US2195458A - Upright piano - Google Patents

Description

C. H. JACOB UPRIGHT PIANO Filed Aug. 9. 1935 INVENTOR. C/M/PL 55 M JACOB ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 2, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

The present invention relates to pianos, and, more particularly, to an upright piano of reduced dimensions.

It is well known to those skilled in the art rs that attempts have been made to better adapt the piano to the limited dimensions of modern apartments. A number of designs for small or miniature pianos has been developed but all of these pianos of restricted dimensions have been lacking the tonal qualities of conventional grand or upright pianos. In addition to the poor tonal qualities, these small pianos also had the serious inconvenience that they could not use the conventional type upright piano back, sounding board, plate, strings and actions while at the same time maintaining the proper height of the keys from the floor. Thus, special components and particularly a special type of action has been needed in pianos of the described type which not only considerably increased the cost of production but at the same time made it extremely diflicult, if not impossible, to obtain good or even fair tone and satisfactory sensitiveness or repeating quality. Many suggestions and proposals have been made to eliminate these fundamental defects of small or miniature upright pianos, but, as far as I am aware, none of these suggestions and proposals has been completely satisfactory and successful when carried into practice to manufacture pianos on a commercial scale.

I have discovered that the above disadvantages and defects of conventional upright pianos of reduced dimensions may be eliminated in a remarkably simple manner.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved upright piano which has restricted dimensions and which at the same time has all of the desirable tonal and operative qualities of conventional grand and upright pianos.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved upright piano which, although of considerably reduced dimensions, is capable of utilizing the conventional or standard upright piano back, sounding board, plate, strings 46 and action.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a piano of small dimensions which eliminates the necessity of constructing a raised portion in the back heretofore necessary for hous- 50 ing the upper part of the back and of the action} and at the same time is capable of maintaining the keys at the proper and usual height from the floor.

The invention also contemplates the provision ll of an extremely small upright piano which may be easily manufactured from readily accessible parts on a commercial scale and at a low cost, and which will have an attractive appearance. like a handsome piece of furniture.

Other and further objects and advantages of 5 the invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, which illustrates a side elevational view, partly in section, of a piano embodying the prini0 ciples of the present invention.

Broadly stated, according to the principles of my invention I divide the conventional keys which usually attack the action directly under the wippen, in two parts, and arrange these two 15 parts at different levels. The first part of the key, or the key proper, is arranged at the usual height from the floor and is mounted on a key bed as those skilled in the art will readily understand. The second part of the key, which I call the strik- 20 ing finger is mounted on a considerably lower level underneath the action on an action bed provided for this purpose and co-operates with the wippen or lower lever of the action. I likewise provide a link, a wire or some other mechanical 25 connection between the upper and lower part of the key so that the depression or movement of one part should bring forth and to cause similar displacement or actuation of the other. I prefer to make this connection or link adjustable to 30 eliminate lost motion and in order to easily and quickly adjust the key to the desired sensitivity of touch. Thus, although instead of the conventional integral key I have provided a key in two parts or in other words a split key, my divided 35 key is capable of performing the same movement as a key in a single piece and at the same time provides the important advantage of the same effective length as an integral key but yet requiring considerably less space. As a matter of fact, by 4 careful selection of the leverage between the two parts of the keys, it is even possible to increase the sensitiveness of the touch, to decrease mechanical inertia, and to increase repetition quality. Moreover, the arrangement of a part of the key, of the striking finger, at a much lower level, it is possible to embody standard upright action into pianos of considerably restricted dimensions whereby excellent operative qualities and reduced cost of production are obtained.

For the purpose of giving those skilled in the art a better understanding of the invention, a description will be given of a perferred embodiment illustrated in the drawing. In a case A,

a plurality of keys I is mounted on key bed I associated with a rail on action bed 1.

and each of said keys is pivoted on a pin 3 in a balance rail 4. At a level lower than the wippen of the action, a striking finger 5 is provided for each of the keys and is pivoted in a flange 8 A rearwardly extending ear 9 is mounted on the rear end of key i and a link or wire 3 connects key I and striking finger 5. The length of link 8 is preferably adjustable in any suitable manner as, for example, by means of nut I0 whereby it is possible to accurately adjust the operative connection of key and striking finger and to eliminate the possibility of lost motion.

