US957195A - Method of recording and reproducing sounds. - Google Patents

Description

. J. c. ENGLISH.

METHOD OF RECORDING AND REPRODUOING SOUNDS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 14, 1905.

957,195, Patented May 10,1910.

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Application filed oetober 1d, 1905. Serial We. 2853383..

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, JOHN C. ENGLISH, a citizen of the United States, and resident of the city of Camden, county of Camden, i

State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Recording and Reproducing Sounds, of which the followin is a full, clear, and exact description, re erence being had, to the accompanying drawings, forming apart of this specification.

My invention relates to a method of making a permanent undulatory record of sounds, articulate, musical 'or produced in any manner, and, further to the method whereby recorded sounds are reproduced without the use of a reproducing sty us.

In the methods of reproducing sound heretoiore known, it has been proposed to record upon a suitably prepared surface; a' record of the sound waves produced in the vicinity of the recording mechanism; to make from said record aduplicatein some suitahle; and durable-material; and then to cause a repreducin stylus to follow the undulations recorded on said record to produce vibrations in a re reducing diaphlagm sa to those originadly impressed upon the recording diaphragm. ln instruments constructed in acoordanoe with the above principle however, the sounds emanating from such reproducing apparatus, while approximately close to the sounds originally pruced, are more or less'iniperfect and unsatisfactory by reason of the additional sounds and tones, added to th sounds orally recorded, and caused by the scraping or scratch' of the re roducing stylus upon the reeor as it to ow ohjeets the forming of ah original or master remrd of sound in the form of a tape, one of *the'edges of which is provided with undulations ooonding to sound waves to form a ter record of sound and to form horn said r record one or more duplioat/e copies of said master recordfor com- 2. Meet of my invention is 'to duplicate profile tapes for ale rd. A. further object of my invention 15 to does commercial duplicate records from a master record of sound by means of a profile mechanism.

Afurther object of my invention will appear in the specification and claims below.

My invention consists in forming a permanent record of the sound originally pro throu h a, fluid current and to impress upon said uid current the undulations recorded on the said record. I

More specifically m invention consists in form ng along one age of a suitable tape a series of undulations or serrations corresponding to the wavesoi the sound originally produced, and causing the edge of said tape to travel over a narrow slit or elongated opening through which a current of air is caused to pass, said tape being so located with respect to said opening that the edge ofthe tape having the undulations thereon, will at all times partially close said opening, whereby the. size of opening is constantly varied h the variations on the edge of the tape, an the current of air passing through said opening will have impressed upon it reproduction of the sound ed on the tape. Y

My improved method of recording and reproducing sound may heput into client by means of a variety of apparatus, one

ill sheet 0f H a m in hic1 igure 1 represenm on anexrated or g fied scale a portion oi a suitably prehave been recorded in the form of longitudinal series of transverse undulations Fig. 2 is a section thereof on the line Q 2, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 illustrates the manner in which the fi shown in 1 is divided longitudinly along the line of the record to form two insider records; it illustrates record; Fig. 5 shows one form of a repro ducing apparatus employed to produce the sounds reoorded on the d of the rd; 6 illustrates a modal. cootion in which theair is drawn ughdhe aperture from the horn and illustrates another modificahon in whio theairina i w. out my invenh on, I prepare a method being illustrated in the accoinpanyo paper duplicate made from said master Patented May 11d, ddliflh duced and causing said record to travel vibrations or undulations which are an exact originally record pared tape upon which the sound waves he forced ugh the aperture in either dii 2 a n flexible metallic tape, 1, provided preferably with two longitudinal series of equally spaced perforations 2, by coating one or more surfaces thereof with any suitable substance which will serve to record the vibrations of a recording stylus, the cutting point of which oscillates in a plane substantially parallel to the said record surface. The point or cutting. edge of said stylus 1s made of a suitable hard material and is so located with respect to said tape, that the tracing made thereby cuts through the coating material 3, and forms an undulatory channel 4, the bottom of which is formed by the metal tape itself. The perforations 1n the tape serve the purpose of engaging the teeth of a suitable feed roller, which may be driven at a constant rate of speed, to feed the prepared tape under the record stylus in the direction of its length, without-slip or variation in speed. In Figs. 1

' and 21s illustrated a tape upon the surface of which a record groove has been traced in the manner above described, the coating 3 being cut through to the metal tape 2, as shown in Fig. 2.

In the actual practice of my invention, I may increase the amplitude and sharpness of the undulations recorded on the tape, with a view to making the variations on the profile as pronounced as possible, and I accomplish this by a variety ofmeans such as by locating the position of the center of oscillation of the stylus bar nearer to the center .of the recording diaphragm,- or .by increasing the length of the stylus bar on that side of the center of-oscillation which carries the stylus, and also by causing the record surface to travel at a lower rate of speed. than is now usually employed.

The next step in my improved process consists in removing one half of thematerial of the tape atoneside of the groove. I preferably do this by dividing. the tape longitudinally along-the line of the record by filling the groove with some suitable chemical agent which will not act "upon the coating material but will cut through the metal tape along the line' of the record. I 'then' remove the cdating .material in any suitable manner.. .By these or similar steps,

I am enabled to roduce two metallic tapes 7 5, 5, each of whic has on its edge an exact. profile record of the sounds. originally produoed, and each of whichalsohas a series of perforations 2 by which said tape may be positively fed, or caused to travel-over or under a reproduc'er. It is, however, with- 'in thescope of my invention to remove one half of the metallic record tape in any suitable manner, and in removing it, to completely destroy the same, in order to produce one perfect profile tape, although-g1 prefer ably form two master tapes nfthe manner described above.

contour of the tape the size of the openingthrough which In Fig. 5 I have illustrated one form of apparatus inwhich my improved method of reproducing sound may be performed in which 6 represents a drivlng drum mounted upon shaft 7 to which is secured a gear 8 adapted to mesh with the gear 9 fixed to the shaft 10. The shaft 10 has also secured to it a second gear 11 meshing with the gear 12 fixed to the shaft 13. Also secured to the shaft 13 is a feed roller 14 having pins 15 adapted to engage perforations 2 of the tape 5".

