US4210A - Adjusting the pitch of reeds for - Google Patents

Description

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEicE.

CHARLES' HORST, OF NEW' ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

ADJUSIING- THE PITCII OF REEDS FOR EOLIAN ATTACI-IMENTS, &c.

Specication of Letters atent No. 4,210, dated September 2"?, 184:5.

To all who/m t may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES I-Ionsr, of the city of New Orleans and State of Louisi ana, have invented a new and useful improvement in the manner of constructing, fastening, and securing the thin metallic reeds used in Rohan attachments, seraphines, inelodeon organs, and other musical instruments in which the tones are produced by a current of air acting upon metallic reeds; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the construction and operation of my invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification.

Figures l, 2, 3 and 4 are perspective elevations of the different parts composing my improvements; the same letters refer to corresponding parts in all the figures.

rIhe nature of my invention consists in a cheap and expeditious manner of forming the metallic reeds, above referred to, and a method of coniining and securing them in such a manner that their tones can be raised or lowered at pleasure, by simply turning a screw attached to each reed.

I construct my metallic reeds in the following manner viz-I take sheets or pieces of any suitable metallic substance, and re duce them to the proper thickness for each and every reed required in an instrument, by passing them between pressure rollers. I then prepare dies or cutters, of the sizes of all the different reeds required for an instrument, and arrange them in a machine in such a manner as to be acted upon by a lever, in the usual manner of constructing similar machines for other purposes. I then pass the metallic sheets as before prepared, under the dies or cutters, and cut4 out the reeds by forcing them through the sheets of metal. In this manner I can manufacture reeds for the before mentioned instruments, with great speed and accuracy, each reed of the same size and thickness, having of course, the same tone. In confining the reeds to be used in the before mentioned instruments, or others, I proceed as follows: I prepare a thin metallic sliding reed plate, a (of about a sixteenth of an inch thick, more or less, in proportion to the size of the reed) and make an oblong opening in its center, over this opening I secure to the sliding reed plate, c, the metallic reed, b, to one of its ends, leaving the other end free to vibrate in the opening, by the passage of air through the same, at the end of the sliding reed plate, a, I attach the head of a screw, c, in such a manner as to turn freely, and to move the sliding reed plate backward and forward, when the screw is turned in a female screw. I next prepare a case shown in Fig. 3, for the reception of the sliding reed plate and reed; the groove in the case for the reception of the sliding reed plate a, is just the width and depth of the same, and of a little greater length, for the purpose of allowing the reed plates (a) sliding backward and forward in the groove. There is an opening c in the bottom of the groove immediately under the opening and reed,in the reed plate, a; at one end of the opening c there is a sounding post, (Z, of just the width of the opening in the sliding reed plate, a, and into which the sounding post accurately fits; the sounding post, d, is the same height of the sides of the case, Fig. 3, in which it is placed. At one end of the case (Fig. 3) is a hole, f, cut into a female screw, into which the male screw c fits and works; between the sounding post, el, and the end of the case in which is the female screw, f, there'is a deeper cut, c', in the groove for the sliding reed plate, for the purpose of allowing the head of screw, e, attached to the end of the same te work backward and forward in, when it is desired to vary the pitch of the reed; the sliding reed plate, a, is placed in its groove in the case, the reed uppermost; the sounding post, (l, (which is the same height of the sides of the case) passes up into the opening in the sliding reed Jplate (a) under the reed, and presses against the same-the screw, e, working into its corresponding female screw, f, in the end of the case. I/Vhen the sliding reed plate a, is thus arranged the cover, g, is placed over the same and tightly screwed down; there is an opening in the cover g of the case over the reed upon the sliding reed plate, about the saine size of the reed itself.

The sliding reed plate (a) should fit so accurately into the groove in its case, and the sounding plate, CZ, should lit so exactly into the opening in the sliding reed plate, a, under the reed; and bear so accurately against the reed, that when the cover, g, is screwed down over the sliding reed plate (a) it will exclude the air entirely from between the sliding plate, a, and the groove and cover, and also from between the reed, b, and the sounding post, (Z, and cover (g). A portion of the screws, 72 7L, which fasten on the cover of the case, g, pass through the case for the purpose of securing the same in its position in its instrument. The oper ation of my invention is as follows, when l desire to raise the pitch or tone of a reed,

l turn the screw, e, so as to draw the slid-V ing reed plate toward itself, (or the position of the screw may be reversed) by which means the reed is drawn in between the sliding post (CZ) and the cover, g, and that portion of the reed which is exposed to the air is shortened, and consequently its tone is raised. When l wish to lower the tone of a reed l reverse the operation, and lengthen that portion of the reed exposed to the action of the air. In this manner the tone of a reed can be raised or lowered live or six semi-tones, or more if desired. lt will readily be perceived that an instrument supplied with reeds, arranged and secured as herein described, can be tuned, and have its pitch lowered or raised so as to chord with other instruments, with as much ease as a piano, violin, or guitar; or in other words what has heretofore been a very imperfect instrument (in consequence of the impossibility of changing its pitch), by my improvement in the manner of constructing and arranging the reeds, is made a perfect instrument; and can hereafter take its rank as such, among other musical instruments.

Every instrument making use of metallic reeds, should be supplied with duplicate reeds, constructed in the manner herein described, or otherwise, so that when a reed gives out, another may be ready to replace it; it will at once be perceived that neither filing or scraping will be necessary to bring a reed to the proper pitch, as this can be perfectly regulated by the action of the screw, e.

Reeds arranged as herein described, may be secured to the upper or lower side of a rest as may be most convenient.

)What l claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The confining the thin metallic reed used in the above named instruments, to a sliding plate, and securing the said metallic reed and sliding plate in a case, so that the pitch of the reed may be raised or lowered by the turning of a screw attached to the sliding plate, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein described and set forth.

CHARLES HORST. lVit-nesses Z. C. Romains, T. C. Donn.

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