The free end of striking finger 5 co-operates with a lower lever or wippen ll of the action which is mounted at pivot l2 to a flange of hammer rail l3. A jack I4 is supported on pivot ii on the wippen and is provided with the usual flange or set ofi I6 between which and the wippen l I a spring I1 is arranged. Jack I4 is operatively associated with a hammer [8 comprising a butt l9 mounted on a pivot 20 to a flange on hammer rail l3, and provided with a customary shoulder 2|, a stem 22 and a head 23. The hammer butt i3 carries a shank 24 having a button 25 mounted on its free end. Connecting the button 25 to a tie 26 on wippen II is a conventional tape 21. Opposite to button 25 is mounted check 28 on the wippen II. A damper lever 29 carrying damper 30 is carried on pivot 31 and is actuated by spoon 32 mounted on wippen ii in the conventional manner. Hammer I8 strikes against string 33 which is stretched on an iron frame 34 by means of tuning pegs 35. The vibrations of the string are transmitted to sound board 36 by means of bridge 31.

From the foregoing description the operation of my improved piano will be readily understood by those skilled in the art. When depressing a key I, the rear end thereof, the connecting link 8, and the striking finger 5 will be moved upwards and will strike against the wippen. The wippen ii will move upwards on its pivot l2 and will displace its associated jack ll the upper end of which will engage hammer butt I! and will I cause the hammer head 23 to strike against the string 33. At the same time spoon 32 will engage the damper lever 29, so that the damper 30 will be lifted up from the string and will permit free vibration thereof. When the key is released, all of the co-operating parts of the action will be automatically returned to their initial position of rest. As the action on quick repetition of the depression of the key operates along conventional lines, no detailed description thereof is necessary.

It is to be observed that my improved piano provides a great number of important advantages over prior structures. First of all, the keyboard may be arranged at any desired distance from the floor simply by changing the length of link 8. By means of my striking fingers arranged at a much lower level than the keybed, it is possible to lower the action to a great extent. This makes it practicable to use an economical and eflicient conventional upright action while having a top consisting of a plain horizontal surface, approximately at the same height as a conventional grand piano. This eliminates the necessity of constructing an unsightly, grotesque, raised upper portion in the back of such piano to house the upper portion of the back and of the action which becomes necessary due to the location of the keys and the action in the conventional piano.

It is to be noted that my invention permits the construction of a piano of extremely small dimensions and embodying conventional or standard action parts. The reduced length and weight of the keys and the multiplication effect of the striking fingers greatly increases the sensitiveness and the repeating quality of my improved piano because the inertia of the action is considerably reduced. In addition, all parts which require adjustment or regulation for the elimination of lost motion are a great deal easier and more accessible than corresponding parts of conventional pianos.

It is also to be appreciated that my improved piano may use a standard action and parts so that it may be easily manufactured on a commercial scale at a very reasonable price while at the same time providing a piano combining excellent tonal and operative qualities with very restricted dimensions and very attractive appearance.

Although I have described my invention in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof. many variations and modifications may be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departing from the principles and spirit of my present invention. I consider all of these modifications and variations as within the true spirit and scope of the present invention as described in the present specifications and defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an upright piano, the combination comprising a key bed and an action bed mounted at difierent levels, a set of keys mounted on said key bed, each of said keys being pivoted in an intermediate portion thereof, a striking finger for each of said keys having one of its ends pivoted on said action bed, means connecting the end of said keys to an intermediate portion of said striking finger to pull said striking finger upwards when said keys are depressed, and an action arranged immediately above and disconnected from said striking finger and adapted to be actuated when said keys and said striking finger are actuated.

2. In an upright piano, the combination comprising a case, a key bed and an action bed mounted in said case at different horizontal planes, a keyboard on said key bed constituted of keys pivoted in an intermediate portion thereof, a striking finger for each key of said keyboard having one of its ends pivotally mounted on said action bed, adjustable connecting means for connecting the end of said key and an intermediate portion of said striking finger to simultaneously pull said striking finger upwards when said key is depressed, and action means including a wippen provided above and disconnected from each of said striking fingers, said action means being capable of actuation to strike a string when said wippen is engaged by said striking finger.

3. In an upright piano, the combination comprising a case having a substantially flat top, a standard vertical iron frame and soundboard in said case, a key bed mounted in said case at a conventional height from the fioor, a set of keys mounted on said key bed each of said keys being pivoted in an intermediate portion thereof, an action bed arranged at a level substantially lower than said keyboard bearing a striking finger pivoted at the end thereof for each key, an adjustable link for each key connecting same to an intermediate portion of a corresponding striking finger to pull said striking finger uparouse wards and to cause simultaneous displacement thereof when said key is depressed. and action means including a wippen arranged above and wardiy extending ear, an action bed mounted at a substantially lower level, a striking finger for each of said keys pivoted at one of its ends on said action bed, a connecting member of adjustable length linking said ear to an intermediate portion of saidstriking finger to pull it upwards and to cause simultaneous displacement thereof when said key is depressed, and action means including a wippen and a hammer arranged above and disconnected from each of said striking fingers and capable of being actuated to strike a string by said hammer when said wippen is engaged by said striking finger.

CHARLES H. JACOB.

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