US555612A - Piano-case - Google Patents

Description

(NoModel.) K A MODE PIANO OASE.

No. 555,612. Patented Mar. 3, 1896.

1pk/EN T CIR WM,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

KNUT ABDON MODE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

PIANO-CAS E.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 555,612, dated March 3, 1896.

Application filed December 20,1895. Serial No. 572,777. (No model.)

.To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, KNUT ABDON MODE, a subject of the King of Sweden and Norway, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Pianofortes, of which the following is a specification.

This improvement relates to the construction and arrangement of the music-desk with relation to the lid of the piano, more particularly in connection with that class of instruments known as grand pianos. It is frequently the case that the music-desk, which is ordinarily arranged to slide back and forth, is left by the operator or player so far forward that when the lid is swung down the lock-strip strikes the desk and mars or otherwise injures it. Itis the object of this invention to obviate this difficulty by so constructing and connecting the base or slide of the music-desk and the lid that the movement of the lid in being swung down or closed causes the music-desk to slide back out of the way, so that it cannot possibly be struck by the lid or the lock-strip.

The nature of the invention is fully described below, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a vertical section of a portion of a grand'piano taken on line w, Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a sufficient portion of a grand piano to illustrate my invention.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A represents the body of the piano, B a porl tion of one of the legs, and C the cover, all

constructed as usual.

D represents the slide or the base of the music-desk. The movement of this slide is limited in the ordinary manner by pins E, eX- tending from the body of the piano into suitable grooves or recesses in the ends of said slide or base. Secured to the under side of the sliding base D are one or more metallic projections H,which extend horizont. lly rearward and bend up vertically at H', s0 as to be angle-shaped or hook-shaped, as shown.

K is the lid provided with the ordinary lock-strip K and hinged at L to the cover C. Secured to the under side of this lid (which is the upper side when the lid is thrown open) next the hinged edge, are one or more arms P, which project, when the lid is thrown back, forward almost horizontally. These arms P are situated directly over the hooks H H', and when the lid is swung from the opened position shown in full lines in Fig. 1 to the closed position shown in broken lines in the same figure the engaging-arms P strike the front sides of the portions H of the hooks and move them back into the position indicated in broken lines in Fig. l, drawing back necessarily the slide or base D of the musicdesk, so that its front edge is outof the path of the lock-strip and cannot be struck by it or by the lid when the latter is closed.

The number or width of the parts H H P may be varied as desired.

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

l. In a pianoforte, the combination of the sliding base D of the music-desk, the swinging lid K, and mechanism intermediate with said lid and sliding base whereby the base is engaged and drawn back out of the path of the lock-strip when the lid is swung down and closed, substantially as described.

2. In a pianoforte, the sliding base D of the music-desk provided with one or more rearwardly-extending hooks H, and the swinging lid K provided with one or more engagingarms P adapted to engage said hooks and thereby draw back the music-desk when the lid is swung over in a closed position, substantially as set forth.

KNUT ABDoN MODEE.

lVitnesses:

HENRY W. WILLTAMs, A. N. BONNEY.

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