US1791632A - Damper action for grand pianos - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 10, 1931. F. MOSER 1,791,632

DAIPER ACTION roa qgmm PIANOS Filed Aug..=- 25, 1927 Patented Feb. 10, 1931 PATENT OFFICE FELIX MOSER, OF HOLLAND, MICHIGAN DAMPER ACTION FOB GRAND PIANOS Application filed August 25, I927. Serial No. 215,415.

The object of the invention is to make a damper action at greatly reduced cost without impairing its efliciency.

This damper action has no bushed bearings except on the support rail. The usual damper lever is discarded and a spring takes its place. Its damper lifter flange is also done away with, the damper block taking its place.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a sectional detail showing the damper action with the parts in normal position with the key at rest. The dotted lines show the dam er action when the key is pressed down, 1i ting the dampers.

Fig. 2, is a fractional front view of 3 units in the direction of arrow A of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a. view from above in the direction of arrow B of Fig. 1.

The key 1 normally rests upon the backrail keycloth 2. Its contact with the damper is felted 3.

The spring rail 4 takes the place of the damper lever rail, resting on a base rail 5. A metal spring 6 takes the place of the usual 2 damper lever and is fastened onto the spring rail 4 by a screw. The edge of the spring rail 4 is felted, to avoid rattles. The forward end of the spring 6 is bent at about ninty degrees and is screwed to the damper block 7,

which is felted 8 where it comes in contact with the spring 6. The damper block 7 which takes the place of the damper lift flange, has the usual means for fastening the damper wire 9 by a screw 10. The damper wire 9 passes through the support rail 11 to the damper head 12, which is fastened to it.

When the key 1 is played, it will lift the damper 12 clear off the string 19 and will fall with the release of the key 1, the spring 6 4 aiding in damping the string 19.

The long pedal rod 13 extends upward through the keybed and the base rail 5, engages the lift rail 14, which is felted on both edges, raisin said liftrail 14 the required height, there y raising all the dampers 12 at one time.

The lift rail 14 is secured to the spring rail 4. A felted sto rail 17 is fastened to the edge of the back ar 18 to safeguard against raising the dampers too high.

I claim:

1. In a damper action for grand pianos, in combination with a piano key and a lift-rail operated by a pedal, a horizontally disposed flexible damper lever preferably of thin meta1, one end of which being fastened to the edge of a rail generally known as the damper lever rail b a screw, the other or forward end of said damper lever being screwed to a block which is equipped with means to hold damper wire onto which the damperhead is fastened, said damperhead being disposed to he lifted manually by a key having contact with the damper ever directly under the damperblock, or by a lift-rail operated bya pedal, the flexibility of the damper lever causing the damper to drop with sufficient preciseness to damp the strings instantly.

2. In a damper action for grand pianos, in combination with a piano key and a lift-rail operated by a pedal, a. horizontally disposed, fiat and flexible spring, preferably of metal, one end of which is fastened to the damperlever rail by a screw, the other end of said spring being fastened to a a damper-blocs equipped with means to hold the damperwire onto which the damper is fastened, said spring being lifted at its forward end and directly under the damperblock by a manual piano key or by a lift-rail operated by a pedal, 30 thus lifting the damper, the flexibility of the spring returning the damper to the strings the instant the key or the pedal respectively is released.

Holland, Michigan, Aug. 22, 1927. 35

FELIX MOSER.

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