US1742121A - Organ - Google Patents

Description

-v 1, 1929. E. BAWTREE 1,742,121

ORGAN Filed Jan. 28, 1928- 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 31, 1929. E. BAWTREE 1,742,121

Filed Jan. 28, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Dec. 31, 1929 uurrsn sra'res EDWARD BAVJTEEE, OF GRPINGTON, ENGLAND ORGAN Application filed January 28, 1328, Serial No. 250,274, and in Great Britain February 3, 1927.

This invention relates to organs particularly those in which metal or wooden fiuepipes of ordinary type are employed and in which means are provided whereby the fiuepipes are dynamically controlled, that is to say the power or volume oi the sound produced can be increased or decreased without the use of a swell-be Acording to this invention the windstream is controlled by a device which is operated by suitable meal under the influence of the player, for var mg the volume of the windstream passing through the windway without materially altering its pressure at that point; or, in other words, the power of the windstream passing through the windway is varied without unduly or objectionably affecting its tone-producing qualities. The aforesaid device may comprise a shutter or the like for varying the width of the windway and a valve or other contrivance for varying or controlling the pressure of the requisite degree as the shutter closes or opens,

thus ensuring that the windstream at the point where it passes through the windway is kept at practically constant pressure as aforesaid.

Any desired number or a group of the fluepipes may be provided with the aforesaid windstream controlling devices and means may be provided for enabling the latter to be operated simultaneously so that the windstream may be varied to the same extent in all the fluepipes in which case the effect obtained would be like that of an ordinary swell-box; or the said windst-re'am controlling devices may be provided with means for erabling them to be operated simultaneously and also individually and in this case the said devices of all the fiuepipes may be ac tuated simultaneously by the player as before to obtain the swell e'liect, or may be tellh porarily set or retained in any desired position of adjustment by the player for obtaining any particular degree 01" softness orloudness of the sound emit 'ed by the pipes, and at the same time the player may independently operate any of the said devices through a double touch action for enabling the melody to be accented.

In applying my invention is it not neces sary that all of the fluepipes oi an organ shall be dynamically controlled; some of them may he cont-rolled in the ordinary way with or without a swell-box.

In order that the said invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, the same will now be more fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which v Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a wooden fluepipe provided with one form of my win dsiream controlling device in which the shutter and valve are constituted by rectilineariy sliding plates.

Figures 2 and 3 are plan views of the shutter and the valve shown separately.

Figures 4, 5 and 6 are similar views to Figures 1, 2 and 3 but shown a metal flutzpipe provided with another form of the device in which the shutter and valve are constituted by rotary or angularly displaceable members.

Figure 7 shows diagrammatically a metal fluepipe similar to Figure 4 provided with a modified form of the device shown in that figure and with means for enabling the -double touch effect to be obtained.

Figure 8 illustrates diagrammatically a further modification hereinafter more fully described.

Like letters of reference indicate similar parts in all the figures.

' A is the fluepipe and a the windway through which the windstream passes from the passage a when the pipe speaks, said pas sage a being in communication with the wind supply in the ordinary way. B is the shutter for varying the volume of the wind stream passing through the windway a by controlling the width of the latter. C is the valve for varying the pressure of the wind stream in accordance with the position or the shutter B.

In Figures 1 to 3 the said shutter and valve are in the form oi plates waich slide respectively on the block or languid a and the base piece a at the foot of the fluepipe. The shu ter has attached to it a rod Z) the free end of which is connected to a lever D pivoted at d and the valve has attached to it a similar rod 0 the free end oit which is also connected to the lever D but at the opposite side of the pivot so that the shutter and valve work together in opposite directions when the said lever is actuated by the player from a balanced or other form of pedal E, the shutter 15 moving in a direction to diminish the windway a when the valve C moves in a direction to decrease the pass ge through which the windstream passes 01 its to the windway and vice versa, with the "esult that although the volume of the winds am passing through the windway a is varied by the shutter the pressure at that point is kept practically constant by the valve. The active edges of the said shutter and valve are of double inclined formation at b and c with an intervening straight portion In in. the case of the shutter and an intervening curved portion 0 in the case of the valve. as indicated by Figures 2 and 3 respectively, so that they normally leave a portion at the middle of the windway o and a portion at the periphery of the mouth of the passage [4 open but when they are moved in opposite directions by the player actuating the balanced pedal as aforesaid they vary the area of these open portions in the proper ratio to ensure that in increasing the volume or strength of the note produced, its pitch will remain practically unaltered and a proper swell eii'ect obtained. In order to enable the various fluepipes with which the windstream controlling tcVlCQS are provided to be operated simultaneously for obaining the aforesaid swell eliect, the lower ends of the levers D are connected by hinged arms d, e to a horizontal axle 6 common to all of the said levers and having at one of its ends, or elsewhere thereon an actuating arm a which is coi'in'ected with the balanced pedal by connecting rods 0, 6*, so that on operating the said pedal the axle (2 will be turned to and fro in accordance with the movements of the pedal.

