US2687059A - Musical instrument - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 24, 1954 E. J. DOYLE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 12. 1950 M T e m on m/v q vH V 0 n m D m an m ea A M n -1\ a w Y aB 3 3 T -Y MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Fil ed July 12, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR,

E. J. DOYLE 2,687,059 I Patented Aug. 24, 1954 UNITED STATES; PATENT OFFICE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Edward J. Doyle,-Brighton, N.*Y.

Application-July 12, 1950, Serial No. 173,330

'7 Claims. (01. 84-402) 1 The present invention. relates to musical instruments and more particularly to the type in which a resonant metal body is vibrated .while the player manipulates its tension to produce a scale of musical notes as in the well known musical saw where an ordinary carpenters saw is variously bent and struck with a mallet or. similar percussion device or otherwise vibrated. The general object of this invention is to provide a simple but improved instrument of this character that will be more convenient to. hold and play and which will produce alarger range of musical notes of better quality than heretofore.

Another object is to provide an. instrument. of this. character especially designed for use with a bow of the type employed with a violin and like stringed instruments.

A further object is to provide simple means for controlling the pitch.

These and other desirable objects are accomplished by the construction disclosed as an illustrative embodiment of the invention in the following description and in the accompanying.

drawings forming a part hereof, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a musical instrument taken on the line 44 of Fig. 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows to show supporting parts in elevation;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged; fragmentary section taken approximately on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 6 is a greatly enlarged transverse section through the playing edge of the .blade, taken substantially on the line 65 of Fig. 1.

The same reference numerals throughout the several views indicate the same parts.

Referring more particularly to the drawings;-.the major element of the instrument consists of a thin tapered, manually bendable tempered steel blade 10, both ends of which are preferably squared off at right angles to the-playing edge 44 It is imperforate fromend to end. The blade is held and manipulated by theplayer inthe following manner, all direct supporting or holding parts or attachments being of a non-metallic material, such as wood, which has substantially difie'rent characteristics of elasticity'and resilience from those of the metal blade andwhich, in the particular block-likeshapes here employed, haslittle or no resonance, so that the direct attachments or holding parts do not greatly damp the vibrations of the-metal blade and yet do not themselves vibi'ate to a suflicient extent to give rise to undesirable sounds of their own.

The butt or wider. end of the blade has an abrupt "reverse taper at I2, the extremity of which portion enters a kerf M in a cross bar l6 wherein it is tightly clamped by end bolts 18 which,'it will be observed, are removed from contact with the blade which throughout, has no metal to metal contacts. The taper l2 enhances the bendability of the blade upon the cross bar as a'supporting base and improves vibration. Secured to the opposite side of the cross bar base [6 at 20 as by bolts 22 are a pair of strap yo'kes 24. These are designed to fit under and partially around the right thigh of the player while in a sitting playing posture to resist upward tilting movement of the base as the projecting blade is depressed as is best understood from inspection of Fig. 3.

Adjacentto the. cross bar It a little farther up the blade beyond the reverse taper l2, the blade is engaged by a bridge and auxiliary support 26' best shown in Figs. 1, 2, and e. Its end blocks 28 have opposed inside lierfs 30 out therein and are of proper width to firmly, frictionally grip the thickness of the blade 10 only at its edges,but yet permit the bridge to be forcibly adjustably moved along the blade within a limited range without disengagement. The connectingportion 32 .of .the bridge is well spaced from the under surface of the blade. Bolted centrally to the bridge at 34 is a single strap yoke 35 similarto the yokes 24 but designed to engage over andrest upon the top of the left thigh of the player and take downward pressure resuiting from depression of the blade [0.

At the extreme tip or narrow end of the blade, there is provided a .handle for the left or fretting hand of the player. It consists, in the present embodiment, of a projecting block 33 in the inner side of whichis a kerf or slot 30 in which the blade tightly wedges without the aid of other fastening means. Projecting from the block above the slot and extending longitudinally down the blade at 'a rising angle to its normal flat plane, is a tongue 42.

In operation, the player adjusts the leg yokes 24 andtfi'as idescribeiengages the fingers of his left hand beneath the block 38 and with the thumb of thesame hand pressing down on the tongue 'fizbends and flexes the blade while tapping it with'a'small mallet or, preferably, drawinga bow across its edge to produce the musical notes: Because 'of'the leverage afforded by the handle 38 the double curvature illustrated in Fig. 3 may readily be attained, greatly increasing the range of notes, while at the same time contributing to greater precision and spacing in the notes produced. But also neither the hand nor any other part of the players body touches the blade to mute or damp the tones. To alter and refine the pitch the bridge and auxiliary support 26 is adjusted as described.

