US673463A - Metallophone. - Google Patents

Description

No. 673,463. Patented May 7, l90l.

A. R. WILEY.

` METALLDPHUNE.

(Applicltion lod July 13, 1900.)

(In lodel.)

wir im @M f UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALASON R. WILEY, OF WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

METALLOPHON E.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 673,463, dated May '7, 1901.

Application led July 13, 1900. serial No. 23,489. (No model.)

To all wir/0m, it may concern.-

Beit known that LALAsoN R. WILEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Wakefield, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Metallophones, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates tothat class of musical instruments the essential feature of which consists of a number of sonorous metallic bars of different lengths mounted on a suitable board 0r frame and adapted to be struck by a hammer. In this improvement instead of providing a single row of bars corresponding with the notes of the scale I mount on a suitable board or frame a plurality or series of rows of bars, each of-which rows corresponds to a musical chord. In other Words, the rows or groups of bars constitute a series of chords. Moreover, in this improvement there is placed before each barth at is to say, at the side of the bar at which the hammer v approaches when it is drawn by the operatoran obstructing-plate set parallel with and at a short distance from the bar and substantially at right angles with or perpendicular to the board or frame, said plate being of such a width or height that its upper edge is higher than the surface of the bar. The obstructingplate is for the hammer to slip over when the operator draws it over the bars to the note which makes a portion of the air which is being played.

The principal objects of the invention are' section taken on line :11, Fig. l.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts. a represents a board constituting a bed or frame of non-metallic material.

b represents bars, each of which rests on a soft cord c, whereby it is insulated in the ordinary manner from the base. The plates are kept in position by the ordinary headed retaining-posts d. These plates are arranged in rows, which are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the plates in each row constitute a musical chord. In the drawings row No. l constitutes a chord in the key of C; No. 2, in the key of G; No. 3, in the key of F; No. 4, in the key of D, and No. 5 in the key of A. These rows or chords are arranged with relation to each other at suitable angles to accommodate the player.

e represents dividing or obstructing plates set perpendicularly on the base a, parallel with the bars b and equidistant from them between each bar and the next bar and beyoud the outer bars. There is therefore a space between each plate e and the next bar h. The plates e are not necessarily all of the samelength, but may correspond to the length of the dierent bars b. These plates e are preferably of some flexible or yielding nonsonorous material, such as rubber, and are secured to the base a by any suitable means, such as staples g.

The player draws the ordinary hammer h over the bars, beginning with the left-hand or lowest bar, the hammer slipping over and slightly bending the dividing or obstructing plates e and striking the bars b successively until the desired note in the chord is reached.

By means of this construction the player, who is furnished with a suitable book of instruction, draws the hammer o ver one chord after another, producing a line musical effect and finding the instrument always in tune.

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

1. The improved musical instrument, consisting of sonorous barsmounted side by side on a common frame or bed in multiple groups or rows; said rows also lying side byV side in non-continuous tiers, the bars being adjacent at their ends; the several bars of each row being attuned to constitute, in conjunction with the other bars of the same row, the successive notes of a musical chord, and each row furnishing a different chord' from the other rows, substantially as specified.

2. In a musical instrument of the character IOO described, sonorous bars mounted side by side on a common frame or bed, in rows, and obstructions between the successive bars of each row, alternating therewith, whereby a ham- `mer drawn over a row strikes alternately a 4E. In a musical instrument of the character described, sonorous bars mounted side by side on a common frame or bed, and vertical obstructions of yielding material, as rubber, be-

tween the successive bars, alternating therewith, said obstructions being each substantially parallel with the adjacent bar, and having its upper edge higher than the surface of said bar, substantially as specified.

5. In a musical instrument of the character by side on a common frame or bed, with obstructions between the successive barsin each row, substantially parallel therewith and perpendicular to the plane of said bars, said obstructions being` of yielding material, with their upper edges higher than the upper surfaces of the bars adjacent, substantially as speGiied.

vALASON R. WILEY. Witnesses:

HENRY W. WILLIAMS, E. B. SMALL.

described, rows of sonorousbarsmounted side l

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