US1913233A - Light illuminating musical instrument - Google Patents

Description

June 6, 1933. J. DE FRANCESCO LIGHT ILLUMINATING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed Feb. 9, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet l June 6, 1933. .1. DE FRANCESCO LIGHT ILLUMINATING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed Feb. 9, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 a 0 a. 0 e: no 0 o 0: 0:

June 6, 1933. J. DE FRANCESCO LIGHT ILLUMINATING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed Feb. 9, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented June 6, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFECE LIGHT ILLUMINATING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Application filed February 9, 1928. Serial No. 252,962.

My invention relates to stringed device, which may or may not itself be a musical instrument, adapted to produce harmoniously varying light efiects synchronously .with

music.

A purpose of my invention is to provide a device adapted to synchronously Vary lighting eflects in accord with written music or as an accompaniment to music. I may use my device for the production of harmoniously varying light effects with or without accompanying musical sounds from the device itself operating the device as though playing music with an orchestra and obtaining synchronously flashing lights that may for example comprise the lights of an electric advertising sign.

A further purpose is to complete a lighting circuit or a light controlling through a conducting string of a stringed musical instrument during the period that the string is depressed to determine the effective length of the string and thereby its musical note when vibrated.

A further purpose is to make a string or strings of a stringed musical instrument complete different lighting or light-controlling circuits during depression at correspondingly different positions that determine the different vibration notes of the string or strings.

A further purpose is to use the frets of a banjo or other stringed instrument as contact members in cooperation with conducting strings of the instrument to complete individ ual lighting or light-controlling circuits during string depression.

A further purpose is to adapt a banjo or other stringed instrument to illumine different lights during the playing of the instrument synchronously with the playing.

A further purpose is to mount a multicontact member inside the annular body of a banjo beneath the parchment face of the sounding box portion of the instrument.

A further purpose is to provide a device for illumining or flashing different lights of one or more colors synchronously with music by an orchestra: for example, furnishing differently colored lighting effects such as are sometimes thrown on a theater stage,

throughout an auditorium, or over dance floors in public or private dining rooms or restaurants.

A further purpose is to provide an advantageous arrangement of light units in or back of a light-transmitting curtain adapted to be controlled by the operation of a stringed musical instrument.

Further purposes will appear in the speci: fication and in the claims.

I have elected to show a few only of the many different forms of my invention, but have selected forms that are efficient and practical in operation and which well illustrate the principles involved. 7

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a banjo embodying one portion of one form of my invention.

Figure 2 is a longitudinal section taken upon the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a bottom plan view of the structure shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 4 is partially a top plan view of a terminal member for use inside the annular body of the banjo shown in Figures 1 to 3 and partiallya diagrammatic view of a series of external lights controlled by the banjo through the terminal and external wiring.

Figures 5, 6 and 6a are diagrammatic views illustrating different arrangements of lights tobe harmoniously varied by the operation of the banjo or similar device, synchronously with music from the instrument.

Figures 7 and 7 a are diagrammatic views of some of the electrical connections of the structure shown in Figures 1 to 3, Figure 7 showing the instrument connected to different lighting circuits while in Figure 7a the instrument is connected to different relay circuits that control different lighting circuits. L

Figures 8 and 9 are diagrammatic views generally similar to Figure 7 but showing modifications that have each advantages and disadvantages as compared to the structure shown in Figure 7.

Figures 10, 11 and 12 are more complete diagrammatic views of electrical connections that are partially shown respectively in Figures 7, 8 and 9. r.

Figures 13 and 1A are plan and front ele- U vations respectively of a detached detail.

Like numerals refer to like parts in all figures.

Describing in illustration and not in limitation and referring to the drawings.

I show one desirable embodiment of my invention in Figures 1 to 3 applied to a banj o 15.

The banjo comprises a sounding box 16 having laterally extending arm 17 and strings 18, 19, 20 and 21 stretched along side of one another along the arm and above the parchment face 22 of the sounding box.

The strings are anchored at one side of the sounding box in alinement with the arm in forked portions 23 of a member 2a fastened to the side of the box diametrally away from the arm.

