US3603194A

US3603194A - Drum

Info

Publication number: US3603194A
Application number: US20886A
Authority: US
Inventors: Roger W North
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1970-03-19
Filing date: 1970-03-19
Publication date: 1971-09-07
Anticipated expiration: 1988-09-07

Abstract

A musical drum having a hollow, elongated body which is open at both ends. The centerline of the drum body bends through an arc for at least a portion of its length. A drum head membrane is stretched across one open end of the drum body. Fasteners are provided to maintain the membrane in tension across the end of the drum body. In the preferred embodiment the cross section of the drum body, taken perpendicular to the centerline, is a circle having an increasing diameter starting at the narrow drum head end and widening out to the open sound emitting end of the drum.

Description

United States Patent f 72) Inventor Roger W. North OTHER REFERENCES 21 M Roxbury, 02119 Peripole, Inc. Catalog, Far Rockaway, N.Y March, 1964, 1 1 i w 3 3 1970 p. 6, copy in 84-453. [22] Fied ar. [45 Patented sopL 7' 1971 Przrnary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-John F. Gonzales Attorney-Chittick, Pfund, Birch, Samuels & Gauthier 54 DRUM 4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 84/411 [5 1] Int. Cl 610d 13/02 ABSTRACT; A musical drum having a hollow elongated [50] Field of Search 84/41 1, body which is open at both ends The centerline f the drum 4 I 56 body bends through an are for at least a portion ofits length. A drum head membrane is stretched across one open end of the [56] Rem-nus CM drum body. Fasteners are provided to maintain the membrane UNITED STATES PATENTS in tension across the end of the drum body. in the preferred 1,113,253 10/1914 Schreiner 84/411 UX embodiment the cross section of the drum body, taken per- 1,980,876 11/1934 Peters i i r 84/41 1 pendicular to the centerline, is a circle having an increasing 2,204,987 6/1940 Gussak 84/412 diameter starting at the narrow drum head end and widening 2,858,724 I 1/1958 Troppe 84/41 1 out to the open sound emitting end of the drum.

2 I! |-J I8 22 u )4 l k DRUM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to musical instruments in general, and more particularly, to a drum instrument which provides amplification of and directivity for the generated percussion sounds. I

The drum has long been an important part of man s music, but although the advancement of technology has brought great changes to the musical field in the fonn of electric guitars, pianos, electronic horn pickups, voice microphones and powerful electronic amplifiers and speakers, the concept of the drum has changed very little. The new musical instruments have been successfully designed for performances directed at large audiences, thousand and tens of thousands of people commonly being present at performances of four or five musicans.

All drums presently available have shown themselves to be inadequate to meet the needs of such situations. Unless amplified electronically, the dnims are easily over powered by electric, amplified instruments to the point of being ineffective. On the other hand, microphone-amplifier-speaker system are not capable of adequately reproducing and magnifying the sound of drum because of the nature of the acoustical output signal of the drum. When a drum is struck, an initial attack signal is produced, followed by an extended, lower magnitude signal caused by the free vibration of the stretched drum membrane. The normal loud speaker system is incapable of handling the attack phase of the signal without distortion while still retaining enough volume to reproduce the sustained tone. in addition, the feedback problems of electronically amplified drums are such that the speaker giving off the drum signal must be faced away from the drums, so that the drummer has no real knowledge of what his instrument sounds like to his audience. Thus, a new approach was needed in the construction of drum instruments. The present invention wad developed in response to the inadequacy of the present drum technology to meet the needs of modern musical custom.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide a drum instrument which allows the drummer to play the drum or a set of drums in the normal position; that is, with the striking heads approximately horizontal, and to have the sound of the stick striking the head and the sound of the free vibrations of the head after initial impact projected in the direction of the listening audience.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a drum design which produces a unique sound and whose sound, as heard by the drummer, is the same as that projected to the audience.

It is a feature of the present invention that the drum design can be fabricated from a variety of relatively inexpensive and readily available materials.

In the accomplishment of these objects, I employ a hollow, elongated drum body which is opened at both ends. The centerline of the hollow drum body curves through an are along at least a portion of the length of the drum. A conventional drum head or membrance is stretched across one end of the drum body and secured to the drum body by the usual ring, hoop and screw-lug assembly. With the drum in the operative position, the drum head is substantially horizontal while the open, sound projecting end of the drum is in a substantially vertical position facing the audience. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the drum has a circular cross section perpendicular to its centerline with a gradually increasing diameter starting at the narrow drum head end and increasing to its widest point at the sound outlet end of the drum.

The objects and features of the invention will best be understood from a detailed description of a preferred embodi ment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. I is a view in side elevation and partial cross section of the drum of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the drum showing the drum as seen by the audience, or listener;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the drum showing the drum as seen by the drummer;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of an alternative embodiment of the invention which has a constant cross-sectional diameter for the drum body; and,

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of another alternative embodiment of the drum showing a constricted center portion.

