US625128A - Piano-action - Google Patents

Description

No. 625,!28. Patented May 16, I899.

, M. STEINERT.

PIANO ACTION.

licntion filed Oct. 3, 1

A I X N Tu y l of the flange E before mentioned. A regulating-screw G, coacting with the outer face UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MORRIS STEIN ERT, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

PIANO-ACTION.

$PEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 625,128, dated May 16, 1899.

Application filed October a, 1898.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Mortars STEINERT, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Piano-Actions and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in

Figure 1, aview in side elevation of a pianoaction constructed in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2, a detached broken plan View thereof.

My invention relates to an improvement in actions for grand and square pianos, the object being to confer upon the pianoforte some of those rare qualities sacrificed with the abandonment of the clavichord and to enable performers of moderate skill to produce in perfection with the pianoforte those effects (particularly those of minute dynamic variation) hitherto only within the reach of virtuosi of the highest rank, who are able to secure them by a training of the muscles of the hands and arms carried so far as to make the same in a sense supplemental to the instrument rather than mere media of performance.

With these ends in view my invention consists in a piano-action having certain details of construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described, and particularly recited in the claims.

In carrying out my invention as herein shown the key A is provided in the usual manner with a fly B, secured in place at its rear end by a screw B and made vertically adjustable by a screw B passing through its forward end. In this fly I mount a jack C, which may be arranged perpendicularly or slightly inclined forward or back, as may be found desirable in adjusting the action. At its lower end the jack is provided with an arm 0, which coacts with a regulating-screw D, mounted in the horizontal portion of a flange E, extending forward from the lower edge of the hammer-lever rail E. A regulating-screw F, horizontally mounted in the jack itself, coacts with the vertical portion Serial No. 692,521. (No model.)

which constitutes the lower face of the for- I ward end of a balanced hammer-lever H, which is horizontally arranged and mounted in a butt H secured to the upper end of the hammer-lever rail E before mentioned. A

hook I, mounted in the upper end 'of the jack, extends over the upper face of the forward end of the balanced hammer-lever H and, so to speak, articulates the jack with the balanced hammer-lever and insures the restoration of the hammer-lever to its normal position with the descent of the jack. This hook coacts directly with a strip J of felt or equivalent material, the operating-face H being also furnished with a strip of felt or equivalent material J. At its rear end the hammerlever is furnished with a balancing extension H in which I by preference locate one or more disk-like weights H of lead. The upper rear corner of the said balanced lever H is cut away on each side to produce a tongue H in which I form a horizontal slot H, which is lined with a strip of felt or leather h. The said slot receives a horizontal pin K, mounted in the arms of a yoke K, formed at the rear end of the hammer-body K which is pivotally mounted in a butt L, secured to the horizontal hammer-rail M. A slit H forming a continuation of the'slot H extends into the body of the hammer-lever and permits the slot to be constricted or enlarged by means of a screw H A hammer-arm N, rigidly secured in the rear end of the hammer-body K carries the hammer-head N, which is furnished in the usual manner with a heavy cushion N of felt. The tail N of the hammer-head coacts with a back-check 0, carried by an inclined wire 0, mounted in the extreme rear end of the key A. When the hammer is at rest, the hammer-arm N is supported upon the hammer-rest rail P.

It will be seen from the foregoing description that my improved action is composed not only of few parts, but that those parts are simple in themselves and simply related in a continuous chain of articulated parts between the hammer and the key.

