the simultaneous playing of two or more notes upon a single string of the violins or other instruments.

In accordance with the present invention, the control of the instruments is so etlected that, in using a plurality of in.- struments, two or more notes playable upon a single string of the instrumentmay be simultaneously and inc ependently sounded, this being accon'nnished by segregating the devices for the control of the several notes of the chromatic scale playable upon a single string of the violin or other instrument into groups, the notes of each group being playable upon dilierent violins. eX- an'iple, in the embodiment shown in the drawings, in which four violins are employed, it will be noted that the notes from G up the scale to C sharp are playable For upon the G strings ot the violins in the first position, the notes cXten-dr up to O G being playable in the no); I position. Considering the first position notes, and with the employment of tour violins, he group of notes G and sharp are playable Serial No. 684,587.

upon one or the violins; A and B flat up on the second violin; B and C upon the third violin, and C sharp and the higher position notes on the fourth violin. hen the control devices are so disposed, it is appar, that any two notes on the G string, separated by an interval of over a half tone, may be simultaneously played, the proper instrument for the playing of each note being automatically selected. Further more, in accordance with this invention, the control devices are so interconnected that, at the will of the operator, the individual notes upon the string may be selectively played upon the several instruments in the manner described, or the violins may be played in unison, described in the prior application of Mr. Mills, above referred to. The in cntion will be fully understood from the following description illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of the control circuits for operation of the instruments in accordance with the present invention, the circuits for the control of the notes of the G string on a plurality o1 instrument-s being shown and those for the control of the notes on the other strings being omitted for the sake of clearness;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view of the arrangement of the finger magnets, this view illustrating the selection of notes upon the various strings of the several instruments; Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic View in elevation of a key and an action, illustrating the manner in which the operation of the hey is caused to mane and break various control circuits; and,

el is a diagrammatic elevation of one oi the bowing magnets.

is wi l be pointed out hereinafter, and described in the prior application of nILillS, there are three primary groups of control devices upon which the operation ot the several instruments depend in the term. of construction illustrated. The first g1.-.:p includes the bow motors, of. which one is preferably provided for each instrument, the bow motor control being efl'ccted in the manner described in the patent to Henry K. Sandell, No. 1,085,943 of February 3, 191%, the circuit through the individual bow motors being closed by means o'l relays, as described in the Mills application referred to and diagrammatically i1- lustrated hereinafter. The second group of control elements are the bow engaging magnets, of which one is provided for each string on each instrument to bring the corresponding bow into engagement therewith. The third group of control elements is formed by the finger operating magnets, of which one is provided for each note playable upon each string of each instrument. It will be noted in the construction hereinafter described that it is preferred, in carrying out the present invention, to operate the bow magnets and the finger magnets by separate control circuits in parallel instead of by arranging them in series in a single control circuit, as is the case in the construction of the Mills application above referred to, and in the prior patent of Henry K. Sandell No. 855,021, dated May 28, 1907.

Referring to the drawings, and more particularly to Fig. 2, it will be noted that in the figure tour series of small squares are shown, certain of which contain inscribed circles. These four series correspond to the finger operating magnets of the tour violins, as designated. The squares, designated by numeral 10, indicate diagrammatically the finger operating magnets 01 the corresponding instruments or violins, those corresponding to the open notes being inoperative or omitted as desired. The representations of the several magnets in each 01' these series have been arranged in four linearly aligned groups, each group corresponding to one 01 the strings of the instrument and being designated respectively bythe names 01 the strings Gr, D, A, and .10. taining the. inscribed circles 10 indicate the finger magnets operating on the several. strings which are controlled when it is de sired to selectively play harmonious groups of notes, in accordance with the present invention. Vertically aligned squares 10 indicate identical, notes upon the several vio line, and in the case of overlapping groups in the same series, they indicate respectively higher and normal position notes upon ditterent strings of the same violin. The corresponding notes are indicated below the diagrammatic representations 10 ot the finger magnets in series a, corresponding to one of the tour violins.