In Figures lto 6 the shutter B and valve C receive rotary or angular motion through arms 6 0 connected together by a rod D. The meeting ends of the arm 7) and of the rod D are connected to a cross rod 6*. This rod is connected by a rod 6 to an arm a car ried by a transverse shaft 0 which is common to a number or group of the lluepipes provided with the windstream controlling devices and which is coupled to the balance( pedal E by an arm 6 and a connecting rod 6, so that simultaneous operation will be imparted to all the said devic s by the depression of the pedal and angular movement of the shaft 6 in order to obtain the swell effect as in Figures 1 to 3. The roshutter is shown made in two parts Figure 5) each of which has its inclined or active surface or edge formed slightly helical. These two parts are adapted to turn about an axis a mssing lengthwise through or adjacentto the winoway a, the two parts bein connected. together, so as to turn in unison, by the said arms 5'' and in so turning they open or close the vindway in the direction of its length thus 'arying what is known technically as its width. The valve C is in the term of a disc mounted on a spindle which is connected by the arm 0 and rod D to the iid cross rod 0*.

Instead of actuating the devices only by means of the balanced pedal E as aforesaid, in order to obtain an ordinary swell eii'ect, I may arrange for the actuation to be ellccted also by a double touch action as illustrated by Figure 7, where it will be seen that the arrangeinent, in so far as the shutter and valve are concerned, is similar to Figure l, but that the rods 6 instead of being connected direct to the arms 6 oi the common tranverse shaft 6 which is actuated from the balanced pedal E, are connected to the adjacent ends 7" of intermediate arms or levers 7' which are pivotally connected at the middle or thereabouts to the rods 65 of the pedal mechanism, the opposite end of the said arms or levers 7 being connected by pin joints f to pneumatic motors or bellows F operating under wind pressure against the resistance of springs f of which there is one to each of the fiuepipes provided with my device. In this arrang ment when the. shutters and valves of the various fluepipes to whichmy devices are applied are operated simultaneously by the balanced. pedal E, the arms or levers 7 turn about the pin joints f and impart movement tothe arms 6 and c as in the arrangement shown by Figure l, for obtaining the swell effect. If however the double touch effect is required that is obtained by the player exerting the double touch movement on the desired keys of the keyboard, i. e. depressing the key beyond the position which is normally necessary to cause a pipe to speak whereby the metal rod G is caused to rise and make the necessary electrical contact between the contact members g, g, for causing electrically operated valves f (which are of the usual type) to be actuated, whereupon the pneumatic bellows F are caused to distend by being placed in communication with the high pressure wind system; in distending they act against springs and move the intermediate arms or levers f. which turn about the points f and balanced pedal alone.

thus push the rods 6 in an upward direction whereby the operating levers b 0 of the shutters and valves of the fluepipes appertaining to the particular keys that are pressed by the player into the double touch position are caused to move (irrespective of their position in performing the swell effect) into the fully open position in which the fluepipes speak at their full power. In order to allow the windways of the fluepipes to be thus fully opened with the balanced pedal in any position, it is necessary to provide for the absorption in the system of any excess movement such as would occur in the event of the windways of the remaining fluepipes, i. e. those that are for the time being unaffected by the double touch action, having been controlled only to such an extent as to cause the tone to become slightly softened. For this purpose I may provide the various joints of the shutter and valve actuating mechanism with spring buffer connections. I prefer, however, to make the arms 6 and c of spring metal and to provide fixed stops and c for said arms to bear against without bending when the shutter and valve are in the normal or fully open position, so that in the event of the bellows F operating when the arms 5 and 0 have been actuated only to a small extent as aforesaid, the said arms in moving under the influence of the arms 7 (the stroke of which is always the same whatever position the arms 12 and 0 may occupy) will come against the stops b 0 and give way by bending, their resiliency enabling them to resume their ordinary condition again when the stress exerted on them is removed. Upon releasing the double touch action the source of high pressure wind is cut off and the wind within the bellows allowed to escape through an appropriate valve, whereupon the aforesaid spring f returns the parts of the mechanism to the original position and the fluepipes are then under the control of the If desired the said pedal can be operated while the double touch action is in operation, but the fluepipes sounding the melody will not be aflected until the double touch action is released, when they will immediately conform to whatever fresh position may have been taken up by the pedal. Or the pedal may be temporarily retained in any desired position by the player putting it into engagement with a catch arrangement or the like, as is well understood in connection with swell organs, so as to obtain a setting of any particular degree of softness or loudness desired while the double touch action is being operated.