From the individual anchor members 23 they pass under a member 25 thence over a bridge 26 that is supported upon the parchment face 22 of the box and stretch across a free space to a ridge member 27 near the outer end of the arm.

From the ridge member the strings pass to the usual tension pegs 28 which are rotatably mounted in the outer end of the arm and serve for anchors and tension adjustment of the individual strings.

The stretched strings pass over the bridge 26 a .d over the ridge member 27 in notches 29 so that the normal vibrating lengths of the strings are the spacing between these two points, the bridge and the ridge. The strings lie, as usual, somewhat above the adjoining face 30 of the arm and the parchment 22 of the sound box.

Frets 31 are spaced along the arm below the strings between the ridge member 27 and the sound box, and the strings having been adjusted to proper tension are each adapted to variant notes according to the effective lengths under vibration.

The efiective vibration length of a string is varied by depressing it into contact with different frets, the effective length being that between the bridge and the first fret that is engaged by the string after it passes over the bridge.

Normally a player depresses a string between any two adjacent frets before and during vibrating the string and the tone of the string when vibrated is that determined by that one of the two or more engaged frets that is nearest the bridge.

I show four strings and seventeen frets between the ridge member 27 and the box and in accord with this arrangement which is of course subject to wide variation both as to number of strings and frets, each string is adapted to vibrate at eighteen different tones corresponding respectively to vibration lengths from the bridge to any one of the seventeen frets.

The instrument shown at a given tuning is thus adapted to play four times eighteen or seventy-two different tones.

As thus described the structure is all old in the prior art.

Each of the frets has hitherto extended transversely under all the strings of the instrument and has functioned merely to definitely determine the different vibration lengths of the vibrating strings.

In the form of my invention shown in Figures 1 to 3 I use electrically conducting frets and divide them into relatively insulated sections. Each composite fret corresponds to the old fret but is made up of electrical terminal sections, one section for each string, and I provide an external electric lighting circuit and connection for each fret section, adapting one or more of the lighting circuits to be closed through a string whenever the string engages one or more fret terminals.

I thus provide individual lighting circuits for the individual fret sections in such a way that the strings cooperate with the fret sections to form contact members to different lighting circuits.

In this way each string is adapted to close alternatively as many difierent lighting circuits when depressed as there are different fret terminals.

The several lighting circuits may be provided with lights arranged in a color scheme such that a different set of colored lights is flashed for each fret section of the banjo arm.

It may at times be difficult or undesirable to have as many color variations in the lighting circuits as there are available sound variations from the stringed instrument and for this reason I may repeat the same lights at intervals on the same or different strings, or may vary the intensity of lighting at intervals of the same string or different strings with or without a change in colors of the bulbs.

Thus the number of colors in the light bulbs and the number of sets of lights illumined by the strings, either or both, may be much less than the number of tones adapted to be played by the strings, and the differences in the different lighting effects controlled by the same string or different strings may exist in duration of lighting, in color, in intensity of lighting and in the location of the lights and will preferably comprise a harmonious and pleasing variation in all of these characteristics.

IVhile obviously the lighting circuit connections 32 may leave the instrument from any suitable portion of the instrument, when the instrument is a banjo I prefer to have the connections leave from the bottom of the body 16 in that the connections then least interfere with the player.

In the illustration the individual wiring connections 32 to the frets are placed in suitable grooves (which are afterward covered) in the arm of the instrument, then are gathered together at a terminal member 33 mounted inside the annular sounding box 16 underneath the parchment cover of the box.

The terminal member 33, permanently mounted on the body of the instrument, but preferably touching neither sounding box nor parchment cover, presents socket terminals 34 to the registering plug terminals 35 (Figure 4) of a cooperating external removable terminial member 36 which carries the leads 37 to the different lightingcircuits.

In Figure 4 the removable terminal mem ber 36 cooperating with the member 33 is adapted to make plug and socket connections between the internal wires 32 which are permanently connected to the individual fret sections and the external wires 37 to the different sets of lights which may be as indicated in Figure 4 arranged so as to make up the letter, background, or border of an advertisement sign 38, intended in Figure 4 to be a-conventional representation of any commercial sign made up or illumined by electric lights 39.