In Figure 1, the G string group of finger magnets 01" each of the tour series corresponding to the four violins are shown diagrammatically in connection with the operating keys of the keyboard and. the control circuits. Two groups of keys, 100 and 101, are shown, the keys 100 being those of the lower bank of the control keyboard, and the keys 101 indicating those of the upper bank ofthe keyboard. As described, in connection with the Mills application, above referred to, the lower bank keys 100 control the lower position notes upon the several. strings, ex-

The squares con-- ccpt in the case of the E string, the upper position notes of which may be controlled from either the upper or lower bank; and the upper bank keys control the higher position notes 01? all the strings and, in the case of the G string only, the lower position notes also. The individual keys 100 and 101 are designated hereinafter by the notes to which they correspond; that is, 100 G designates the lower bank key 100 which controls the sounding of the G- note. In the specification hereina'li'ter, other elements of which duplicates are provided for the several notes to be played are likewise specifically designated in connection with the name of the note.

In Figure 8, there is diagrainmatically shown in side elevation the mechanism operated by a key and the contacts which it closes when operated. Each key 100 is mounted on a lever 102 tulcrumed on a transverse bar or angle iron 103, this bar serving as a common fulcrum for the levers of all the ke s of the bank. Each key lever 102 is held in its normal non-playing position by a spring 10-1L. The key levers 102 are preferably formed of conductive material, for example, steel, and make conductive contact with the common fulcrum bar 103 which is, in turn, connected to a main or connector 105, hereinafter designated as the selective playing main. Each key lever 102 is provided at its upper end with a contact button 100 by which contact made, on depressing the key 100, with a spring contact- .finger 10?, designated as the selective playing finger and connected by a suitable line or connector '1( S with the corresponding finger operating magnet ot the violin selected for the specific note. The selective playing finger 107 is provided on its upper surface with an additional contact button 109, by which contact is made with a spring contact finger 110, hcreiualtcr des' nated as the bow operating contact lin ,r. This contact; finger 110 is connected to a suitable line or connector 111 which is a part of the circuit controlling the how operating magnet ot the corresponding note. Two additional spring contact fingers are provided, these being the contact finger 112, which is connected with a line or connector 113, hereinafter designated as the unison playing main, and the spring contact finger 11-1, which is connected with a line or c mnector 115, which leads to the finger operating magnets of the corresponding notes on all of the violins, except the notes 01 the violins controlled by the selective playing finger 107. The end ot the key lever 10?. normally rests against a piece of insulating material 110 mounted on the contact finger 112, thereby holding the fingers 112 and 11% out of conductive contact with each other. Similar sets of contacts are provided for each of "the keys 100 and 101 of the lower and upper banks respectively.

In Figure 1, the operating circuits controlled by the keys playing notes on the G strings of the violins are illustrated in dia grammatic form, it being understood that similar sets of circuits are provided for the keys playing notes on each of the other strings. The circuits are shown with the proper connections made for a selective playing of different notes upon the same strings on the respective violins, and the means are also shown for so changing the connections that the notes may be played in unison upon each of the strings. In the drawing, the various numerals employed designate the diagrammatic representations of the parts illustrated in Figure 3 and give the same numerals therein.

In Figure 1, two main current supply lines 118 and 119 are shown, the former of which may be designated as the positive main, and the other as the negative or return main. The positive main 118 is connected by a branch main or connector 120 with a line 121 from which connectors 122 lead to the bow motor control panels 124, 125, 126 and 127 of the first, second, third and fourth violins respectively, these bow motor control panels being of the type shown in the prior patent to Henry K. Sandell, No. 1,085,943 of February 3, 1914. The arrangement of resistances in connection with one of these panels is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 1. To the line 120 is connected .1 second connector 128, from which a branch connector 129 leads to the crescendo pedal 130; a second branch connector 131 leads to the loud pedal 132, and a third branch connector 133 leads to the soft pedal 13'... By means of the loud pedal 132, connection may be made with either of lines 135 or 136, both of which are connected by suitable branch lines 137 to the control panels 124, 125, 126 and 127. The soft pedal 134 sin1ilarly makes connection between the branch connector 128 from the positive main with connecting lines 138 and 139, both of which lead to the proper connections on each of the bow motor control panels.