While the use of a percussion mallet has been suggested, the use of a violin bow or the like is greatly preferred because of the following additional feature of this invention.

The ordinary musical saw is, as a toothed cutting tool, usually stamped out of a steel strip with its longitudinal extent running at right angles to or across the roll, grain, and finish originating at the steel mill, or sometimes with the longitudinal center line of the saw blade parallel to the roll, grain, and finish of the steel strip. As distinguished from this, the present blade i is sheared from the steel strip in such orientation thereto that the playing edge id (that is, the edge farthest from the body of the player when the instrument is held in the preferred manner above described) is exactly parallel to and in the direction of the roll, grain, and finishv of the steel strip coming from the steel mill. In addition, this playing edge is nicely honed or stoned to a slight bevel as indicated to a some-.

What exaggerated extent, particularly in Fig. 6. The result is that the present instrument may be played with sweeping strokes of the bow (preferably with the hairs reversed) to produce long, even notes of high quality and tone value rather than the short, scratchy tones which would result from the playing of a conventional musical saw by means of a bow, especially since a bow, if usable at all on a conventional musical saw, is confined to rather short harsh strokes, because of the relatively rough or unfinished edge of the saw as compared with the finely finished and honed playing edge of the present blade.

' Furthermore, the quality of vibration is the same at. whatever point along the edge 04 the blade is stroked.

Because of the features and refinements described, the practice of this invention results in the production of a real playing instrument with a range of two and a half octaves instead of the eight or ten notes produced on a musical saw, and approaching the range of the human voice; the instrument produces at times a type of overtone which does not interfere with pitch but results in a very pleasing effect similar to the whistling or singing of a bird; and, in general, the improvements efiect and provide for proper spacing of notes and control of vibration, pitch and tone. 1

It is seen from the foregoing disclosure that the above mentioned objects of the invention are admirably fulfilled. It is to be understood that the foregoing disclosure is given by way of illustrative example only, rather than by way of limitation, and that without departing from the invention, the details may be varied within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A musical instrument embodying a thin and laterally tapered manually bendable steel blade having one longitudinal edge honed to a slight bevel to take the friction of a violin-type bow, the grain and surface finish of the blade being parallel with said edge.

2. A musical instrument embodying a thin,-

tapered, manually bendable steel blade having a non-resonant base support at its wider end and a similar auxiliary support adjacent thereto and connected therewith only through the medium of the blade itself, said auxiliary support being slidable along the blade independently of said base support to vary the distance between the two supports, each of said supports having a concave portion for engaging and partially encircling one thigh of a player, the concave portions of the two supports being faced approximately in opposite directions whereby the concave portion of said base support may engage under one thigh and the concave portion of said auxiliary support may engage over the other thigh of a player in sitting position.

3. A musical instrument in accordance with claim 2, in which the said auxiliary support constitutes a bridge slotted to closely engage only the opposite longitudinal edges of the said blade.

4. A musical instrument embodying a thin, tapered, manually bendable steel blade having a non-resonant cross bar clamped to its Wider butt end at right angles to its median line and provided with a pair of spaced yokes adapted to engage beneath one thigh of a player and a bridge having a limited slidable adjustability on the longitudinal edges of the blade adjacent to the crossbar and in parallelism thereto, said bridge being provided wtih a yoke adapted to rest upon the top of the other thigh of the player.

5. A musical instrument in accordance with claim 4, in which both edges of the wide end of the said blade have an abrupt reverse taper symmetrically drawn from both edges extending a relatively short distance interiorly and exteriorly of the cross bar and the narrower tip of the blade is provided with a finger piece in alinement with the median line of the blade.

6. A construction as defined in claim 5, in which said finger piece on the narrower tip of the blade comprises a non-metallic block having a slot for tightly receiving said narrower tip of the blade to retain the block frictionally on the blade and having an integral substantially straight tonguelike extension extending toward the opposite end of the blade approximately par allel thereto at a slight diverging angle therefrom, said finger piece-being completely free from all metal except said blade in contact therewith.

7. A construction as defined in claim 4, further including a finger piece made entirely from a single integral piece of non-metallic material andhaving a slot for tightly receiving and clamping on the narrower end of said blade and having a substantially fiat and straight tongue-like extension extending lengthwise of the blade spaced from and approximately parallel to one face of the blade.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,573,695 Fields Feb. 16, 1926 1,671,882 Bartholomae May 29, 1928 2,510,957 Carter June 13, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 690,0 9 France June 10, 1930 803,705 France July 15, 1936 934,241 France Sept. 16, 1946

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