Turning now to the drawings and particularly to FIGS. 1 through 3 thereof in which like numbers refer to corresponding parts in the several views, there is shown a musical drum constructed in accordance with the present invention and indicated generally by the reference numeral 10. The drum 10 comprises an elongated hollow body 12 which is open at both ends. For convenience in describing the drum 10, one end 14 of the drum body will be identified as the drum head" end and the other end 16 will be identified as the sound outlet end of the drum structure.

A conventional skin or plastic membrane 18 is stretched across the drum head end 14 and held in place by the usual ring 20, hoop 22 and screw-lug assembly 24. Collectively, the ring, hoop and screw-lug assembly provide a convenient means for maintaining and adjusting the tension of the drum head membrane 18 across the drum opening 14. Although adjustable tensioning of the drum head membrane is desirable, it is not required in all versions of the present invention. For example, in a toy version of the present invention, the adjustable feature of the screw-lug assembly 24 is not needed and the drum head membrane 18 can be permanently secured to the drum body I2.

Looking at the side elevation of the drum l0 shown in FIG. I, it can be seen that the centerline 26 of the drum hUtIy l2 bends through an are for at least a portion of its length. The angle between the plane of the drum head 18 and the plane of the sound outlet 16 can vary between approximately l5 and In the preferred embodiment, the angle is selected so that the plane of the drum head 18 is substantially horizontal while the plane of the sound outlet 16 is substantially vertical. In this manner, the drummer will have a conventional horizontal drum head surface 18 while the sound from, the vibrating drum head 18 is projected outwardly toward the audience. The curved configuration of the drum 10 provides sound directivity to the audience in front of the drummer. This is a distinct advantage over prior art straight, open-ended drums, such as the one shown in US. Pat. No. 1,980,876 issued Nov. I3, 1934 to P. G. Peters, in which directivity to the audience can be obtained only by placing the drum head in the difficult, vertical drumming position.

It was found that varying the size and shape of the cross section along the centerline of the bent section of the drum body was an effective means of both focusing the aim of the drum and shaping the sound or tone of the drum. Preferably, the drum body 12 has a circular cross section perpendicular to the centerline 26. An increasing diameter, the largest diameter being at the front opening I6, provided for a somewhat wider v dispersion of sound than a constant diameter (FIG. 4), and

gave a very true reproduction of both the attack and sustain phases of the head vibration. A construction and subsequent flaring of this portion of the drum body, as shown in FIG. 5, proved to create a resonant cavity inside the drum which, for each combination of enclosed volume and minimum opening area, gave a particular resonant frequency to each drum. This, in combination with a tumable head, gave each drum a double tone, consisting of membrane overtone vibrations and low resonant vibrations due to the shell shape. Both these tones were projected forward by the bent shape of the drum body.

It will be appreciated that the drum body 12 can be fabricated from a variety of suitable materials. I have found that epoxy-bonded fiberglass produces the desired body shapes with relative ease and has a good tonal quality. The dimensions of the drum are not critical to the invention and the following dimensions are presented as merely illustrative.

The diameter olthc drum head end 14 can range from 6 to lo inches while the diameter of the sound outlet end 16 can vary from 12 to 26 inches. If desired, the drum can have a straight centerline portion of from 2 to 20 inches.

Having described in detail the preferred embodiment of my invention, what I desire to claim and secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A musical drum comprising:

a hollow elongated body open at each end and having a centerline which bends through an are for at least a portion of its length, said hollow elongated body having a circular cross section perpendicular to said centerline with the diameter of said cross section increasing from a smallest diameter at one end of said body to 21 largest diameter at the other end of said body;

a membrane stretched across only the smallest diameter end of said body; and means for holding said membrane in tension across said end ofsaid body.

2. The musical drum of claim 1 further characterized by said circular cross section perpendicular to the centerline having a lesser diameter at a point between the ends of said centerline.

3. The musical drum of claim 1 wherein said centerline bends through an arc offrom 15f to 4. The drum of claim 1 further characterized by said centerline bending through an arc of sufficient angular width to permit the membrane covered end of said drum body to lie in a substantially horizontal plane in the operative position while the other end of the drum body lies in a substantially vertical plane.

Claims

1. A musical drum comprising: a hollow elongated body open at each end and having a centerline which bends through an arc for at least a portion of its length, said hollow elongated body having a circular cross section perpendicular to said centerline with the diameter of said cross section increasing from a smallest diameter at one end of said body to a largest diameter at the other end of said body; a membrane stretched across only the smallest diameter end of said body; and means for holding said membrane in tension across said end of said body.

3. The musical drum of claim 1 wherein said centerline bends through an arc of from 15* to 120*.

4. The drum of claim 1 further characterized by said centerline bending through an arc of sufficient angular width to permit the membrane covered end of said drum body to lie in a substantially horizontal plane in the operative position while the other end of the drum body lies in a substantially vertical plane.