For the purpose ofsecuring a positive engagement of the pins 15 with the tape, I may mount on a suitable shaft 16 located above the feed roller 14, a roller 17 provided with holes 18 which will register with ducing device.

. Mounted ina suitable position adjacent to profile tape is a horn 25 or other suitable sound amplifying device, with the small end 26 adjacent to the surface of the ta In the form of my invention illustrated m Fig.

5 this smaller end of the horn is provided the direction of whichistransverse to the with a narrow elongated slit or opening 27,

direction of the tape.- The relation of the position between end slit 'or opening of the tape is shown diagrammatically in two positions in Fig. 4.

In Fig. 51benea'th the narrow opening 27 and adjacent to tape is a block 28 provided with a chamber 29 connected by'a pipe, or tube 30 with the air chamber 31, 011: a suitable pump, whichmay be used to produce either a pressure or a partial vacuum in the chamberBl.

' The operation of this device is as follows: i

The drum beingdriven from any si iitable v source of motive power, its motion is communicated through the. gears 8, 9, 11 and 12 roller 14, and through the fricf tion drums 19 and 20 to the winding drum to the feed 22, the relation of the frictiondrums- 19 and,

20 bein ,such that the wind-in drum 22 will 7 .120 thetape taut between t e feed roller 15 and,

always driven at as edw 'ch will keep said winding drum 22. Air being forced from the chamber 31 throughp'ipe 30 to the chamber 29 and one "end of the elongated.

opening being alwaysjopen and free to per- 12 mit a column at air to pass through the;

same, as indi'catedii1'Fig. 4,-the tape 5"is driven over the'zopenin I wilf constantly change t e The varyingair may pass, and consequently will produce variations in the column of air passing through the opening. The undulations or: vibrations in the column of air allowed to pass through the opening will correspond to the undulations recorded on the profile of the tape. In this manner, the column of air will have impressed upon it undulations or vibrations which are the exact reproductions of the sound originally produced and recorded on the tape and when such vibrations are amplified through the horn 24:, the result is a clear, loud and exact reproduction of the original sounds free from any disagreeable and undesirable qualities resulting from the scratch of a reproducing stylus over a record.

Fig. 6 indicates a modified construction in which the narrow slit or elongated opening 27 is located in the lower block 28 and the smaller end 26 of the horn has a chamber 29 adjacent to tape.

In this form of my invention the direction of the current of air would be reversed towhat it is in apparatus shown in Fig. 5, and the pump would be used to produce a partial vacuum in chamber 31. I,

In Fig. 7 I have shown both the smaller end of the horn and the lower block as being provided with registering elongated openings27, 27' respectively, and in this form of my invention the current of air may be impelled in either direction.

While I have described my invention in the form above set forth, it is obvious that it would be impracticable to use a metallic profile tape, formed as above described as a commercial record. I therefore propose to use either oneor both of the tapes shown in Fig. 3 as master tapes, and produce duplicates thereof in a material suitable for commercial purposes. I havefound that 'a tape of a good quality of stiif paper will. answer all the requirements. The commercial paper. tapes may be produced in large quantities from said master tapes in the following manner: A large number of plain strips of paper having been broughttogether and stacked under compression, the master tapev is caused to guide or form a templet for a suitable profiling machine, while the cutting endof themachine is caused to trayel transverse to the stacked'tapes" and to reproduce upon the edges thereof an exact copy of said master tape. A paper duplicate of the original-master record made inthis manner I I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. The method of forming commercial profile tapes for use in sound reproducing devices which consists in forming a master profile tape, and duplicating said master record by means of a suitable profiling machine upon a plurality of layers of paper tapes.

2. The method of forming commercial profile tapes for use in sound reproducing devices which consists in forming a master profile tape, using said master tapeas a templet in a suitable profiling machine, and causing the cutting point of said profiling machine to reproduce the undulations of the master'tape simultaneously on the edges of a plurality of stacked blank paper tapes.

3. The method of forming commercial profile tape for use in sound reproducing devices, which consists in forming a master profile metallic tape, and using said master tape as a templet for reproducing simultaneously aplurality of commercial duplicates thereo 4C. The method of forming commercial profile tape for use in sound. reproducing deprofile tape and duplicating said master tape by means of a profiling machine acting upon a plurality of stacked and compressed tapes. 6. The method of forming commercial profile .tapes for userin sound reproducing devices, which consis'ts in forming a master profile record and duplicating saidmaster record simultaneously upon the edges of a plurality of tapes.

, 7. The method of forming commercial profile tapes for use in connection with sound reproducing devices which consists in W forming a master tape one edge of which is providedwith an undulating contour corresponding to sound waves, stacking and com ressin to ether a plurality of paper P g g tapes and placing them in a profiling machine, substantially simultaneously cutting one edge of-said stacked tapes by said profiling mechanism, in which the said master tape is used as a templet for guiding the cutting tool, whereby a plurality of paper tapes substantially identical with each other and corresponding to said master. tape are produced.

ln'witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of October,

A. 11,1905. v r

w 7 JOHN C. ENGLISH. Witnesses: ALSTQN B. Moor/mu,

ALEXANDER vices, which consists in forminga master

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