US970615A - Method and apparatus for making sound-records. - Google Patents

Description

T. A. EDlSON. METHOD AND APPARATUS FOB. MAKING SOUND REOORDS.

,APPLIOATIN FILED AUG.30, 1904.

Patented Sept.20, 1910 4 BHIETB--SHEBT 1.

Y T. A. EDISON., METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SOUND RECORDS. APPLIUATION FILED AUG.80, 1904.

970,61 5. Patented sepa 20, 1910.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

T. A. BDISDN. METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SOUND BBooBDs.

APPLICATION FILED 130.110, 1904.

Patented Sept. 20,1910.

4 HEIGHTS-:SHEET 3.

@dem 4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

Patented sept.2o,191o.

T. A. EDISON. METHOD AND APPARATUS POR MAKING SOUND RECORDS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.30, 1904.

l practically exact graph or other sound Arecords, but also for the experiments in PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS A. EDISON, 0F LLEWELLYN PARK, ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SOUND-RECORDS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 20, 1910.

Application filed August 30, 1904. Serial N o- 222,702.

To all whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that I, Tiioiiiiis A. EDISON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Llewellyn Park, Orange, Essex county, New Jersey, have invented a certain new and I mproved Method and Apparatus for Makingr Sound-Records, of which the following,r is a description. x

My 'invention relates to an improved apparatus for making phonograph, or other talking machine records, and in y object is to secure a sound record which shall be of uality, and at the saine uch a record when sedirectly on the phonorcproducing machine, but it is preferably employed as a master from which copies are obtained by any approved process of duplication, as for ex ample, by a molding operation.

he invention is practicable for use not only for the ,production of phonograph production of socalled gramophone records, wherein the record exists as a sinuous groove of substantially uniform depth.

In making a sound record of either' of the types referred to, there are certain factors time very loud. cured,may be used which enter into the operations and by rea-' son of which the sounds is affected truly representative of the original sounds. The most objectionable of these disturbing' influences which I have encountered in my phonographic recording, is due to the inertia and momentum of the dia liragm and the recording devices, carrie by or connected with the same. As a result, when thedia lira m is subjected to vibrations of considlerable amplitude, the momentum of the parts causes the recording knife lo cut to a disproportionately great depth, and this aberration is manifested in the succeeding vibrations. Consequently, I find that the quality of the recorded sounds is in inverse ratio to the loudness thereof so that when the attempt is made to make a very deep record, or a record of great amplitilde, thelouder notes are generally of poor quality, and `are out of proportion to the notes vor sounds 'of less amplitude. Another disturbing inHuence, which I have encountered in myexperiments with the phonograph, and by which the quality of the records is affected, is d uc to the fact that the quality of the recorded so that the record isnoe..

cordel' l, (see Fig.

horns heretofore used have been responsive to certain toiles, either fundamental or sccondary, within the range of ordinary music, and in consequence, such toiles are greatly emphasized and become objectionably distorted in the reproduction. Obviously, the tones which may thus become unduly amplified depend upon the lcneth of the horn used,- but since it has been heretofore neeessary to employ horns of considerable length,

say from 18 to 3G inches, in order that (he sounds may be properly collected to make the record loud enough for practical purposes, the tones to which they may be rcsponsive, either fundamental or secondary, will always exist in the range of ordinary music. .l am not aware that these objec tions have ever been successfully overcome, and heretofore, the volume of: a phonograph, or other sound record has been largely restricted. because of th'e same.

The object of my invention is to overcome these objections. i

To this end, the invention consists, in the features hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In order that the invention may be better understood, attention is directed to the accompanying drawings,- forining a part .of this specification, and in which Figure ll is a diagrammatic view showing laportion of the original master, or metallic Fig. 3 i, diagrammatic view of the amplified duplicate record. Fig. 4 a cross sectional view through the recmdcr used in cutting the amplified duplicate, illustrating the same cutting to its full depth the scale being cnc-half that of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 a plan view of a preferred cmbodiirient of the mechanical duplicating apparatus. Fig. 6 a cross sectional view showing the shaving knife for trimmingF the blank to thc exact shape and size as the original record. Fig. 7 a corrcspondinc' view showing the mechanism for securing the amplified copy of the original record, and Fig. 8 a sectional view on the line 8--8 of Fig. 6. In all of the above views, correspondinfr parts are rel'ircsented by the same numerals of reference.