In Figure 4 the light bulbs 39 together making up or illumining the sign, either or both, will all have one terminal conducting board 40 which is connected by wire 41 to one terminal of a battery 42, the other terminal of the battery being connected by a wire 43 to the instrument, as to the different conducting strings of the banjo.

In the sign shown in Figure 4 the different sets of lights are controlled by variantly depressing the diff'erent strings of the banjo, thereby flashing the different light bulbs of the sign synchronously with music. These lights may be in the background, border or foreground of the sign or may make up the letters of the sign, or be in any or all of these different arrangements sequentially or in combination.

The circuit of each fret section may inelude a number of light bulbs in each letter of the sign, or a number of light bulbs in the background, foreground or border of the sign, and these bulbs may or may not have different characteristics in the same circuit and in different circuits with respect to color and intensity of lighting.

Preferably such variation is provided between the different lighting circuits of the sign as will give most pleasing or most striking appearance when the lights are operated at the banjo; depressing the strings of the banjo in the harmonious or rhymic sequence corresponding to playing music or in conjunction with an orchestra then resulting in a striking or pleasing variation in the lighting effect of the sign. I

While in Figure 4 I have preferred to illustrate the application of my invention to the variant illumination of a commercial sign I regard its widest and best application in the rhythmic flashing of colored lights, synchronized with sound music, for aesthetic enjoyment.

It will be noted that, since all of the strings are electrically conducting, the depression of a string between sections of two frets will connect the circuits of both fret sections, ilruminating two or more lights.

In Figure 5 I show the light bulbs 39 arranged in a ring and show the same number of lights in the ring as there are fret section circuits in Figures 1 and 3. Each fre section is connected to a separate bulb through a battery, or other source of electrical. energy common to all.

In many cases it may be deemed suflicient to have fewer lights than the number of tones that maybe made upon the instrument and in this event th same lighting circuit may be closed at suitably different fret sections, connected together electrically so that exactly the same lighting effect is produced when any one of a number of electrically connected frets is used to determine the tone from the banjo.

In Figure 6 I illustrate a desirable curtain 44 made up of strings 45 of alternating'light reflectors 46 and light bulbs 39 the reflectors conveniently comprising sections of glass tubing.

I show seventeen rows of alternating reflectors and light bulbs corresponding to the seventeen fret sections along each string of the banjo, and show twelve light bulbs on each row. Obviously, however, there is no need for a specific relation between the num' ber of rows of lights in the curtain or the number of bulbs on each row with the number of fret section circuits. 7

If desired the reflector elements of the curtain may be omitted or may be placed in front of the lights so as to deflect the rays from the individual bulbs in all directions before they reach the eye by passage through the reflectors.

These curtains will be particularly desirable at theaters or the like, permitting the production of unusual effects through the rythmic flashing of numerous colored light bulbs in time with the orchestra music.

The curtain illustrated shows the same number of rows of lights as there are fret circuits shown in Figures 1 and 10 for each string and, with three times as many lights as the total number of fret circuits. In accord with this each fret circuit would probably comprise three lights which might or might not all be in the same row in the curtain. I

7 Obviously the electrical connections are adapted to quite wide variations without departing from my invention, and I have shown three desirable ways of connecting an in- CTA strument such as a banjo to operate lighting effects synchronously with music.

These three different ways of electrically wiring a stringed instrument for adaptation to operate lighting effects in time with music are shown for a single string diagrammatically in Figures 7, 8 and 9 respectively and the same ways of wiring are indicated for four strings in Figures 10, 11 and 12 respectively, except that the number of light-s is not the same. In Figures 12 the connections from three sets of fret sections are omitted for clearness, the fourth only being shown complete.

