US16489A - Keyed harp - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANTHONY KUHN, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

KEYED HARP.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knoivn that I, ANTHONY KUHN, of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented a new, useful, and Improved Harp or Dulceano; and I do hereby declare that the same is described and represented in the following specification and drawings.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I Will proceed to describe its construction, use and operation referring to the drawings in Which the same letters indicate like parts in each of the figures.

Figure l is a front elevation of the harp. Fig. 2 is a section of Fig. l, through the line -g/.

The harps made prior to the date of my invention Were provided with gut strings and played With the fingers; such strings are so sensitive and so quickly affected by a slight change in the atmosphere, that when the instrument is tuned and a piece played before an audience, by the time the piece is completed the breaths of the audience Will have so changed the atmosphere, and the atmosphere the strings, that they, or some of them Will be quite out of tune; so that they will require tuning before another piece is played, which is a difficult task and understood but by few musical performers.

It often happens that one or more strings get out of tune before a piece is half played, so that the performer has to stop and tune them, and if they are played in company with other instruments they frequently have to stop during the performance of a piece, and tune some of the strings While the others go on. Besides if a harp stands idle a short time, the strings require tuning before a piece can be played. And further a harp is an instrument peculiar to itself and has only a limited number of strings, or in Which only a limited number of strings can be used when constructed on the old plan, so that the music has to be composed expressly for, and adapted to the instrument, so that a person Well skilled in the use of other musical instruments would require a course of instruction upon the harp before he would be able to play upon it. Besides playing upon the strings of a harp hardens the ends of the fingers, so as to render a harp player incapable of using a needle to advantage.

The above mentioned defects-to Wit the `difficulty of tuning them 16,489, dated January 27, 1857.

liability of harps to get out of tune, and the and the effect upon the fingers-have prevented them from being used except to a very limited extent. Bel sides the frames of harps have not been made strong enough to sustain metallic instead of gut strings; and if they were made stronger and Wires put in the place of gut, they Would have to be so much smaller, that they Would cut the fingers of those Who attempted to play upon them, so that no person Would use them The design and object of my invention and improvements is, to remedy all the above mentioned defects, and such others as may exist, by making an instrument which I call a harp or dulceano, having the very desirable and peculiar tone of the harp; which makes my instrument a most desirable acquisition, as it is played With as much ease and facility as a piano, by any person Who can play the piano; as it is provided ivith a key board and a frame strong enough to resist the tension of metal Wires, Which I have substituted for gut strings; so that When the instrument is tuned, it will remain in tune as long as a piano. I have also arranged a series of hammers to act on the metal strings near the suspended bridge, (instead of near the solid bridge as they do in pianos), which hammers are operated by keys arranged somewhat after the manner of an upright piano which my instrument reseinbles in some respects but is entirely different in others. I arrange the tuning block and solid bridge at the top of the instrument, and the sounding board and suspended bridge in the loiver part, so that one half of the length of the strings or more are extended beyond the sounding board in the open air. so as to make them produce the peculiar harp sound produced by no other instrument; instead of sounds such as are produced by a piano. And further I have arranged a central bridge at the treble end or side of the instrument, so that the hammers strike the strings between the central and suspended bridges on one or more of the last octa'ves at the treble end. And further in the arrangement of an increased number of strings and keys so as to enable the performer to produce his flats and Sharps Without the pedals used in the old instruments or harps Which are dispensed with for this purpose. Lastly in arranging the sounding board and tuning block so far apart as to leave a large open space between them for the strings to vibrate in beyond the edge of the sounding board.

In the accompanying drawings A, is the back of the frame or case, A, the bot-tom, A2 the sides and A3, the front.

B is the top bar of the case fastened to the sides A2, and t-he back A. The long post D, and the short post E, are fastened to the top of the bar B, in the position represented in the drawing to support the serpentine neck or tuning block F, which is fastened to them. The tuning block F, may be made of wood or metal or of those two materials combined, and may be braced if necessari7 from t-he bar B. The sounding board B is fastened to the top B, sides A2, and bottom A. The hitch plate C, is fastened in front of the sounding board, a thin strip of wood being placed between them as represented at Zt, Fig. 2. The hitch plate c, may be made of iron, and provided with a series of pins c, c, to which the wires (a, c, are fastened and stretched across the suspended bridge f, on the sounding board, and across the open space H, solid bridge g, on the turning block, and fastened to the tuning pins CZ, CZ, in the tuning block F, in the usual manner, these tuning pins being arranged so as to tune the wires by turning the pins.