In the pianoforte as ordinarily constructed the jack coacts directly with the hammer, which under the impulse communicated to the jack by the key causes the hammer to leap freely into the air and deliver a sharp blow upon the string, after which thehammer falls back without restraint to its depressed position. Under the ordinary construction, therefore, no not-e can be produced unless the key is depressed with sufficient shock to effect the leaping of the key into the air with enough impulse to strike the string a blow, for the principle of construction. on which the ordinary piano-action is based does not permit the hammer to strike the string as the result of a soft even downward pressure upon the key, but requires a blownot necessarily a hard blow, but at the least a blow of sufficient force to produce the shock required to cause the key to leap free into the air and strike the string. Pressure, more pressure, will not achieve this result, and cannot answer the purpose. Players of great skill and refinement virtuosi and also others who may have a natural touch produce these necessary blows with such minute dynamic variations with such perfect gageing of the blow to the force with which the hammer must strike the string -that the ob-. jectionable features of the ordinary piano as an instrument of percussion are for the time being veiled. With the average performer, however, there is a constant failure to proportion the force of the blow uponthe key to the exact volume and kind of tone required, so that the player fails to reproduce his own personal and sympathetic interpretation of the score before him. Either the strings are struck too hard or, owing to the fear of striking too much of a blow and producing too loud a tone, not at all. The action of the ordinary piano as ordinarily played is therefore distinguished by a series of blows more or less sharp of the hammers upon the strings and is a hard and mechanical action, the harshness of which can only be overcome by the trained and sensitive touch of a virtuoso. In my improved piano-action, however, I employ a hammer-lever which is interposed between the hammer and the jack and which is articulated loosely, but'positively, with the hammer, on the one hand, and with the jack, on the other. Then no matter how softly the key is struck the hammer never fails to strike the string, and even a steady and uniform pressure upon the key will necessarily cause the hammer to lift and strike the string. Nor after the hammer has struck the string does it drop back into its normal position; but so long as the'key is depressed it holds a position slightly below the string, to which it may from that elevated position be raised for repeating the stroke by depressing the key farther, the jack at this time working upon the rear end of the obtuse-angled operating-face upon the lower face of the forward end of the hammer-lever. Inasmuch as under my action the hammer is not sent flying into I or even nearly depressed position.

the air by the depression of its key, the per former maintains over the instrument a much more perfect control than he can command over an instrument of the ordinary type, and for the same reason he is enabled to establish between himself and the instrument a rapport before unknown. At the same time my improved action enables the performer to produce a forte as powerful as that of an ordinary piano and with more purity of tone, while he may also produce pianissimo, crescendo, and diminuendo effects impossible on the common instrument. Furthermore, his control of the hammer is so perfect that he may produce a beautiful singing legato without effort and without training. As to staccato passages they may also be produced with crispness, clearness, and brilliancy.

Although my improved action is well adapu ed, as above stated, for forte and piano playing and for the execution of the most bril liant scherzo passages,it is particularly suited for playing accompaniments and melodies and all work requiring softness of tone'without loss of purity or roundness. It permits an unskilled performer to produce a cantabile, which on the ordinary instrument would be far beyond his powers.

Of course if a key is released immediately after it has been depressed the ensuing descent of the jack allows the hammer to at once return to its normal position of rest on the hammer-rest rail; but if the key is not at once released after having been depressed the jack will be held up under the rear por tion of the oblique operating-face II of the hammer-lever, whereby the hammer will be held up in a position close to the string, which it may be again,thoughless powerfully, caused to strike by a short pulsation, so to speak, of the key while the same is still in its partially In other words, the hammer is not released directly after it has struck the string, as with an or dinary piano-action, but only when the key has been allowed to return to its normally elevated position.

Of course in carrying out my invention some changes in the construction herein shown and described may be made, and I would therefore have it understood that I do not limit myself to the exact form set forth, but hold myself at liberty to make such changes and alterations as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described myinvention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure. by Letters Patent, is

1. In apiano-action, the combination with a key, of a jack mounted thereupon, a horizontally-arranged hammer-lever provided at its forward end with an oblique operatingface with which the jack coacts, a hammerbody, and means for positively articulating the upper end of the jack with the forward end of the hammer-lever, and the rear end of the 11am mer-lever with the hammer-body.

2. In a piano-action, the combination with a key thereof, 01": a jack mounted upon the said key, a horizontally-arranged hammerlever having its forward end provided with an oblique operating-face with which the jack coacts, and its rear end furnished with a balancing extension, a hammer-body, and means for positively articulating the said hammerbody with the rear end of the hammer-lever, and for positively articulating the forward end of the hammer-lever with the upper end of the jack which supports the hammer in position near its string after the hammer has struck the same, and until the key is released and allowed to return to its normal position.

3. In a piano-action, the combination with ing witnesses.

MORRIS STEINERTr Witnesses: GEORGE D. SEYMOUR, FRED. C. EARLE.

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