US653966A - Tuning-peg for stringed instruments. - Google Patents

Description

No. 653,966. Patented luly l7,' I900.

F. PALIWETZ. I TUNING PEG FDR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

- (Application filed Feb. 6, 1900.) -(No Model.)

If hymn; M. Z 1 $5M M U D STATES ,4

PATENT OFFICE.

FRANZ PALIWETZ, OF MOSCOW, RUSSIA.

TUNING-PEG FOR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 653,966, dated July 17, 1900.

Application filed February 6, 1900. Serial No. 4,296. (No model.)

To a whom it may concern:

Be it known that I,- FRANZ PALIWETZ, a subject of the Emperor of Russia, and a resident of the city of Moscow, Province of Moscow, Russian Empire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Device for the Rapid and Accurate Tuning of Strings in String Instruments; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my invention.

The object of my invention is to remove some disadvantages which exist at present with respect to the tuning of string instruments and keeping the same at proper pitch while playing, and which disadvantages may be said, generally speaking, to be as follows: In the first place, it is difficult to get the exact pitch by means of an ordinary screwpeg owing to this being turned too far or not far enough, and this difficulty is increased when the time allowed for tuning is short. In the second place, the string generally gives when playing has commenced and the player has to stop to screw it up again. A third difficulty is that the screw-pegs themselves are apt to give, and when, as is sometimes done, they are driven too tight into the violin-head they are apt to split the same. In the present invention these difficulties are removed by the application of a simple and durable worm -gear, whereby the screw-peg can be turned forward or backward with any degree of fineness and without noise, and this, moreover, while the instrument is being played. At the same time the screw-peg is left free to be screwed forward by hand direct, as heretofore.

I will explainmy invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which-- Figure 1 is an elevation of a violin-head, showing the invention attached. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the worm-gear, forming the principal feature of the invention. Fig. 3 is an elevation of the worm device looking from the rear of same. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal elevation of a screw-peg and part of the wormgear, the latter being in section. Fig. 5 is a detail of the Worm'gear.

2 represents elliptical plates which are attached to the head of the violin by means of wood-screws 3. These elliptical plates are perforated to correspond to the ordinary holes in the head or neck of the violin for the insertion of the ordinary screw-peg, to which the string is attached.

Into the hole of the plate 2 and of the head or neck of the violin is inserted a small tubepiece 4, having its one end provided with notches 9. Around the center of this tubepiece is a collar 1, which is indented or slotted on its periphery, collar and tube-piece forming one piece.

When the end 4 of the tube-piece is inserted into the hole in the neck of the violin through the hole in the plate 2, the ring part or collar 1 acts as a stop, so that this collar and the notched end 9 of the tube-piece project from the plate outward. The ordinary screw-peg can then be pushed through the tube-piece and hole in the neck of the violin.

The screw-peg 8 is provided near its head with catch-pins 10. When the screw-peg is pushed home, these pins engage with the notches 9, so that any forward turning of the tube-piece takes the screw-peg around with it; but the screw-peg, as will be evident from the drawings, can be turned forward direct inde pendently of the tube-piece, and when there is any tension on said screw-peg it will be prevented from turning backward by the notches in the end of said tube-piece 9.

Attached in a suitable way to the plate 2, previously mentioned, is a small shaft provided with a worm and with a small knob on its free end. This worm stands vertical to the indented or slotted collar 1 and engages with same, so that when the worm is turned the tube-piece turns also. The indentations or slots on the collar 1 can be distributed as finely as desired. The finer they are the slower the rotation of the tube-piece.

In carrying my invention into practice the operation is the following: The player screws up the strings to about the normal pitch by means of the screw-peg direct. There is then tension on the screw-peg, and when the han= dle is released the pins 10 at once engage with notches 9. The worm-gear is then brought into operation, and by the turning forward or backward of the knob of the shaft 7 the pitch can be got accurately. So long as there is tension on the screw-peg 8 it will follow the backward turning of the tube-piece, and in the forward movement of this latter the pins 10, and consequently the screw-peg 8, must turn with it.

It is customary to affix two of the devices, as above described, to a violin, one for rough and the other forfine tuning; but the features of the invention are the same in each case.

The Worm-shaft is so easy to turn that a player can give it a revolution Without any difficulty While playing, and in this Way he can keep the strings constantly true.

The parts can have antifrictional bearings, such as 5, and can be arranged so as not to make any noise.

Having now described my invention, What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

FRANZ PALUVETZ.

\Vitnesses:

ROSTAN SARAJJEFF, FRANTISEK SPINDLEN.

Images