US576293A - v-ernaz - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

A. VERNAZ. MUSIGAL INSTRUMENT.

Patented Feb. 2, 1897.

[munch/n 1250603 [Ml 1M yfiwwwy UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXIS vEENAZ, on STE. oEoIX, SWITZERLAND, ASSIGNOR TO MERMOD FEEEES, or SAME PLACE.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 576,293, dated February 2, 1897.

Application filed September 26, 1896. Serial No. 607,106. (No modelfi To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXIS VERNAZ, a citizen of the Republic of France, and a resident of Ste. Groix, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Musical Instruments, of which the following is an exact specification.

This invention refers to musical instruments of the kind in which tongues are operated from a perforated note-plate by the mediation of sprocket-wheels. My improve ments in musical instruments of said kind relate to means for damping the tongues after they have been operated by the respective sprocket-wheels.

My improvements consist in the construction, arrangement, and combination of parts, as hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in the appended claim.

In order to make my invention more clear, I refer to the accompanying drawings, in which similar letters denote similar .parts throughout the different views, and in which- Figure 1 is a side view of my improved arrangement, the plates a a being in section. Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but the sprocket-wheel, the tongue, and the dampingspring being each in another position. Fig. 3 is a front view of a portion of the tongue, together with two portions r 2' of the damping-spring. Fig. a is a view similar to Fig. 3, but said portions r 2' being in another position. Fig. 5 is a plan of a portion of the damping-sprin Fig. 6 shows a modified form of construction, the damping-spring being made to act upon two tongues.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a a are two superposed plates, between which are held as many springs o as there are tongues 0 in the musical instrumentin question. Each of said springs supports a sprocket-wheel 2'. n is the perforated note-plate, which is held down upon the plate a by any suitable means. In consequence of the note-plate being thus kept depressed the sprocket-wheels are also kept depressed, and the springs o are thus put under tension. This, however, is the case only as long as there is a non-perforated portion of the note-plate over the sprocket-wheel. The latter is allowed to rise into the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 when a perforation of the note-plate arrives over the sprocketwheel, or, more precisely, over the next tooth of the same. Suppose the note-plate n to move in the direction indicated by the arrow and the perforation n to have arrived over the tooth z" of the sprocket-wheel 1'. Then said tooth will be pressed into said perforation by the spring 0, which had been under tension up to that time. From that moment the sprocket-wheel i is rotated by the note-plate 71, Figs. 1 and 2.

The tongue to be operated by the sprocketwheel, or, in the case assumed, by the tooth i of the sprocket-wheel, is shaped in a particular manner, in that its free end or top is first reduced in breadth at 0 Figs. 3 and 4, and is then formed into a sort of wedge 0'. Said reduced portion 0 takes through a slot r of the dampin g-sprin g r, Fig. 5, the free end of which takes below the sprocket-wheel 1 in such a manner that said damping-spring may be operated by said wheel.

The end portion proper, '7", of the dampingspring is connected with the main portion 1 by two ledge-like portions r riwhich are bent upward in such a manner that they are able to catch or hold the wedge o of the tongue 0, as shown in Fig. 3. The position shown in Fig. 3 corresponds to the position shown in Fig. 1, and the position shown in Fig. 4 corresponds to that shown in Fig. 2.

Shortly after the sprocket-wheel has commenced turning under the influence of the moving note-plate the damping-spring a" is depressed by the tooth 2' of said wheel acting upon the end portion r of said spring. The tongue 0 thus being freed is now operated-4. e., strained-by the tooth 1' The latter leaves the tongue in about the same moment in which the tooth i of the sprocketwheel, as well as the end portion 4 of the damping-spring, arrives in the lowest position, and the tongue'is now perfectly free to sound. The end portion r of the dampingspring is in its lowest position when the sprocket-wheel has again been depressed by a non-perforated portion of the disk 12. The

tongue remains thus free of the dampingspring during the whole of that time and is checked only when the sprocket-wheel is allowed to rise by a perforation of the disk n arriving over the next tooth of the wheel.

In instruments in whieh there are two sets of tongues each damping-spring may well be employed for acting uponi. e. ,for damping two tongues. In such a case the end portion "1" of the damping-spring is provided with an elongation r, Fig. e, that takes below the end portion of the other tongue. 0 is said other tongue. 'lhetongue o is operated by the tooth of the sprocket-wheel in the same moment in which the tongue 0 is opera-ted by the tooth '1? of the sprocket-wheel. In other words, the tooth 1" leaves the tongue 0 in the same moment in which the tooth 1? leaves the tongue 0. The tongue 0 while being depressed by the tooth. depresses in its turn the elongation ot the damping-spring r, or more 1n-eeisely the whole of this spring and the tongue 0, or, more precisely, the wedge-like head 0, Figs. .3 and 4c, of the same is thus freed from the side portions 9' r Figs. 5} and it, of said spring 2'. The latter is kept depressed by the tooth 1"" of the spree-ketwheel moving from the tongue 0 1113011 the end portion r of the damping-spring, and the two tongues are thus Jfreo to sound aslongas the dainping-spring is thus kept depressed.

Having now particularly described the nature of n'iyinvention, what I desire to seeure by Letters Patent of the United States is- In a musical instrument having tongues, sproeket'wheels for operating said tongues, and a perforated note plate or plates i'or operating said sprocket-wheels, the combination with the said tongues, of dampingsprin 'r r haYingbent-olt' portions We, and. a slot r between said portions; the tongues taking through said slots, and having (Pitt'll a broadened portion 0 adapted to be caught up between and by said bent-oilf portions 1'; said dainping-springs being arranged so as to be adapted to be operated by the said sproeket-wheeis, for the nu-pose as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presenee of two subserilr i'ng witnesses.

ALEXIS YFIi-INAZ.

\Vi tnesses:

BENJAMIN .11. R1 mm m, IE. it. BARRY.

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