Figures 7 and 10 illustrate diagrammatically the wiring arrangement shown in Figures 1 to 3. The four strings are electrically connected in parallel at 47 Figure 10 and to a battery 42 by a conducting wire 43. Each fret 31, Figure 7, of any wire 48 ( wire 18, 19, or 21 for example) is connected by a wire 32 to asocket portion 34 in the terminal member 33 that is preferably placed inside the sound box as best seen in Figures 2 and 3.

The row of connections 34, 35 is in effect a diagram indication of the cooperating terminal members 33 and 36, Figures 2, 3, and 4, which make connection between the instrument and the external circuit.

The external circuit wires 37 connect to the individual lights 39 on one side and there is a common return to one side of the battery or other source of electrical energy, and from the other side of the battery at 43 to the strings of the instrument.

In Figure 10 and other diagrammatic figures I show each fret circuit as including two lights, but this is intended as a conventional indication for any number of lights desired, or groups of lights, that may all be of the same color or different colors, and all of the same intensity or of variant intensities, and that may be relatively near together or far apart.

For example each circuit may comprise a number of lights in each one of any number of letters, or in the background, foreground, or border of one or more advertising signs.

Vhile I show the individual circuits made up wholly of different lights it will be understood that this is not essential and that the circuits of different fret sections may include one or more of the same lights, perhaps illumined at different intensities in the different circuits.

In Figures 7 and 10 the frets form contact terminals that are selectively engaged by the conducting strings which are continuously connected to one side of the battery.

In this arrangement two fret circuits are closed every time a string is depressed between two successive frets so that except back of the first fret there are two lighting circuits for each of the available tones from the instrument. Thus while the string gives individual musical tones for each position back of the individual frets the lighting effects are in each case a combination of two circuits one of which is that of the forward fret determining the note of the music and the other is that of the fret just to the rear of the fret that determines the musical tone.

In the arrangement shown in Figures 8 and 11 the terminals of the individual note circuits are plates 49 inserted under the strings in the spaces between the usual frets 50 which have no function except the usual fret function and are insulated from the plate terminals.

The individual lighting circuits are connected to the terminal members 49 in exactly the same way that the individual frets were connected to these members in the form of Figures 7 and 10 except that the terminals are plates between the frets instead of the individual frets.

The terminal plates 49 are let into the arm 17 so as to be somewhat below the tops of the adjacent frets but preferably should be close enough to alinement with the tops of the frets to insure engagement between string and plate Whenever the string is depressed upon the frets.

This arrangement has What may in many cases be an advantage over that of Figures 7 and 10 in that the lighting circuits are individual to the individual notes of the instrument, there being one lighting circuit only for each position of the different strings.

In the wiring arrangement of Figures 7 and 10 and also in that of Figures 8 and 11, the conducting strings are continuously con nected to one side of a battery, or other source of electrical energy, that is connected upon its other side through the different lighting circuits to terminals below the strings.

In this arrangement the number of contact wires that must enter the instrument from the external circuit is one more than the number of lighting circuits, which corresponds to 69 wires between the external circuit and the instrument in Figures 7 and 10 and of Figures 8 and 11.

Th s number of wires may at times be desirably reduced and I show diagrammatically in Figures 9 and 12 an arrangement that requires only a little more than half as many wires between the instrument and the external circuit for the same number of lighting circuits.

The arrangement in Figures 9 and 12 entails the use of two batteries or sources of current instead of the one used in the other forms, but permits the use of fewer connecting wires between the external circuit and the musical instrument or device, and also offers a difference from the structure shown in Figures 7 and 10 in that only one lighting circuit instead of two is closed during each depression of the strings.

The wiring is shown diagrammatically in Figures 9 and 12, Figure 9 showing only a single string and eight frets while Figure 12 shows four strings and seventeen frets.

Referring first to Figure 12 the alternate fret members 52 beginning with the first fret 53 are conducting contact members that are normally a little below the strings and extend transversely across all of the strings.

These long frets are divided electrically into two sets being connected alternately to conducting wires 54 and 55 which are respectively connected by conducting wires 56 and 57 to the batteries 58 and 59.

The frets intermediate the long fret members 52 are divided into sections 31 that are contact members similar to the fret sections 31 of the form shown in Figures 7 and 10.

