US557353A - Mouse-proof piano attachment - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

G. P. BENT. MOUSE PROOF PIANO ATTACHMENT.

Patented Mar. 31, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE P. BENT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

MOUSE-PROOF PIANO ATTACHMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 557,353, dated March 31, 1896. Application filed December 30,1895. Serial No. 573,821. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE P. BENT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Mouse-Proof Piano Attachments, which is fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of that portion of the piano to which my attachment is applied. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the lower portion of my piano, showing the pedals. Fig. is a transverse sectional view of a portion of the piano, taken at the line 3 3, Fig. 1. Fig. 4. is also a sectional view taken at the line at at, Fig. 1; and Fig. 5 is sectional view taken at the line 5 5, Fig. 3, looking down, and showing a small portion of the piano.

I have experienced great annoyance as a manufacturer of upright pianos from the mice getting into the piano through the pedalapertures in the front of the piano and passing up into the piano and injuring it in many ways. To obviate this difficulty I have attached to the lower part of my piano certain devices to prevent the mice from reaching the operating parts of the piano above the pedals and damaging the instrument.

My invention consists of the devices and combination of devices hereinafter fully described, and made the subject-matter of the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents the front piece of the lower portion of the piano through which the pedal-apertures I B, B and B are made.

0 is the bottom board of the piano.

D, D, D and D are the pedals. They are attached to the pedal-block E of the piano in the usual manner. At each side of the group of pedals, at each end of the pedal-block E, I attach a block F, which is secured to the bottom board O of the piano by screws G. Resting on these two blocks F, and secured thereto, there is a metal plate II having its rear edge turned downward over the pedal-block E, as clearly shown in Fig. 3. I attach this plate in place by means of screws I, passing through the plate into the blocks F. Between these plates and the block F, I place strips of leather J, forming an elastic cushion, to

prevent any rattling or noise. The blocks F and the plate H prevent any mice which may pass through the pedal-apertures in the front of the piano from getting up into the interior of the piano, as pianos are ordinarily constructed.

L are the pedal-rods connecting the pedals with the various attachments in the piano which they operate. The plate II has apertures M, through which these pedal-rods pass. hen the pedals have only a vertical move ment, these pedal-rods would fill their respective apertures in the plate II, and would of themselves prevent the mice from passing through said apertures; but in my Crown piano, in which I have an orchestral attachment as well as a practice-clavier attachment, I have two pedals D and D which have a lateral movement, and are locked down, or partially down, by means of notches N made in the sides of the pedal-apertures B and B In order to admit of this lateral movement, the apertures M in the plates H for their respective pedal-rods must be sufficiently large to admit of the lateral movement of their respective pedal-rods.

To prevent the mice from passing up through these enlarged apertures I provide a plate 0, which is attached to the plate H by a pivotal connection 1?, on which pivot the plate 0 turns as the pedal-rod is moved laterally, but always covers the aperture M on each side of the pedal-rod, so as to prevent the mice from passing through the aperture. This plate 0 could be made in any other form, and attached in any way, to cover the aperture 011 each side of the pedal-rod, as will be readily seen, but I find the construction shown in the drawings to be a simple and efiicient one.

The plate H may be placed above the pedals in such position that when the pedal is in its normal elevated position the pedal itself will be just below the aperture in the plate through which the pedal-rod passes, and will prevent the mice from passing through that aperture; but in my piano, in which two of the pedals are made so as to be locked in a depressed position to hold their respective attachments, which they operate, in a desired position, it becomes important to have a cover to the aperture through which their respective pedal-rods pass to prevent the mice from passing through those apertures when the pedals are thus depressed and locked down as above specified.

I find that this attachment of mine obviates an exceedingly great annoyance as well as in jury to the piano occasioned by mice getting into the piano and gnawing as well as otherwise injuring the operating parts thereof.

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

1. In a piano, the blocks F; the plate 11; the

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