The hitch plate C, is so formed as to allow t-he short bridge f, f, to be fastened to the sounding board B, in the position represented in Fig. 1, at the treble end, and the double bridge f2, f2, is fastened to the sounding board or bar B, in the position represented; the upper edge of this bridge being perforated so that a part of the wires a, a, pass over the bridge f', and o-ver the lower edge of the bridge f2, and through the holes in its upper edge and across the open space H, and over the bridge g, and are fastened to the tuning pins (Z, (Z, as represented; the wires a, a, all pass through the long narrow opening e in the top of the case made for that purpose.

The key board L, extends across the front of the instrument and is fastened to the sides A2, to support the keys and striking action which is constructed and arranged as represented in Fig. 2, of which Z) is the hammer hinged to the standard or bar 2', which is fastened to the sides A2, A2. The key j, vibrates on the projection or washer around the pin Za, the key being provided with a slot, so as to vibrate upon the pin. This key has the arm m, hinged to it, so as to catch into a notch in the knuckle n, of the hammer hinge, so that when the player strikes the outer end of the key, it forces the hammer against the wire a, striking a blow to produce the sound required, and when t-he iinger is removed from the key the hammer falls back and rests against the bar p, until the key is touched again to make it strike another blow. I arrange the hammers to strike the wires a, a, about at the points marked by crosses in the drawing, but the hammers may be made to strike nearer to or farther from the suspended bridge as may be desirable. I use pedals however in my harp or dulceano to operate the damper action, so that the performer by operating the pedal can allow all the strings to vibrate, and make the volume of sound very full, or only one note or key, or he may cut the sound short off the whole action being moved by the pedal, so as to make the hammers strike one, two or three strings at pleasure, and thereby produce music far more perfect than can be produced on the common harp by the best performers.

By making an additional bridge at the treble end the tones and sounds produced are more lively, quick and musical. By putting the action, sounding board keyboard in the lower part I am enabled to dispense with the case to the upper part.

If a string in a musical instrument is struck near the solid bridge the sound or note is hard but if struck near the suspended bridge as in my dulceano the sound is soft, similar to that of a harp. When a string is drawn over a sounding board it produces sound or music very inferior to what it does when it is drawn through the air without the board. For instance when the sounding board extends the whole length of the strings, and a string is struck near one end vibrates over and with the sounding board forward and backward until the echo is exhausted by the sounding board. But when the sounding board is only half the length of the strings, it can only effect the strings as far as it goes, and the string is left free in the air beyond it; and does not make that wooden sound thatit does when the sounding board extends the whole length of the string. In the common harp the strings leave the sounding board at an acute angle and the sound is similar to that produced by my instrument with the strings extending beyond the sounding board.

Some of the advantages which my dulceano possesses over the common harp may be enumerated as follows, to wit. By using wires instead of gut strings it will remain in tune a long time, so that it may be played whenever desired; besides wires are not liable to be broken by changes in the atmosphere, or temperature. It is played with keys, which do not injure the fingers like the strings of a common harp. There are comparatively few pieces of music suited to the harp, or that can be executed upon it; but there is no piece of musical composition, however diiiicult of execution, which cannot be executed on my dulceano. It produces music equally as line and finer than the common harp, which never has and never can be equaled by a piano. There is no separate or additional instruction required beyond what is necessary to play a common piano.

I believe I have describedtlie construction, operation and use or" my improvements in musical stringed instruments, so as to enable any person skilled in the art tc make and use the same. I Will now specify what I desire to secure by Letters Patent, to Wit.

I claiml. A sounding board and suspended bridge in combination With a solid bridge arranged at a distance from or beyond the sounding board so that the strings extend across an open space between the sounding board and solid bridge substantially as described.

2. I claim extending the strings one halt their length or more through an open space beyond the sounding board substantially as described so as to make the instrument produce sounds like a harp instead of sounds similar to those of a piano.

3. I claim arranging the hammers above the key board and making them strike the strings toivard and opposite to the sounding board near the suspended bridge instead ot near the solid bridge substantially as described.

Il. I claim increasing the number of strings in an instrument having the properties otl a harp substantially as described so as to make the Hats and Sharps, Without the pedals used in the old harp, so as to dispense With the pedals for that purpose.

ANTHONY KUHN.

vWitnesses Trios. H. STANFORD, DANIEL BISCLER.

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