US28998A - Improvement in tuning pianos - Google Patents

Description

ends, and represented sloping, though this UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOIIN B. NORRIS, OF BERRYVILLE, VIRGINIA.

IMPROVEMENT 'IN TUNING PIANOS.

T 0 all whom, t may concer/L:

Be it known that I, JOHN B. NORRIS, of Berryville, in the county of Clarke and State of V`rgi nia, have invented and made certain new and useful Improvements in the Manner or Mode of Timing Pianos and other Similar Musical Instruments; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ot' the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification.

Figure l represents merely a simple soundin g-box with the sets of strings arranged thereon. Fig. 2 is designed merely to show or represent the manner ot inserting the wrestpins inclining to each other.

The nature of my improvements relates more especially to the tuning or giving the required tension-draft to a continuous string hitched to pins by each end and tightened or strained upto the required pitch by being passed around a grooved pulley or rotating` wheel of required size, so that the two parallel lengths of the string forming the note of the instrument are tuned up simultaneously or at one operation and put in complete unison at one and the same time, as will be hereinatter more fully described.

In Fig. i, ad a represents the sounding-box, the tuning or pin blocks ai CL2, attached at the feature 0r sloping shape is not lmy invention.

At h b is indicated the sounding-board of the instrument.

At c c c c are indicated devices or appliances answering as bridges for the strings ot the instrument to rest upon.

At d d, Figs. 1 and 2, are indicated the wrestpins,which in my improvements are inserted into the bridge and wrest-blocks in a manner so thatthe pins incline inwardly to each other.

At e e isindicated the draft-pin formed with any desired shape of head and with a suitable conical or tapering shank part thereon. rlhis dratt-pin e has a horizontal perforation through the head part formed with a smooth interior, into which is tted a horizontal adjusting or tightening screw f f f f, to the front end of which is a slotted or split head g g, into which slot or split is fastened or coniined a suitable small grooved wheel or pul ley h 7L, held in place by an axle or fixed pin on which the grooved pulley turns or rotates.

In the application and use of my improvements a continuous or one length of string is passed around the grooved pulley 7L 71, and hitching-loops being formed on the two eX- tremities ot the string, the said loops are slipped over the hitch pins I l and adjusted in, connected with the wrest-pins J JJJ, Fig. l, and stretched across from bridge to bridge in proper position, as indicated at K K K K. The screw end of the tightening-screw is passed through the hole or eye in the head part ot the draft-pin e e, and the nut L L is turned by a wrench-key, which operation draws up the screw f f g, with the grooved pulley 7.1 attached thereto, and this operation of drawing up the screwff tightens the two lengths of the strings K K at one and the same time, and draws them up in unison and at the proper degree ottone or pitch. The draft-pin e, having its length or shank part tapering orslightly conically shaped, is driven securely into the tuning-block of the instru` ment, and as it is not moved in tuning, as in the usual or well-known mode of tuning-pins that are required to be moved or turned, theretore there is little or no liability to become loose. The tension or tightening screwffff may be made or formed square or triangular sided, so as not to move or turn or twist out of position. The grooved pulley 7L 7iv should be slightly larger in diameter than the width or distance apart of the strings, so that the strings will press out laterally right and lett against the pins J J J J.

It is essential that the tightening or tension screw f f be fitted through and made to work smoothly yet closely in the bore or opening of the head e, and should be set or arranged at right angle to the pin e c, and the draft or strain of the strings should be in a rectilinear or straight direction-that is to say, the center ot the grooved pulley h h should beso situated as to range directly in the center of the space between the strings R R, Fig. l, and the hitch-pins I I', though the pins d d J JJ J may be varied in position right or left.

The manner or mode of .inserting the draftpins c c obliquelyinto the tuning-block is not my invention, but merely represented as also applicable to my improvement.

I am are that a patent was granted to one George L. lVild September 5,1854, for a mode of tuning one or more strings by means of a horizontal tightening-screw, and in the pat ent of Hubert Schonacker, issued December 1S, 1855, a similar mode to IVilds is shown. There are also patents of an anterior date, wherein strings are strain ed ortuned by means of horizontal screws. The very great and important difference between all such devices or modes and my improvements I will briey 'set forth.

In the patents referred to separate lengths of strings are hitched onto or connected by their separate extremities to sliding blocks or to movable nuts or connection-bars or hook devices or head part of a screw; but in my mode of tuning I use one continuous length of string and pass it around the circumference of a movable turning or rotating grooved pulley h h, confining the two extremities of the string around the hitch-pins I I.

It is contended that by using a continuous length of string and passing it around the grooved pulley the strain or draft of the Whole length of the string is much more diffused, and consequently a greater degree or more increased pitch of tension is brought about without endangering the strength of the string. Besides, too, in using a moving surface for the string to work over there is the least possibility of friction, chafing, or abrasion of the string, which would impair the quality of tone. Another advantage claimed as pertaining to the employment of a moving or rotating pullley is that in drawing up or tightening the string the two parallel continuations K2 K2 must receive identically the same amount of draft or strain, and should there by any possibility be any defect or difference of sound in the two continuations K2 K2 a perfect unison oridentity of tone can be readily brought about by a pressure of the fingers on the imperfectly-sounding tone, by which operation the two parallel lengths K2 K2 compensate with each other, the pressure thereon acting through the continuity of string. It is claimed, too, that by passing the continuous lengthof stringaround the grooved pulley a greater degree of elasticity or tiexibility of tone is acquired than it' the strings were confined rigidly at both points of draftconnection.

It is contended that by my mode of tuning pianos greater facility ensues, as the two tones of the parallel length are brought in unison simultaneously in half the time usually required in the common systems of turning pegs of pins, while the usual liability of the pins or pegs becoming loose and the strings falling is overcome entirely.

Again, too, another most important feature pertaining to my improvements is that when the strings do fall or sink or become flat the two parallel lengths still maintain their unison property, and consequent-ly when out of tune with the other strings of the instrument the discord or imperfection in tone is not so marked or disagreeable to the ear of the performer, for the two lengths fall or sink simultaneously and equally with each other.

I am aware that in an old existinginvention a screw and pulley have been used (but found not to answer the purpose) with a link or short connection passing around the pulley and attached to the head of a hook, over which hook the string of the instrument was passed or hitched to or around it; but such devices, together with the ones employed by George L. lVild and Hubert Schonacker, I do not claim; but

That I do claim as new, and desire to have secured by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

rlhe manner or mode of tuning pianos,harps, and other similar instruments by means of a grooved pulley h h in the end of an adjusting tightening-screw and draft-pin e e ff by combining and arranging said devices with a continuous string K K- K K passing around the pulley h 7L, so that the point of contact and draft is in the center or middle of the string instead of at the extremities, and by which means the pressure or strain of the string is divided upon the center or middle and at both extremities where hitched, thus giving an equality of draft throughout both parallel lengths K2 K2, and through all of which the parallel lengths K2 K2 are readily and most perfectly put in unison or turned to the required degree of unison or pitch or slackened, as desired, substantially in the manner as set forth and4 described.

JOI-IN l. NORRIS. [Ls] Witnesses:

THOMAS H. CROW, RAND. KowNsTAR.

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