US530483A

US530483A - Bridge for banjos

Info

Publication number: US530483A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1894-12-04
Anticipated expiration: 1911-12-04

Description

(No Model.)

A D GROVER BRIDGE .FOR BANJOS.

No. 530,483. Patented Dec. 4, 1894.

Fig 5- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT D. GROVER, OF MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

BRIDGE FOR BANJOS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 530,483, dated December 4,1894.

Application filed March 24, 1894. Serial No. 504,899. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALBERT D. GROVER, a citizenof the United States, residing at Malden, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Bridges for Banjos, of which the following isafull, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in explaining its nature.

Myinvention relates to an improved bridge for banjos which very materially increases the tone effect and does away with the liability attending the present form of bridge to slip upon the banjo head and tip over thereon.

Referring to the drawings,-Figure 1 is a View in perspective of my improved bridge. Fig. 2 is a view in cross-section through one leg or foot. Fig. 3 isa section lengthwise the bridge. Fig. 4 represents the bridge in position upon a banjo head.

It will be understood that bridges are not fastened to the banjo head in any way, but simply rest thereon, being held against them by the strain of the strings which pass over them. It is very desirable. however, that they be not movable upon the head from the position in which they are originally placed, because such movement interferes with the tone effects and also is liable to slacken the strings.

My improved bridge I prefer to make of wood and in the following way: The back section a is made from one piece of stock of uniform thickness throughout. It forms the cross-bar 01,, and the portions a of the legs. To the front of these legs or feet portions a is attached or glued the triangular feet sections a which are shaped so as to hold the leg sections a of the part a perpendicular or straight, and this provides a forward inclined reinforcing or staying support. See Fig. 2. In the legs thus formed, I make cavities or recesses of and fill them with rosin or a composition of rosin and glue of, the rosin being thus held in pockets or receptacles having thin wooden walls and the rosin projecting slightly below the lower edge of the walls or sufficiently to bear upon the head. If, for any reason, the rosin becomes inoperative, its power may be renewed by slightly grating or cutting away the wooden wall about it sufficiently to expose the rosin or a new surface of rosin, if it becomes necessary to remove a portion of it.

This improvement results not only in a stronger bridge, but in a braced bridge and one that holds its place, and. in an improvement in the tone effect, the use of the rosin in the manner indicated improving that effect very remarkably.

I prefer that the feet sections a have their grain run at right angles to the grain of the leg sections a 7 I am awareof the patent to G. F. Albert, Jr., No. 503,396, for banjo bridge; but as said patent does not describea bridge constructed as mine is constructed and does not obtain its stability in the same manner and does not employ resin in cavities in its legs for the purposes above stated, and has no means by which a continuous supply of resin can be supplied to the legs and as my bridge does not use a tone muffiing grit between the under surface of its legs and the head, I consider that my invention does not contain any of the features of the said patent, and therefore disclaim anything described therein.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patentof the United States 1. A bridge for banjos and other like instruments, having its feet provided with holes or cavities filled with resin or rosin composition, as and for the purposes set forth.

2. A bridge for banjos and other like instruments, recesses or cavities formed in the feet for holding rosin or a rosin composition, the edges of said feet about the cavity being removable to expose the rosin, as and for the purposes described.

3. A bridge for banjos and other like instruments, comprising the section at having the feet sections 0. the forward inclined feet sections (Its, the said feet having the re cesses a and the rosin or rosin composition 01, held in said recesses, as and for the purposes described.

ALBERT D. GROVER.

Witnesses:

F. F. RAYMOND, 2d, J. F. DOLAN.