US388883A

US388883A - Bridge for violins

Info

Publication number: US388883A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1888-09-04
Anticipated expiration: 1905-09-04

Description

(No Model.)

\ J. KOPP. i BRIDGE FOR VIOLINS. No. 388,888. Patented Sept. 4, 1888.

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N. PETERs Phvro-Lnm n run wuhm xm D Q UNITED STATES PATENT GFFICEO JOHN KOPP, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

BRIDGE FOR VIOLlNS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 388.883, dated September 4, 1888.

Application filed January 26. 1888. Serial No. 202.020.

To (all whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, JOHN Korr, a citizen of the U nited States,and a resident of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bridges for Violins, of which the following is a specification.

The several features of my invention and the advantages arising from their use, conjointly or 0therwise,will be apparent from the following description.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a violin-bridge embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an edge elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of a violin, showing the bridge in elevation and in position. Fig. 4 is a view of one of the pieces which when in use are attached to the bottom of the bridge;

The invention is equally applicable to bridges for violins, violas, violoncellos, and bass-viols.

The bridge ordinarily employed has two disadvantages. The bridge participates in the vibrations of the strings and the body, and to have the instrument perfect, the bridge must vibrate in exact unison with the body of the instrumcntin fact, should [it so closely as to be practically part of the body. It is exceedingly difficult to accurately fit a bridge to the belly of the instrument, and the slightest inaccuracy in the fit impairs the delicacy of the instruments tone, giving rise to secondary interfering vibrations. Another disadvantage arises from the fact that the bridge is made of hard wood, and whenever it falls down, the surface of the instrument is slightly abraded (No model.)

by the act of falling and the subsequent act of replacement. In time this repeated replacing of the bridge causes slight holes to he formed in the top of the instrument, impairing the clearness of its tones. In avoidingthese difficulties I have provided the feet of the bridge A with a slight thickness of a substance (marked a in the drawings) which is softer than the hard wood of which the bridge is made, soft enough, in fact, to make a perfect joint between the bridge and the belly, as B, of the instrument, and to maintain the perfection ofthejoint during vibrations produced in playing the instrument, but not so soft as to inter i'ere with transmission of vibrations between the body and the strings. The substance employed is bark, and may be described in this connection as sonorons, but relatively more porous than the bridge proper or the body.

Only these descriptions of bark which are quite elastic and porous and of which the fibers constituting the wood are capable of vibration are to be used. For these purposes cork is not fit, neither is rubber, as both cork and rubber are too dense and damp or deaden and re tard the vibratiousofthe violin and impair the tones.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

The combination ofa violin-bridge and footpieces a and a light elastic porous bark whose fibers are capable of vibration, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

.IOIIN KOPP.

Attcst:

A. L. HEnsLINGEu, G. A. W. PAVER.