US419842A

US419842A - Piano sounding-board

Info

Publication number: US419842A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1890-01-21
Anticipated expiration: 1907-01-21

Description

(No Model.)

A. J. DEWING. PIANO SOUNDING BOARD.

Patented Jan. 21,1890.

It PETERS, Phow-Lnhognphtr. Wnhinglm. n. C

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AMASA J. DEWING, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

PIANO SOUNDlNG-BOARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 419,842, dated January 21, 1890.

Application filed September 24, 1889. Serial No. 324,947 (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AMASA J. DEWING, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, have invented an Improvement in Piano Sounding-Boards; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to an improvement in sounding-boards for pianos and it consists in certain details of construction which will be more fully explained by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which the figure is a front view of the soundingboard of an upright piano, showing the construction and the position of the bridges upon the board.

In the usual construction of piano sounding-boards they are made of selected spruce or pine out into narrow strips having parallel sides, these strips being glued together until a board of sufficient size has been formed, and the board is further strengthened by suitable cross-braces secured upon its back. The method ofapplying the strings to the piano is such as to obtain a proper length of strings for the various portions of its register from the lowest bass to the highest treble, and the construction of the sounding-board before described is such that the boards become very short at either end.

My invention is designed to give a greater length and a corresponding improvement to the tone at that portion of the soundingboard upon which the bridges supporting the bass and longer strings of the piano are fixed; and it consists in making a central portion of the sounding-board of strips which are narrower at one end than the other, so as to gradually change the direction of the strips and bring those toward the lower end of the sounding-board into such a position as to extend from side to side instead of diagonally.

A A are the narrow bars or strips forming that portion of a sounding-board of a piano which carries the bridges for the shorter or treble strings, and B are the sections forming the central portion of the soundingboard. These sections 13 are made tapering or fan shaped, being from one to one and a half inch in width at the lower end and from six to seven inches in width at the upper ends. By this construction it will be manifest that this portion of the soundingboard becomes fan-shaped, and the lines upon which the edges of the strips forming the board are joined will be gradually changed to a position approximately parallel with the horizontal bottom edge of the soundingboard.

0 O are the lowermost strips which complete the sounding-board, and it will be seen that by this construction these strips are brought to a position nearly or quite parallel with the lower edge of the board, and consequently have a length in the direction of the grain of the wood much greater than if the stripswere all of the same width and were carried diagonally across the board parallel with the strips A A. Upon these lowermost strips 0 are placed the bridges D, which carry the bass and lower middle register strings of the instrument, and it will be seen that an increase of tone will be produced by thus lengthening these lower boards in the direc tion of the grain of the wood.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a sounding-board, the strips from which the board is made up, having one end made narrower than the other, so that the direction of the grain of the wood is changed from one side of the board to the other, substantially as herein described.

2. In a sounding-board, the strips A, I3,

and O, glued together to form a board, a portion of said strips being made fan-shaped or Wider at one end than the other, substantially as herein described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

AMASA J. DEWING.

Witnesses:

S. H. Nounsn, H. 0. LEE.