From the positive main 118, connecting lines 140, 141, 142, and 143 are provided, which lead to the conductors 144, 145, 146 and 147, and these are, in turn, connected with the bow motor control relays 148, 149, 150 and 151 of the first, second, third and fourth violins, respectively. These relays control the operation of the bow motors in the manner described in the Patent 1,558,113, Oct. 20, 1925 and the patent to Henry K. Sandell. Switches 152, 153, 154 and 155, are provided in the connecting lines 140, 141, 142 and 143, respectively. During selective playing, these switches are opened and during unison playing by closing one or more of these switches, the circuits through the corresponding bow motor control relays are closed and the bow motors of the corresponding violins are set in operation. Thus, switch 152 controls the first violin, switch 153 the second, switch 154 the third, and switch 155 the fourth. Connector 156 is provided leading to the negative or return main 119, and through this connector 156 suitable connections are made by lines 157 from the bow motor control relays and by connector 158 from the bow motor control panels. The circuits through the bow motor control relays may also be closed by means of the crescendo pedal 130, operation of which causes successive closure of contacts 159, 160, 161 and 162 with the bow motor control lines 147, 146, 145 and 144, respectively. During selective playing on the instruments, the four control switches 152, 153, 154 and 155 are kept open and the crescendo pedal is held inoperative, in the positions indicated in the diagram of Fig. 1. During selective playing, the bow motor control relays of all of the instruments are caused to operate, so that all of the bow motors are in operation. In order to close the circuits through the bow motor control relays, a conductor 163 connects the positive main 118 with a contact member 164 on the control switch 165, the latter being provided with a contact bar 166 which engages the contact 164 when the control switch is in the selective playing position, illustrated in Fig. 1. Connectors 167, 168, 169 and 170, lead from the bow motor control lines 144, 145, 146 and 147, respectively, to the control switch 165, and in the selective playing position of that switch, the contact bar 166 makes conact with each of these connectors as well as with the contact point 164. In this position therefore, the circuit is closed through each of the bow motor relays of the tour violins in parallel, and all of the bow motors are therefore caused to operate.

The selective playing of notes in the manner described requires the selective operation of the linger magnets and the bow magnets on the selected violins, and in order to accomplish this, in the construction illustrated, it has been preferred to provide two sets of finger magnet control circuits, one of which is effective to operate the finger magnets cor responding only to the selected notes on the strings of the individual violins and the other, operative during unison playing, to operate the finger magnets corresponding to the various notes on the other violins, the selective playing circuits being also operative during unison playing. In order to dis tinguish more clearly the two sets of circuits of finger magnet control circuits, the selective playing circuits have been shown in broken lines and the unison playing circuits in full lines. The operation of the finger magnet and bow magnet circuits will be specifically described in connection with the n'ote G sharp of the G string, the operation of the circuits in connection with each of the other notes being substantially the same.

In Fig. 1, 100 G sharp indicates the sharp note key. This key is connected through its lever with the conductor 105, as described above, in connection with the contacts controlled by the individual keys, this conductor being the selective playing main and being connected by a suitable conductor 171 to the positive supply main 118. When the key 100 G sharp is depressed, contact is made from the selective playing main 105 through the key lever 102 with the contact finger 107, which, in turn, is connected by a conductor 108 with the finger magnet 10 G sharp 1 of the first violin, but is not connected with the finger magnets of the remaining violins. From the finger magnet 10 G sharp-1, a connector 172 G leads to a return main or conductor 178, which is connected, in turn, with the second main supply line 119. It is thus apparent that when key 100 G sharp is depressed, the corresponding finger magnet 10 G sharp1 of the first violin is caused to operate, with consequent operation of the corresponding finger. Similarly, when note 100 G is depressed, by similar series of contacts, the circuit is closed through the idle finger magnet 10 (1 of the first violin. In the case of the G string, which is the lowest string of the instrument, the upper bank keys 101 are connected in the same manner as the lower bank keys, so that depression of the upper bank key 101 G will also cause operation of the finger magnet 10 G1 of the first violin. As set forth in the prior application of Mr. Mills, this is not the case with the upper bank keys corresponding to the other strings of the violin, as all of the upper bank keys beginning with that corresponding to the note I) on the G string operate upon fingers playing in the upper positions.

