US521909A - Bridge for stringed instruments - Google Patents

Description

A. GRAHAM.

BRIDGE POR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

No. '521,909l Patented June 26,-1894? N anni@ rh..

@wi/11142@ co UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

ANDREW GRAHAM, OF CLAREMONT, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

BRIDGE FOR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 521,909, dated June 26, 1894.

Application iiled January 2, 1894. Serial No. 495,402. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Re it known that I, ANDREW GRAHAM, a resident of Claremont, in the county of Sullivan and State of New Hampshire, have inyented certain new and useful Improvements 1n Bridges for Stringed Instruments; and VI do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description o'f the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it Io pertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to stringed musical- Numeral l denotes the bridge having anydesired or usual contour and made of any suitable material.

2 denotes the viol strings. 4

3 denote small pulleys having axes et supported to turn in bearings in the small posts 5 forming part of the bracket'or screw-heads G. These may be fitted in recesses 7 in the upper edge of the bridge and are preferably fixed on the screw rods 8. They are suitably arranged at different elevations around the curved upper edge of the bridge as indicated. The greater part of each of them can be concealed in the bridge and each has preferably a milled screw threaded nut 9 situated in a transverse slot 10 in the bridge and adapted to be turned with the effect to raise or lower the rod and its head and pulley according to the direction in which said nut is turned with the effect to raise or lower the string and to vary its tension.

It will be obvious that any desired height can be given to each string and also that its tension can be quickly and vconveniently varied as required in tuning by simply turning the milled nut and without pulling the bridge lengthwise of the string, as in the usual construction wherein the tuning is effected by vents the cutting or wearing of the strings upon the bridge.

Any suitable material may be employed but I have found a composition or alloy very suitable for the nuts,bracket or screw heads and pulleys and steel for the screw rods and pulley pivots. The improvement is however not confined to the use of any particular material nor to any particular instrument as it is applicable to all musical instruments having a bridge intermediate the ends ofV the strings and in which an adjustment of individual strings relative to the finger board as well as an individual straining of the same is required. t

I am aware that a bridge has been made adjustable by means of supports at its ends whereby all the strings were affected by any adjustment thereof and I am also aware that the ends of piano strings have been each passed around a pulley having an adjustable support any increase in the tension of the strings being effected by a direct pull lengthwise of the same.

My improvement is intended to obviate the serious evil in bass viols and like instruments having a string supporting bridge intermediate the end fastenings of the strings, heretofore occasioned by straining the strings from their ends and for this purpose I use means that act on the strings singly and transversely to their length and in the direction of the plane of the bridge whereby warping of the same is avoided and whereby each string can be separately adjusted, and tuned if desired, and whereby friction between the bridge and the strings is much diminished, and the necessity of trimming and also of notching heretofore required in bridges, and also the wearing of the strings upon the same, is avoided.

Having thus described my improvement, what I claim is-Q ICO 1. In a stringed instrument having a bridge for the support of the strings intermediate their ends, movable string bearings supported in the top of the bridge, and devices for sep- 5 mately raising or lowering the bearings, substantially as set forth.

2. In astringed instrument having abridge for the support of the strings intermediate their ends, a pulley for euch string, and de- 1o vices for separately raising or lowering each pulley, said devices comprising et nut situated in a transverse slot in the bridge and a screw rod situated in the plane of the bridge and adjustable by said nut, substantially as set forth. 1

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

ANDREW GRAHAM.

Vitnesses:

CHARLES L. Foss,

HOWARD C. WHITE.

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