The fret sections 31 are connected by wires 32 to terminal members 34 and 85 and thence through wires 37 to lighting circuits, each wire 37 connecting through one set of lights and the battery 58 to the wires 56 and connecting through another set of lights to the battery 59 and the wire 57.

The conducting strings 18, 19, 20 and 21 are out of electrical connection for both circuits except during the period of depression to determine the note of the string when struck, and the current when the string is depressed flows in the string only between the two frets that are in simultaneous engagement by the string during the string depression.

It will be seen that the long frets comprise two relatively insulated sets of contact members, the different sets being connected to different batteries, and that the long fret contact members of the difl'erent sets alternate so that the intermediate short fret contact members which are each common to two circuits, are each adapted to cooperate with a portion of the string just to the rear of the fret to complete one lighting circuit and with a portion of the string just in front of the fret to complete another lighting circuit.

Throughout the specification I have used the term lighting circuit as meaning a circuit that controls the operation of one or more lights, whether or not the lights are in the lighting circuit or in a circuit controlled by the lighting circuit, as by means of a suitable relay, and in most of the diagrammatic figures I show the lights actually included in the lighting circuits.

In many cases, as where there are a great many lights operated by the strings of the instrument there will be suitable relays 39 between the lighting circuits at the instrument and the circuits that include the lights.

I have illustrated this in Figure 7a in which the lighting circuits exactly correspond to those of Figure 7 except that suitable relays 39 replace the sets of lights 39 of Figure 7, which in Figure 7a are connected through the different relays across 110 volt busses. It will be seen that there is one relay 39 for each fret section circuit and that each relay controls a 110 volt circuit through a set of lights 39.

It is obvious that in the other diagrammatic illustrations the different sets of lights 39 may also be replaced by relays 39 that in turn control external lighting circuits.

The chief'advantages of using relays are the adaptation to operate 110 volt lights on ordinary 110 volt circuits, the avoidance of heavy currents through the conducting strings of the instrument, and the very much smaller batteries needed when relays are used, as compared with the batteries needed if the difierent sets of lights are in the different fret section circuits.

I anticipate one of the widest applications of my invention will be to harmoniously vary the lighting effects on dancing floors, and the like, and illustrate this diagrammatically in Figure 6a where the lights 39 are ranged around the walls of a room near the ceiling and the stringed instrument may be used to vary the lighting effects as a color accompaniment to orchestral music.

I show in Figure 6a a few only of the many lights 39 that would usually be used when thus harmoniously varying the lighting effects on a dancing floor.

In all of the forms, the individual sets of lights may comprise a single light or a number of lights that may be of the same color or different colors, and that may have the same intensity or different intensities, or may be placed relatively near each other or at varying distances.

It will be apparent that in all of the forms shown the lighting circuits are completed through the depressed strings of the musical instrument or device.

While I have shown a banjo adapted to play music simultaneously with the harmonious variation of the different lighting effects, it is evident that the playing of the music may be dispensed with if desired. In this event the harmonious variation of the lighting effects of the rythmic flashing of electric light bulbs synchronizing perhaps with music played by an orchestra. is secured by operating the instrument or device in the same way that it would be operated when playing music, except that the strumming,

.or otherwise vibrating the strings to give the musical tones would be omitted.

The player of the harmonious variation .in the lighting and color effects or the 'rythmic flashing of electric light bulbs could either be from the reading of musical notes or could be an accompaniment of music played upon other musical instruments and operated in the same way that a musical accompaniment would be operated.

While I have illustrated my device applied to a banjo, it is adapted to any musical instrument having conducting strings, irrespective of whether or not the instrument has frets adjoining the .strings for use in determining the vibration tones of the strings. If there are no frets, the instrument is provided with suitable contact members at spaced intervals along the strings, as in the structure shown in Figures 8 and 10.