It will be noted that the lower bank keys 100 A and 100 B fiat are connected with the corresponding finger magnets 10 A2 and 10 B flat-2 of the second violin, but not with those of the remaining violins. Similarly, the keys 100 D and 100 C are connected with the finger magnets 10 B3 and 10 C3 of the third violin, and key 100 C sharp is connected on being depressed with the finger magnet 10 C sharp& of the fourth violin. In selective playing, the upper position notes are all played upon the fourth violin, the keys 101 corresponding to these upper position notes being connected with the corresponding finger magnets of the fourth violin only during selective playing.

For operation of the bow engaging magnets, it will be noted that, on depression of any key, for example, key 100 G, the circuit is closed from the selective playing main 105 through the key lever 102 G and the contact fingers 107 and 110 with the connector 111. The connector 111 is, in turn, connected 'ith a line or connector 17 4., by which connect-ion is made through a line 175 with the bow engaging magnet of the G string on the first violin 17 6 G, this being the violin upon which the finger magnet corresponding to the note is operated during selective playing. The key G sharp is also caused, on depression, to close the circuit in the same manner, a connection 111 G sharp being provided from the proper contact finger operated by that key for the purpose. The key 100 A, which operates the circuit through the corresponding finger magnet of the second violin, likewise closes a circuit through the connectors 111 A, 177, and 178, througl'i the bow engaging magnets of the same violin 179 G. Similarly, the keys operating the finger magnets of the third violin also operate the bow magnet 180 G of the G string of the third violin, and the same is true in the case of the keys which operate the finger magnets of the fourth violin, the bow engaging magnet of this violin being des ignated by the number181 G. The construction of these magnets is shown diagrammatically in elevation in Fig. 4, the numeral 181 indicating the bow engaging lever, controlled by the magnet as an armature. In the case of the third and fourth violins, the connections with the G string bow magnets are made through the lines 182 and 183 corresponding to the lines 174 and 177, performing the same functions for the first and second violins. The bow engaging magnets are all connected with the return line 119. It will be apparent from the above description, that during selective playing, the bow motors of all of the violins are in operation, the contacts through the control relays being closed by means of the contact bar 166 of the control switch 165; the finger magnet of the selective violin and the bow engaging magnet operating on the corresponding string of the same violin are both set in operation by the closure of the circuit, resulting from depression of the key. The loud and soft pedals 132 and 134, respectively, are operative for control of the expression through the bow motor in the manner de scribed in the prior application of Mills, and the patent to Sandell, above referred to. Although the connections have been shown only for the notes on the G strings of the violins, a similar series is provided for the notes on each of the other strings, the selection being effected in the manner illustrated in Fig. 2 and hereinbefore described.

As has already been stated, the instruments may also be used for playing in unison and the necessary connections for this purpose are illustrated in Fig. 1. It will be noted that, in unison playing, the circuits through the bow magnets and the finger magnets already described for use in selective playing remain unchanged. By operation of the control switch 165, contact of the bar 166 with the connectors 163, 167, 168, 169 and 170 is broken, so that during unison playing the operation of the bow motors is controlled by means of the switches 152, 153, 154C, and 155, and the crescendo pedal 130. At the same time that the con trol switch 165 is operated to break the connections at the contact bar 186, it closes certain other contacts, as hereinafter set forth.

By means of a contact bar 18 1, contact is closed between the line 163 connected to the incoming supply main 118, and a conductor 113, which may be designated as l e unison main and which is connected with the spring contact fingers 112 of all of the keys. At the same time, by means of a contact bar 186, contact is closed between a line 187 leading from the other supply or return main 119 and the connector 188, to which all of the finger operating magnet-s of the several violins are connected, except those connected with the line 17 3 for selective playing. Contact is also made by means of a contact bar 189 with the connectors 174, 177, 182 and 183 corresponding to the G strings of the several violins, so that the bow motors of all of the violins are placed in parallel circuits. By similar contact bars 190, 191 and 192, the corresponding conductors leading to the bow magnets of the other strings of the violins are placed in parallel. l/When these changes in the connections have been made, it will be noted that on depression of any key, the corresponding finger magnets and bow engaging magnets of all of the violins will be operated; but the bow motors of only those violins placed in operation by the switches 152 to 155 or by the crescendo pedal will be in operation, so that, during unison operation, the circuits through the bow motor control relays will determine the number of violins playing, and the keys 100 and 101 will cause the sounding of the corresponding notes of all of the violins in operation. In order that the operation may be fully understood, it is set forth hereinafter, in detail, in connection with the operation of the keys which have already been referred to in the selective playing of the instruments.