It should be understood that although I have described and shown a valve acting to control the wind pressure by throttling the wind supply, the control could in some cases be effected by releasing some of the wind on its way to the windway; for example by letting it escape through an exit opened and closed to an extent in proper ratio to the closing and opening of the shutter by mechanism which may be similar tothat disclosed in the arrangements above described.

Instead of varying or controlling the pressure of the wind to the windways by the movement of a valve situated in each individual fiuepipe, I may in some cases (for instance as in a harmonium) simultaneously control the pressure of the wind supplied to a group of fluepipes, in which case the shuttors are operated by a pneumatic system such as that shown by Figure 8, wherein there is provided a wind chest H which is charged with wind at variable pressure from the foot bellows of the harmonium and which is in communication with a series of bellows G acting against springs g. These bellows Gr are connected with the shutter-actuating arms 5 by rods 1), the opening and closing of the shutters being thus effected mechanically to a greater or less extent by the movement of the bellows G according to the variable wind pressure obtained in the wind chest H from the foot-bellows and supplied to the fluepipes through conduits h, the variation of pressure being effected by the player operating the foot bellows of the instrument more or less vigorously; or if the wind were supplied by power instead of by the foot-bellows, it would be necessary to provide a valve or its equivalentbetween the wind chest H and the source of wind supply for obtaining the aforesaid variation of the wind pressure. In this modification it will be seen that the dynamic control of the fluepipes is obtained by varying the pressure of the wind supply externally instead of through a valve located within the fluepipe and that the variations in the wind supply cause the position of the shutter to be altered, more orless, in accordance with the degree of pressure, and the power or volume of the sound produced to be increased or diminished accordingly and the swell effect obtained.

\Vhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. An organ fluepipe having a single air inlet and provided with means for controlling the pipe dynamically whereby the power or volume of the sound produced can be increased or diminished by the player without the use of a swell box.

2. An organ fluepipe provided with means for varying or controlling the volume of the windstream passing through the windway without materially altering its pressure at that point.

3. An organ fluepipe provided with means for varying or controlling the volume of the windstream passing through the windway of the fluepipe and with supplemental means for varying or controlling the pressure of the windstream on its way to the windway.

4. The combination of an organ fiuepipe having an adjustable member for varying or controlling the volume of the Windstream passing through the WindWay, and a second adjustable member for varying or controlling the pressure of the \vindstream on its Way to the \vindway, and means whereby movement of the volume controlling member effects movement of the said pressure controlling member to vary the pressure of the Windstream to the desired degree.

5. An organ fiuepipe provided with means for varying the Width of the windway of the fluepipe so that the volume of the Windstream passing through said \vindway can be altered Without varying its pressure at that point.

6. A plurality of organ fluepipes, each havin means for varying or controlling the volume of the Windstream passing through the WindWay Without materially altering its pressure at that point, in combination With means for enabling all the'volume controlling means to be simultaneously actuated by an operator.

7 A plurality of organ fluepipes, each having means for varying or controlling the volume of the Windstream passing through the windway Without materially altering its pressure at that point, in combination with means for enabling all the volume controlling means to be actuated simultaneously and also individually at the Will of the operator.

8. A plurality of organ fluepipes, each having means for varying or controlling the volume of the WiIlClStI'GiLIH passing through the windway With means for varying or controlling the pressure of the Windstream on its Way to the WindWay in combination with a pedal for actuating said volume and pressure controlling means.

9. A plurality of organ fiuepipes, each having means for varying or controlling the volume of the Windstream passing through the windway with means for varying or controlling the pressure of the Windstream on its Way to the WindWay in combination With a pedal coupled up to said volume and pres sure controlling means and to a double touch action.

10. A dynamically controlled organ fluepipe having a shutter-like contrivance associated with the WindWay, a valve for controlling the pressure of the Wind stream passing to the windway, and means for causing said shutter and valve to operate simultaneously when one of them is actuated.

EDVARD BAVVTREE.

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