' ln carr Ying the method into elfect, l first make an original record by means of a re- 2) of small cross section,

the record being of lon7 amplitude. Thus,

in Fig. l, l illustrate such a record, wherein themaximum width ot' the record groove is only about one-half the available surface, or about one t\\u'iliuiiilie ltl; of' an inch. in making' such a record, l am enabled lov ein ploy a very short horn, say from tour to live inches in length, owing to the loiv amplitude-of the sounds to be recorded; and such a, horn is not responsive to an injin rions extent te any tones within the range of ordinary music, so that the objectionable funnel tones l maybe eliminated. l. find that records of this kind, although very faint, are of superior quality, not only beeause'the work imposed on the recorder is slight', and consequently, the recorder` is free to` more readily respond to the origina-l sounds, but also and principally, because the vibrations are not allected to a noticeable extent by the momentum of the parts, so that disturbances from that cause are praetically eliminated. Obviously, the quality of the master record so obtained will be furn ther improved by the employment of a very A`short horn, explained, and by which the it is necessary that the surface on which the record is transferred should be et the exact shape as the metallic master.

It would be very difficult to secure ame tallie master tliat'would be absolutely ey- :lindrical and much more dilllcult to secure a blank of absolutely the same size, and for this reason l prefer to malte use of' a shaving device, working in advance of the re coi-der and by means of which the blank will be cut to the exact size and shape of the master immediately before the record is cut therein. A suitable apparatus for the purpose is indicated in the drawings wherein the metal master 2 is carried on the inandrel 3, and the blank l is carried on the mandrel These mandrels are rotated simultaneously by any suitable gearing` at a low speed, so that the surface speed of the master is sullleiently low as te prevent any l disturbing' mlluenee due to momentum or inertia ot the movingl parte. il carriage S is mounted to travel on rod l, and its 'forward end is supported a regulating; screw S, lworking on a 'trent bar 9, l

will cut the blank to since in actual ora would be located very close together and a short lever would be used. Preferably,

the lever 1Q is in 'the 'form of a small truss,

to possess the maximum rigidity, and order to prevent any Hennig of the lever ope ation, l pieter to maintain it under itl a condition of stress, as tor example," by

means of small adjustable tierods .13.

stressing the lever practically to the endv of the elastic limits, l secure a perfectly rigid construction by means of Whichthe roest minute movements of one end will be trans- Imitted to the tall extent at theotlier, end

thereof. At one end, the lever carries a shoe 14, made preterably of sapphire,and adjustsey ed by a screwl` 15, said shoe bearing upon the surface of the master 2 and being Wide enough to overlap several of the record grooves thereon., This shoeniaybe carried from a spring 16, as shown. .fit its other end, the lever 12 carries a euttinUr or shaving knife 1,7,iiiade of sapphire, and of any suitf able shape for engaging the blank 4t. Ji. spring 1S maintains the shoe le and knife 17 in engagement with the master and blank respectively.' Obviously, when the master and blank are rotated, witlithe shoe le in engagement with the former, the knife 17 the exact shape and size as the master. The carriage 6 also carries a duplicating lever 19, (see Fig. 7) whose pivot is so arranged asto give the desired ampliication. Ordinarily, an aniplilcation of two to one will be suli'eient.`

'lhis lever is constructed. like the lever l2, and is also maintained under normal ten limits, so to be tree from vibrations. At

vone end, the lever 1S* carries the reproducing ball 2O from the fn'ljustine,4 screw 21, and et the other end is provided with recorder 22, which as shown in Fig. l, is 'preferably of a. diameter of about .040 of an inch.

The recorder and reprodueer are maintained in engagement with the blank and master respectively, by an adjustable spring 23.

ln order that there may .not be any lost motion at the pivots of the levers 1:2 and 19, l preferably mount these levers on very small torsion Wires 24 and V25, carried on the brackets 26 upon the carriage 6 and held from rotary movementI by the screws 27. Consequently, any movements of the levers 12 and, 19 are afforded by torsional elasticity et' the pivots 24e and 25, which movements are obvioasly slight, since the movements of the ends el? the levers rarely exceed a thousardh oi an ineli, Iin practice. The reand 'averli closely adire shown, so that a sound record will be cut in the blank 4 immediately after itl is trimmed off to the proper shape. By means of the duplicating mechanism described, the blank 4 will be provided with a record therein (see Fig. 3) Whichivill correspond with that on` the original master, except that it will be very much amplified. Such a record will be obviously of superior quality since, of course, the mandrels 3 and 5 will be rotated slowly enough as t0 prevent any momentum of the parts from affecting the duplication. The finished amplified duplicate record may now be used directl Vfor reproduction, but it is preferably emp oyed as a master from which duplicates are 'secured in any suitable way,

such as by a molding process. Any other duplicati, process well known to those skilled in t e art, may however, be employed for securing copies fromsuch a master.