As has been explained, in connection with the operation of the control switch, the circuits through the finger magnets operable during selective playing and those through the bow magnets are indentical during unison playing and during selective playing. That is, depression of the key 100 G sharp, by closing the circuit through the key lever 102 and contact finger 107 will operate the corresponding finger magnet of the first violin. At "the same time, with the control switch 165 in unison playing position, current will pass from the unison main 113 through contact finger 112 to contact finger 11a (Contact being permitted by operation of the key in the manner already described) and from contact linger 11a to line 115, which makes contact with the finger magnets of the corresponding note on the G strings of the second, third, and fourth violins, the circuits being closed through lines 190 and 188. Connectors 190 are provided between the return line 188 and the finger magnets of each of the G string notes with the exception of those for which connctions to the selective playing return line 173 are provided. It is thus apparent that, when the connections are made for unison playing, the depression of any key causes the operation of the finger magnets of the corresponding notes on all of the violins, some through the selective playing circuits and others through the circuits operable only during unison playing.

The bow engaging magnet control circuits are closed by the action of the key during unison playing in exactly the same manner as during selective playing, as already described. Thus, operation of either of the keys 160 G or 100 G sharp closes the circuit through the corresponding lines 111 G, 174 and 175 to the bow engaging magnet 176 G. The closure of the contacts by the contact bar 189 during unison playing, however, places the G string bow magnets of the other violins in parallel circuits with the G string bow magnet 176 G, with the result that all of the G string bow magnets are caused to operate durin unison playing by the operation of any key corresponding to a note on the G string.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with the details of a specific embodiment thereof, and without reference to auxiliary features of operation, it is not intended that these details shall be regarded as limitations upon the scope of the invention, except in so far as is included in the following claims.

1 claim:

1. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments, means for sounding the individual notes playable upon each of the strings of said instruments, manually operable keys corresponding to each of said notes, and electric circuits controlled by the operation of said keys for operating the corresponding sounding means, the circuits controlled by certain adjacent keys corresponding to notes playabl upon a single king of an instrument operating note ounding means of different instruments, whereby different notes from such selected string may be sinuiltaneously sounded by simultaneous operation of the keys corre sponding thereto.

2. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, the combination with a plurality of instruments and bows for the strings of each instrument, of means for opeating the bows of the instruments, means for engaging the bows with their respective strings, fingering means corresponding to each fingered note and means for selectively operating the fingering means of notes in diiferent predetermined intervals upon the corresponding strings of different instruments.

3. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, the combination with a plurality of instruments and bows for the strings of each instrument, of means for operating the bows of the instruments, means for engaging the bows with their respective strings, lingering means corresponding to each fingered note, and means for selectively operating the fingering means of notes in different predetermined intervals upon the corresponding strings of different instruments and simulta neously operating the bow-engaging means of the sounded strings of the instruments.

4. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, the combination with a plurality of instruments and rotatable bows for the strings of each instrument, of motor mechanism for rotating the bows of all of said instruments, means for engaging the bows with their respective strings, fingering mechanism corresponding to each fingered note, and means for simultaneously selecting and operating the fingering mechanism and bow-engaging means corresponding to the notes within predetermined intervals upon the strings of certain of said instruments without operating the corresponding parts upon others of said instruments.

5. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, the combination with a plurality of instruments and rotating bows for the strings of each instrument, of a bow motor for rotating the bows of each of said instruments, bow-operating magnets for each of the bows of said instruments and fingering mechanism for each of the notes playable upon said instruments, control circuits for said how motors, control circuits for each of said bow-operating magnets, control circuits for the fingering devices corresponding to predetermined groups of notes upon the corresponding strings of the respective instruments, and means for closing the control circuits through the bow-motors of all of the instruments and means for simultaneously closing the control circuits through the individual fingering devices and the corresponding bow-operating magnets.

6. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, a plurality of instrun'ients, each having lingering mechanism and bow engaging mechanism, a keyboard and means operable by the keys of said keyboard corresponding to the notes playable upon a single string of the instruments for selectively operating the fingering and bow engaging means of corresponding notes forming in groups thereof predetermined intervals upon the corresponding strings of different instruments.

