US3585896A

US3585896A - Recorder

Info

Publication number: US3585896A
Application number: US824385A
Authority: US
Inventors: Johannes Muller
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1968-05-08
Filing date: 1969-05-08
Publication date: 1971-06-22
Anticipated expiration: 1988-06-22
Also published as: GB1203549A; FR2008100A1

Abstract

A recorder comprising a pipe-tube with a blowhole having a lip edge being concavely curved in a direction normal to the longitudinal axis of the pipe-tube, and a mouthpiece with a windway narrowing towards said blowhole and preferably having a plane bottom wall and a cylindrically shaped top wall.

Description

United States Patent Johannes Muller Hamburg l3, Schlankreye 37, Germany 824,385

May 8, 1969 June 22, 197! May 8, 1968 Germany Inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented Priority RECORDER 8 Claim, 7 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl. 84/384]! lnt. CL... 601d 7/02 Field of Search 84/380, 381, 383, 384, 330

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,944,459 7/1960 Simmonds 84/380 3,198,054 8/1965 Ehrlich 84/380 3,326,073 6/1967 Tremaine 84/380 Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-Lawrence R. Franklin AttorneyMichael S. Striker PATENTYED JUN22 19n- SHEET 2 BF 2 RECORDER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improved recorder, which can be played for long periods without getting hoarse" and facilitates clean playing, especially clean semitones.

The known recorders comprise a flute tube having a plurality of lateral fingerholes, and a pipe-tube communicating with said flute tube and having a longitudinal blind bore, a lateral, square-shaped blowhole communicating with said blind bore and having a straight lip edge, and a mouthpiece having a windway opening into said blowhole opposite said lip edge. The windway of the known recorders usually has a square cross section with parallel straight or curved bottom and top walls and with sidewalls normal. to both the bottom and top walls.

These known recorders suffer from the disadvantage, that the instrument after being played for a relatively short time, e.g. one hour, gets hoarse, due to the condensed moisture in the windway. When a recorder becomes hoarse," it is necessary to clean the windway, which obviously cannot be done during playing. A short sharp blow through the windway will help to remove some of the moisture, however this will only help for a very short time. The habit of professional recorder players to keep the instrument warm (near the body during rest periods) is no effective measure either to prevent the instrument from getting hoarse." For this reason professional players, playing more extended compositions, need several recorders of the same type, each of which is replaced by a new one after getting hoarse." Recorders made from plastic, metal or. similar nonabsorbing materials get hoarse" even sooner than wooden instruments.

In order to overcome these difliculties it has already been proposed to provide the windway with a nondeforming, moisture-absorbing material. Although this reduces the tendency of the instrument to get hoarse," it requires a complicated shape of the windway and the insertion of additional finely porous plates of ceramic material, which make it difficult to clean the mouthpiece and the material can move out of place during playing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of 'my invention is to provide a novel and improved recorder having a greatly reduced tendency to get hoarse" and which facilitates a clean playing, especially of the semitones.

Another object of the invention is to provide a recorder which gives superior tone quality and can be more strongly blown without affecting the tone quality.

A further object of the invention is to provide a recorder which can be easily manufactured in high quality and more easily be played by beginners as well as experts.

One feature of my invention results in the provision of a recorder comprising a flute tube having a plurality of lateral fingerholes and a pipe-tube communicating with said flute tube and having a longitudinal blind bore, a lateral blowhole communicating with said blind bore and having a lip edge being concavely curved in a direction normal to the longitudinal axis of the pipetube, a mouthpiece having a windway narrowing towards said blowhole to an outlet opposite said lip edge.

According to a preferred embodiment the recorder of the invention comprises a pipe-tube having a windway with a slightly ascending, plane bottom wall and a cylindrically shaped top wall intersecting with said bottom wall at straight lines directed to the side ends of the lip edge.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The improved recorder itself, however, both as to its construction and its additional features and advantages, will be best understood upon perusal of the following detailed description of certain specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section through a preferred form of the recorder of the invention with the main part of the flute tube broken away;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section through the mouthpiece collar of the recorder shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical elevational view of the pipe-tube of the recorder shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a vertical elevational view of the mouthpiece collar shown in FIG. 2; 7

FIG. 5 is a cross section through the pipe-tube shown in FIG. 1, the section being taken in the direction of the arrows as seen from the line V-V of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal vertical view, partly shown in section, of the recorder of the invention with the main part of the pipe-tube broken away; and

FIG. 7 is a vertical elevational view of the flute tube of the recorder shown in FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring first to FIGS. 1 to 5 there is shown a recorder comprising a flute tube 2 and a pipe-tube 1 connected by a common sleeve 3 removably fitted overthe tube ends. Due to said sleeve 3 it is possible to adjust the pitch of the recorder to some extent by varying the distance of the ends of the pipetube 1 and the flute tube 2 in the sleeve 3.