Having now described in invention, what I Claim as new therein an desire to secure by Letters Patent is as follows:

1. The process of making sound records, which consists. in mounting a blank'upon a. rotating support, trimming the blank and then, without any alteration Iof the position of the blank upon its support, engaging with y the blank a recording st lus which 1s mechanically connected with a reproducer stylus'trackinga master record, and rotat- 4ing' the 4master and y.blank at such slow speed l as topracticallyf: .eliminate defects due to momentum and inertia of the moving parts. 2. The process of making sound records, which consists 1n making a master record ofv low amplitude, in rotating the same adjacent to a rotating blank, engaging with the master and blank respectively a reproducer stylus and recording stylus connected by an amplifying lever connection, and in rotating the master and blank at such slow speed as to practically eliminate defects due to momentum and inertia of the moving parts, substantially as set forth.

3. The process of making sound records, which consists in first securing a record of low amplitude, in rotating the same adjacent to a rotating blank, engaging a cutting knife with the blank, regulating the cutting knife yby the rotating master whereby the blank will be trimmed to the exact shape of the master, and in mechanically recording on the blank an amplified copy of the record on the master by mechanical transference, substantially as set forth.

4. The process of making sound records, which consists in first securing a record'of low amplitude, in rotating the same adjacent to a rotating blank, engaging a cutting knife with the blank, regulating the cutting knife by the rotating master, whereby the blank will be trimmed to the exact shape of the master, and in mechanically recording on the blank immediatelv after the action of the cutting knife an amplified copy of the record on the master-by meclian` ical transference, substantially as set forth.

5. The process of making sound records,

chanical transferencea duplicate of normal or desired amplitude, substantially as set forth. f

7. Apparatus for making sound records, which consists of tWo rotatin mandrels, one carrying a master and the ot ier a blank, of a pivoted lever, a shaving tool' carried by the level' and engaging the'blank, and a shoe on the lever engaging the master, as and for the purposes set forth.

8. Apparatus for making sound records, which consists of two'rotatin mandrels, one carryin a master and the ot er a blank, of a pivote lever, a shavin tool carried by the lever and engaging the b ank, and ashoe on the lever engaging the master, a second lever, a recorder carried-by s'aid lever engaging the blank, and a reproducer carried y the same engaging the recordon the inaster, as and for the purposes set forth.

9. In apparatus for making sound records, the combination with two rotating mandrels, one carrying a master record, and the other a blank, of a duplicating lever maintained under normal stress, a recorder carried by the lever and en aginnr ducer carrier? by tlie lever engaging the record on the master, as and for the purposes set forth.

10. In apparatus for making sound records, the combination with two rot-ating mandrels,one carrying a master and the other a blank, of'a ivoted lever, a shaving tool carried by the ever and engaging the blank, a shoe on the lever engaging the master and means for adjusting said slice, as and for the purposes set forth.'

11. In apparatus for making phonograph records, the combination with two rotating mandrels, one carrying a master and the other-a blank, of a pivoted lever maintained under normal stress, a shaving. tool carried by the lever and engaging the blank, anda shoe on the lever engaging-the master, as

and for the purposes set forth.

l2. In'apparatus for making sound records, the combination with two rotating the blank, and a repro-` mandrels, one carrying a master and the other a blank, of a pivoted lever, tie rods for nmnvnning the lover Under Dorn'xzzl sirva-, a

Shaving ool carried :at ono'ond of the lover und ongugmg' the blank, and n shoe. 1t ixo other end of tho lever engaging the. musing' mandi-els, one Carrying a master and tho other :a blank, of u lever mounod on n fixed pivot capable of torsional movomoni, a. shzwing tool carried at ono end of the lover and engaging :L blank, and n, shoe cnrrod at iho oilwr om! ofthe'lover engngngg the musor, n." :lud for the plilrposos Soi; forth.

14. h1 apparatus :for milking sound rw ords, ho combination with two ro'atng n'mndror, one carrying fho muster record and hf: other :l blank, o1: a duplcang lover moumlod ou a torsional pvot, and a reproduccr carried. by ih@ lover and engaging the record or. the muster, s and for the purposes phonograph@ transfer duplicating mech; u n, a transfer lever consisting of a truss nmntuinod normaly under srress with in ti limit of elasticity, :1s set forth. A

This specification signed and witnessed zhs frd day of Aug. 1904.

THOM S A. E )l SON.

W i messes "INA C. AGRTHUR.

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