US508508A - Patrick donnelly - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

PpDONNELLY.

VIOLIN No. 508,508. Patented Nov. 14, 1893.

fit/610501:

m2 NATIONAL umosmpnm COMPANY,

wAsnmeToN. 04 o UNITED STATES I PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK DONNELLY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

VIOLIIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 508,508, dated November 14, 1893.

Application filed August 25, 1893. Serial No. 484,022. (No model.) I

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that LPATRIOK DONNELLY, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of New York, in the State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Violins, of which the following is a specification.

The invention applies to all instruments of the violin class, in which there is a hollow body, a bridge over which four or other number of strings are stretched and a post in the hollow body. I employ, as usual, well seasoned wood for the main body of the instrument, including the bridge and post. I have discovered that the sounds can be strengthened and improved in quality by small quan-e tities of copper interposed between the strings the adjacent portion of a violin.

and instrument so as to aid in transmitting the vibrations. I have reduced this to practice and produced thereby an important improvement.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification and represent what' I consider the best means of carrying out the invention.

Figure 1 is a plan view of the bridge and Fig. 2 is a cross-section on the line 22 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a corresponding View of the bridge on a larger scale, partly in section. Fig. 4: is a section transverse to the bridge, showing the bridge and the post and the adjacent parts.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures where they appear.

A is the face and B is the back of a violin, made of sound, resonant wood. 0 is a post of the same or a different wood, standing in the ordinary manner under the bridge and transmitting the mechanical strain and the sound waves in all respects in the ordinary manner, except as will presently appear.

D is a bridge of thin wood, resting onthe face A, and having its upper edge curved to the proper extent so that when the strings are stretched across several shall lie in the right positions to allow the required action of the bow upon the strings, separately and together. Near the middle is a hole 6. The upper edge is grooved slightly.

E is a copper wire, about No. 16, Brown- Sharpe gage, extending along the groove and protruding above the upper edge of the bridge so that the strings are-carried on this Wire and the vibrations transmitted through this metallic medium. Its outer face is notched slightly toreceive the strings M, which latter are applied and tuned in the same manner as the corresponding strings of ordinary violins. The parts E of the wire E extend down a little distance in corresponding grooves and terminate in ends B driven into corresponding holes in the ends of the bridge.

G is a copper wire, about No. 24, extending axially through the post 0 from end to end. H is a slender Wire, about No. 60, threaded through a transverse hole in the post and also wound around the post. It extends upward through a small hole in the face A and through a corresponding hole in the bridge, traversing across the hole e, as shown. It is passed over the wire E and descends again to the hole 6, from which latter it extends laterally, and is wound around an adjusting pin I which has a suitable head I for allowing it to be turned.

to adjust the tension. Turning the pin 1, I, in one direction tightens the wire H, and turning it in the other direction relaxes it.

The instrument possesses all the useful qualities of the well known and long approved violin. The strain on the several strings M is received on the bridge and transmitted to the face A, post 0 and back B in an obvious manner. The sound vibrations are correspondingly communicated, but the effect of the instrument is better than the instrument without myimprovementin bothloudnessand sweetness of tone. I ascribe the effect in part to the wire E interposed between the strings M and the bridge D, and in part to the metallic core G of the post, which makes a metallic conductor between the front and back of the violin, and in part to the thin wire H and its tightening means I, I which contribute materially to the mechanical force pressing the bridge and the body of the violin still more. firmly together.

I claim as my invention 1. In a stringed instrument of the violin class having the bridge D and post 0, the metal wire G, in the interior of the post and a flexible wire H secured to the latter and exas the pin I for adjusting the tension of the latter, all arranged to serve substantially as herein specified.

In testimony that I claim the invention 1 above set forth I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

PATRICK DON NELLY.

Witnesses:

M. F. BOYLE, H. A. J OHNSTONE;

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