In view of my invention and disclosure, variations and modifications will doubtless become evident to others skilled in the art to meet individual whim or particular need and I claim all such in so far as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In using a plurality of electrical lighting circuits and a musical instrument having electrically conducting frets and an electrically conducting string, the novelty which consists in simultaneously controlling the lighting effects of the circuits and the notes from the string by depressing selectively variant portions of the string into contact with corresponding frets and completing a lighting circuit through the portion of the string depressed.

2. In an instrument for harmoniously operating the different lights of a series of lights, an electrically conducting string, a plurality of electrically conducting frets, and a series of open electric lighting circuits terminating at the respective frets and string and open between, adapted to be selectively closed through the string by depressing variant portions of the string.

3. In an instrument for harmoniously operating the different lights of a series of lights, a plurality of electrically conducting strings, a plurality of electrically conducting frets and a series of open electric lighting circuits including lights adapted to be closed through two circuits by depressing variant portions of the different strings into contact with adjoining frets.

4. A stringed musical instrument having a conducting string, a series of open electric lighting circuits each containin a light, a series of electrically conducting frets, one in each of the respective circuits adapted to he closed selectively by depressing different portions of the string and arranged along the string so that different circuits are closed when the different portions of the string are depressed and two contacts can be closed by one depression of the string.

5'. A stringed musical instrument having a plurality of conducting strings each adapted to produce different musical tones when depressed at different portions of its length and vibrated, in combination with a series of open electric lighting circuits and electrically conducting fret sections insulated from each other and located at intervals along the lengths of the strings, one in each circuit, adapted to be engaged selectively by the depression of the different portions of the different strings when determining the different tones of the strings.

6. In an instrument for harmoniously operating the different lights of a series of lights, a plurality of conducting strings, a series of frets beneath and adapted to be selectively engaged by the strings and each made up of relatively insulated electrically conducting'sections individual to the strings, a source of electrical energy having two terminals, electrical connections between one of the terminals and the strings and other electrical connections from the other terminal through different lights to the different sections.

7. In an instrument for harmoniously op erating the different lights of a series of lights, a plurality of conducting strings, a series of conducting fret sections spaced along beneath the strings adapted to be selectively engaged by the strings by depressing selective portions of the strings, a source of electrical energy having two terminals, electrical connection between one terminal and the strings, a plurality of electric lights, and electrically parallel connections from the other terminal through the different lights to the respective fret sections.

8. In an instrument for harmoniously operating the different lights of a series of lights, two different sources of electrical energy, a conducting string, a series of fret members along and beneath the string comprising alternate members that are alternately in connection with the different sources, and intermediate fret members each connected through one or more lights to each of the sources.

9- In an instrument for harmoniously operating the different lights of a series of lights, two different sources of electrical energy, a plurality of conducting strings, a series of fret members beneath the strings comprising alternate members that are alternately in connection with the different sources and each adapted to be engaged by any one of the strings, and intermediate fret members each comprising a series of fret sections that are relatively insulated and connected through different lights to each of the sources.

10. A banjo having a body and electrical connections adapting it to harmoniously operate the different lights of a series of lights including electric lead wires, a common termi nal thereof in the body of the banjo, and a cooperating removable terminal member in the body and connected to individual lighting circuits controlled by the operation of the banjo.

11. A musical instrument having electrically conducting strings, a plurality of contacts for each string, illuminating lights about a room, circuits including at least one light in each circuit and having common connection, a number of them with each string and individual connections from the particular circuits to separate contacts.

12. A banjo having metallic strings connected at one end to the battery, a plurality of metallic frets upon the banjo separated into sections insulated from each other, one for each string, a separate circuit from the battery to each fret section and distinguishing lights in the different circuits for energization when the strings engage the corresponding fret sections.

13. A banjo having frets and metallic strings, a battery connecting with all the strings, an individual lighting circuit corresponding to each string at each fret length and contacts beneath the strings and between the frets connected in the circuits and adapted to energize one circuit for each string depression at each fret.

14. A stringed instrument having metallic strings, contact devices by which contact is made with depression of the strings, individual circuits including the contacts and portions of the string, lights fed by the circuits and relays by which the lights are controlled by energization of the circuits.

JOHN DE FRANCESCO.

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