US17501A - Melodeow - Google Patents

Description

TED STATES PATENT OFFICEe YILLIAM EVANS, OF LOGKPORT, ILLINOIS.

MELODEON.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 17,501, dated June 9, 1857.

T o all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, VILLL-iiu EVANS, -of Lockport, in the county of lill and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Melodeons; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a transverse vertical section of those parts of the instrument which require to be shown to illustrate my. invention. Fig. 2 is a plan of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

This invention relates to melodeons in which the exhaustion bellows is used.

It consists in arranging the swell to close by a movement upward or away from the reed tubes instead of by a movement downward or toward the reed tubes.

By this new arrangement and mode of operation several very important results are eifected as will be hereinafter explained. l will first however describe with reference to the drawings the manner in which the invention is applied.

A. is the reed board; (a.) one of the reed tubes; (o) one of the reeds; and B the reflecting board, all of which occupy the same positions as in the melodeons with exhausting bellows now in general use.

C is the swell hinged in the usual manner to the back edge of the reed board A.

D is the stop on the retiecting board B, against the under side of which the swell closes with an upward movement7 the said under side being placed rather higher than the top of the reed board, and being faced with velvet so that the swell may tit tightly against it.

(c) is the spring by which the swell is closed consisting of a piece of fiat steel similar to clock spring secured to the top of the reed board by a screw (d), and passing through the hinge of the swell and bearing against the under side of the same.

E, E, are two levers by whose agency the swell is opened, the former E, which is of the second order, being arranged close to one side of the case on a fulcrum pin (e) and resting on an arm (f) attached to one end of the swell, and the latter F which is of the first order, being arranged close to the back of the case on a fulcrum pin (g) with one end resting on the rear end of E and the other end connected with a treadle that is not shown.

The swell when arranged as above described to close upward enlarges the chamber formed between itself and the reeds as it closes instead of diminishing it as it does' when it closes downward upon the board G in the old way and it opens with the current of air instead of in opposition to it.

By the old arrangement when the swell is closed the tone of the lower or large reeds is considerably flattened while that of the higher or smaller ones is less so, as that part of the chamber opposite the smallei reeds is not diminished so much in proportion to the size of its reeds and tubes as the part opposite the larger ones, and hence when the swell is closed the instrument is out of tune`r the lower notes being too tlat for the higher ones. This is not the case, or at any rate not perceptibly so, when the swell closes upward and enlarges the chamber, but the instrument will produce the softest tones possible and still remain in tune. ln fact with my arrangement of the swell the character of the tone of the instrument is different to that of melodeons generally and more like that of the open diapason i of the organ. The tone is rich and mellow and extremely soft when the swell is closed, and when the swell is open the tone is very full but still as deep and mellow as when it as closed. while in melodeons with the old arrangement of the swell. the tone is more piercing and harsh when the swell is open than when it is closed. Another result obtained by my arrangement of the swell is that the tone of the treble reed does not tremble with the movement of the left hand on the bass keys when the swell is closed as it does with the old arrangement. Again my arrangement affords facility for getting at the reeds to remove any dirt that may interfere with their vibration, or to examine, repair or tune them, by lttingthe reflecting board to drop into two grooves (fr), one of which is shown in Fig. 2, where a part of the said board is omitted for the purpose, the lifting up of the board B out of its place, with the stop piece D against which the swell closes attached, exposes all the reeds to view the swell being already raised out of the way.

which the swell closes, attached to the re- 1o fleeting board so as to be removed therewith to leave the reeds exposed as herein described.

WILLIAM EVANS.

Witnesses:

JOHN F. DAGGETT, WM. GooDRING.

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