US242104A - Resonator for violins - Google Patents

Description

no Model.)

B. BERLINBR. Resonator for Violins.

' No. 242,104. Patented May 31, I881.

Witnesses: Imreniar:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EMILE BERLINER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

RESONATOR FOR VIOLINS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 242,104, dated May 31, 1881. Application filed August 9, 1880. (No model.)

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EMILE BERLINER, of Boston, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Violins, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the whole class of instruments which consist, like the violin, in the main, of a wooden bOX with convex bottom and top,known as bellyand backflaliinited number of strings, a tail-piece to which they are secured, and a finger-board for the determination of the pitch of each tone.

In the drawings, Figure 1, B is the belly. G D A E are the strings. O is the bridge. F is the finger-board, and T is the tail-piece.

The merit of each violin and its value depends upon the purity and richness of its tone; and although one violin appears to look very much like any other, their qualities differ greatly, due to certain manipulations in the way of making them, the kind of wood used, and other points of more or less value, which together make it ditficult to produce first-class instruments, while my improvement has for its purpose the lessening of this difliculty.

As may be seen, there are actually two sets of strings, each of a different composition and situated on both sides of the bridge 0; but although in practice only the longer set is played upon it will be evident that the shorter strings will occasionally vibrate when tones are being played which are in resonance with them. Moreover, since the tail-piece is usually fixed to the violin by a mere string or cord, the shorter strings are apt to vibrate continuously, due to the general reverberation of the instrumentwhileitis beingplayed. Thefingerboard, too, forms in itself a Wooden reed, which, though stifl, is capable of vibration of its own while the violin is being played upon, and emits tones of different pitches, which, however, are not easily observable, on account of their weakness. It appears, therefore, that in many cases where violins sound harsh and impure it is due to the interference with the tones played of over-tones, under-tones, or by-tones, from the causes above described; and in order to partly overcome these defects I support both the tail-piece and the fin ger-board, so that their vibrations become more limited. This I accomplish in the case of the tail piece by the resonator M, and in the case of the fingerboard by the resonator N. These resonators consist of arch-like supports made of wood, metal, or other suitable material, formed similarly to the figures 2 and 3, and which, while resting with their ends upon the flanges of the violin, support the tail-piece and the fingerboard in their respective middles. In the res onator H a screw, 0, is added, to vary at will the pressure of the support, and such a screw may also be employed with the resonator M. These resonators not only aid in rendering the tone of the instrument purer, but they communicate the vibrations of the strings more completely to the body of the violin and increase the loudness ot' the tone. In fact, by their means an instrument hitherto considered weak and inferior can be made to emit very pure and sonorous tones without the player being an artist.

The form of the resonators is such as to harmonize with the structure and appearance of the violin, as, according to celebrated makers, the quality of a violin is partly dependent upon the beauty and symmetry ofits curves and outlines. Hence I produce on the resonators such curvilinear outlines and forms as the concave curves IV and Y, or similar ones, to harmonize with one another and with the out lines of the violin.

The tail-piece T and its resonator may be formed in one piece, as shown in Fig. 3.

What I claim is-- 1. In combination with a violin or similar instrument, the resonator N, arranged to support the finger-board, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a violin or similar instrument, the resonator M, arranged to support the tail-piece, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

8. In combination with the violin-resonator, the screw O, as and for the purpose set forth.

4. The violin-resonator having the curves W and Y, as and for the purpose set forth.

5. The combination, with the violin, of a resonator of arch-like shape, as and for the purpose set forth.

EMILE BERLINER.

Witnesses R. L. ROBERTS, S. D. MILNE.

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