T. In apparatus for the operation 01 instruments of the viol class, a plurality of instruments, each having fingering mechanism and bow engaging mechanism, a keyboard and means operable by the keys of said keyboard corresponding to the notes playable upon corresponding strings of the instruments for selectively operating the fingering and bow engaging means of corres onding notes forming in groups thereof, predetermined intervals upon the corre sponding strings of different instruments, and selectively operable means for causing the keys to operate the corresponding fingering and bow engaging means upon the other instruments, whereby all of the instruments may is played in unison.

S. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, a plurality of instruments, each having bow operating means, means for engaging the bows with the strings and fingering means corresponding to the notes of the strings, c011- trol circuits for each of said means, a key- ;oard, means operable by the keys of said keyboard corresponding to the notes playable upon the several strings for selectively closing the circuits of the fingering means and bow engaging means corresponding to notes forming in groups thereof predetermined intervals on the strings of different instruments and independent circuit closing means for simultaneously closing the control circuits of the bow operating means of all of the ii'istruments.

9. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, means for sounding the notes of each of said i11- struments, a keyboard and means controllable by the keys of said keyboard corresponding to the notes playable upon each string of the instruments for selectively operating the note sounding means of notes forming in groups thereof predetermined intervals upon the strings of different instruments.

10.111 apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, means for sounding the notes of each of said instruments, a keyboard, means controllable by the keys of said keyboard corresponding to the notes playable upon each string of the instruments for selectively operating the notes sounding means of notes forming in groups thereof predetermined intervals upon the strings of different instruments, and selectively operable means for causing said keys to operate the corresponding notes sounding means upon each of the other instruments also.

11. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, means for sounding the notes of each of said instruments, said means including a bow operating device for each instrument, a keyboard, means controllable by the keys of said keyboard for operating the corresponding notes sounding means upon selected instruments, said means including means for causing simultaneous operation of all the bow operating devices, and selectively operable means for causing the keys of said keyboard to operate the corresponding notes sounding means upon the other instruments also, and means effective during operation of the last named means for selectively op erating the bow operating devices of the instruments.

12. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, a plurality of instruments each having bow op-' erating means, means for engaging the bows with the strings and fingering means corresponding to the notes of the strings, control circuits for each of said means, a keyboard, means operable by the keys of said keyboard corresponding to the notes playable upon the several strings for selectively closing the circuits of the fingering means and bow engaging means corresponding to notes forming in groups thereof predetermined intervals on the strings of difierent instruments, independent circuit closing means for simultaneously closing the con trol circuits of the bow operating means of all the instruments, selectively operable means for causing the keys to close the circuits of the fingering means and the bow engaging means of the corresponding notes upon the strings of the instruments not previously selected, and means simultaneously operable with the last named means for closing the control circuits of the bow operating means of selected instruments only.

13. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, means for sounding the notes of each of said instruments, said means including bows for the several strings and means for engaging the bows with their corresponding strings, a keyboard, means controllable by the keys of said keyboard for operating the note sound ing means of notes within different predetermined intervals upon the strings of different selected instruments, said means including means for operating the bow engaging means upon the selected instrument, and selectively operable means for causing the keys to operate the notes sounding means f the same notes on the strings of other instruments also and for simultaneously causing operation of the bow engaging means of all of the instruments.

1 1. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, means for sounding the notes of each of said instruments, said means including bow engaging means and control circuits therefor and means controllable by the keys of said keyboard for selectively operating the notes forming in groups thereof predetermined intervals upon the strings of different instruments and for simultaneously closing the circuits controlling the bow engaging means of the selected instrument strings.

15. In apparatus for the operation of stringed instruments of the viol class, means for sounding the notes of each of said instruments, said means including bow engaging means and control circuits therefor, means controllable by the keys of said keyboard for selectively operating the notes forming in groups thereof predetermined intervals upon the strings of different instruments and for simultaneously closing the circuits controlling the bow engaging means of the selected instrument strings, and selectively operable means for causing said keys to operate the notes sounding means upon the corresponding strings of the other instruments also and for simultaneously placing the control circuits of the bow engaging means of the corresponding strings of the several violins in parallel.

NATHANIEL BANKS GREGIER.

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