The pipe-tube I has an axial blind bore 4, which inwardly conically reduces and communicates with a lateral blowhole 6 forming a lip edge 7. In a direction normal or vertical to the longitudinal axis of the pipe-tube 1 the blowhole 6 has a circular shape and obliquely widens inwardly from the lip edge 7. The pipe-tube 1 has a generally cylindrical outer shape with an oblique bottom facet 5 at the mouthpiece end and a slightly ascending upper facet l 1 forming the bottom wall of the windway 9. Over the mouthpiece end of the pipe-tube 1 is fitted a mouthpiece collar 8 with a cylindrical inner wall 10 forming the upper wall of the windway 9, and a cutout 13, the sidewalls of which surround the blowhole 6. The inner wall 10 of the mouthpiece collar 8 has a semicircular cross section so that the collar 8 is snugly fitted on to the mouthpiece end of the pipe-tube 1, but can be easily removed therefrom, in order to clean the windway 9 which has no sidewalls.

Referring now to FIGS. 6 and 7 there is shown a preferred form of the flute tube 2 having a plurality of fingerholes each provided with an outwardly projecting fingerhole ring 14 which greatly facilitates a clean playing, especially of the semitones. The two lower fingerholes are subdivided by bridge-shaped parts. The flute tube 2 has a cylindrical longitudinal through-bore.

The recorder according to the invention can be easily manufactured from wood, metal, ivory, plastic or other suitable material. It is preferred to use acrylic plastic as material for at least the pipe-tube 1 and the mouthpiece collar 8. It is however likewise possible to produce all other parts of the recorder also from acrylic glass or a similar transparent plastic. The use of such transparent material enables the player to directly view'the condensation of moisture in the windway.

The recorder of the invention can be played for extended times without getting hoarse." This apparently is due to the specific shape of the lip edge and the windway, although the improvement obtained is quite independent of whether this explanation is correct or not.

Without further analysis, the foregoing so fully reveals the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features which fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic and specific aspects of my contribution to the art.

What I claim as new and desire to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

1. A recorder, comprising a flute tube having a passage and. a plurality of lateral fingerholes communicating with said passage; a pipe-tube having a cylindrical outer surface and provided with a mouthpiece end and an outlet end; a longitudinal blind bore provided in said pipe-tube and communicating at said outlet end with said passage; a blowhole of at least substantially circular cross section provided in a normally upper wall portion of said pipe-tube and communicating with said blind bore; awindway extending from said mouthpiece end to and having an outlet opening at said blowhole; a lip edge located opposite and in registration with said outlet opening and being defined by the intersection of said blowhole with said cylindrical outer surface of said pipe-tube, said lip edge being concavely curved towards said mouthpiece end in axial direction of said bore; and concavely curved inwardly towards said bore in direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the same;

2. A recorder as defined in claim 1, wherein said blowhole obliquely diverges inwardly from said lip edge, and said windway narrows towards said outlet opening.

3. A recorder as defined in claim I, wherein said blind bore has a diameter which converges in direction towards said flute tube. 4

4. A recorder as defined in claim 1, wherein said windway has a slightly ascending plane bottom wall and a cylindrically shaped top wall intersecting with said bottom wall in straight lines directed to the side ends of said lip edge.

5. A recorder as defined in claim 4, further comprising an oblique bottom facet at the mouthpiece end and" a slightly ascending upper facet forming the bottom wall of said windway, and a separate mouthpiece collar fitted on the mouthpiece end of said pipe-tube, said collar having an at least semicylindrical inner wall "and a cutout with sidewalls surrounding said blowhole.

6. A recorder as defined in claim 1, wherein said flute. tube has lateral fingerholes surrounded by outwardly projecting fingerhole rings.

7. A recorder as defined in claim 1, wherein said flute tube and said pipe-tube are connected by a common sleeve removably fitted over the tube ends.

8. A recorder as defined in claim I, wherein at least said pipe-tube is made from transparent plastic material.

Claims

1. A recorder, comprising a flute tube having a passage and a plurality of lateral fingerholes communicating with said passage; a pipe-tube having a cylindrical outer surface and provided with a mouthpiece end and an outlet end; a longitudinal blind bore provided in said pipe-tube and communicating at said outlet end with said passage; a blowhole of at least substantially circular cross section provided in a normally upper wall portion of said pipe-tube and communicating with said blind bore; a windway extending from said mouthpiece end to and having an outlet opening at said blowhole; a lip edge located opposite and in registration with said outlet opening and being defined by the intersection of said blowhole with said cylindrical outer surface of said pipe-tube, said lip edge being concavely curved towards said mouthpiece end in axial direction of said bore; and concavely curved inwardly towards said bore in direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the same.

3. A recorder as defined in claim 1, wherein said blind bore has a diameter which converges in direction towards said flute tube.

5. A recorder as defined in claim 4, further comprising an oblique bottom facet at the mouthpiece end and a slightly ascending upper facet forming the bottom wall of said windway, and a separate mouthpiece collar fitted on the mouthpiece end of said pipe-tube, said collar having an at least semicylindrical inner wall and a cutout with sidewalls surrounding said blowhole.

6. A recorder as defined in claim 1, wherein said flute tube has lateral fingerholes surrounded by outwardly projecting fingerhole rings.

8. A recorder as defined in claim 1, wherein at least said pipe-tube is made from transparent plastic material.