US979715A - Electric piano-player. - Google Patents

Description

W. H. SM-I-TEL ELECTRIC PIANO PLAYER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 23, 1909. 979,715, Patented Dec. 27 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1 iwg W. E. SMITH. ELECTRIC PIANO PLAYER.

APPLIGATION FILED T11R23. 1909. 979,7 1 5, Patented Dec. 2'7, 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2 INVENTUR Vl/i [iii 15' M 1 TH W H. SMITH.

ELECTRIC PIANO PLAYER.

APPLIUATION l-ILED M323. 1909.

979,715. Patented Dec. 27, 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 8 Q/Vi li-mlco $0 a J I eh I 61 0mm means. The op cording to one metho invention.

' jtrol UNITED sTA flEs PATENT o Fe on;

WILLIAM nnmiy smart, or runes. LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR T0 JOSEPH HERBER MARSHALL, OF LOND ON, ENGLAND.

ELECTRIC PIANO-PLAYER.

Application ii To all whom it may concern' Be it known that l, \Ymrmgfir HENRY SMi'rn, a subject of the King'ot' E residing at lenge, London, lfin'glanch have invented certain new and useful Improve- .rnents iii-Electric Piano-Players of which a I v the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in automatic musical instrun'ients, that is to say; to piano-players and the like which are actuated partly or entirely by electrical eration'. of thestriking mecln anism is efi'ected by electrical means, but the music sheet may control the apparatus either pneumatically or electrically. I

The invention will be described with reference-to the accompanying drawings, in which-' j Figure 1 is a'diagrannnatic View of the connections and apparatus employed, ac-

d for carrying out the Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the circuit connections by which a single actuating device may control a group of notes. iication of the cut-out arm adaptedto cona. group oi notes. Fig. {l is a fragmentary view of the tracker-board showing the vthe striker by a pneumatic connections of the same with the several electric contacts. An electro1nagnet A has cooperating with I striker B for operation on the keys of the'piano; one key is indi-' cated at (I. The armature is connected to screw-threaded eye A that carried by the striker pivoted to :1 lug B eye farther into or out and by screwing the from the armature to the striker maybe ad usted.- Normally the armature is retained in the position shown in the drawing by a sprin B surrounding the striker cooperating witha fixed fi'ame'member X and a stop B also coop erating with the same frame member limits the upward movement. ofthc striker. The position in which the armature is shown is that wherein 'the magnetic field acts most strongly upon it. It will be seen that each end of the armature is approaching one of the'polsio'f the .electro-magnct and when p the electromagnet is excited the armature arrow so as moves in the direction of the .ith the poles.

totake'up a position in linew .It follows therefore that it moves from the and connected to nglz'ind,

Fig. 3 is a view of the moat the length of stroke given I Specification of Letters Patent. led. February 23, 1909.

may be regulated by any Serial No. 479,421.

position where the greatest torque is exercised to one where the magnetic field acts less. strongly upon it and when absolutely in line with the poles the torque is at]. The advantage of this arrangement is that the strongest force is exercised when movement of the striking mechanism is commenced and after this the force exerted is decreased.

There are as'many strikers employed as keys C that are to be opera-ted. but as these are all .alike it is not necessary to show more than one. One end of the coil of the electro-magnet A for each striker is connected by wire I) through a contact device E to a battery F. The other end of the coil is connected through a non-inductive high resistanceG and a wire D to the other pole of the battery F. This end of the/coil however also has another connection with the same pole of the battery by way-of a cutout H. This cut-out serves to shunt the resistance G and comprises a contact piece H that is carried by a rocking arm N and a cooperating contact-piece,H that is mounted in an arm H pivoted at H to the rocking arm N and controlled by a spring H The I position of the rocking arm N suitable means that can be operated while the instrument is in use. A SCI'QWNI is shown for this purpose.

This means of adjustment is not merely for the purpose of facilitating the assembling of the nstriiunentin the toe to accomplish a definite result with respect to the operation of the instrument. .liy adjusting the connection between the cut-out and the striker, the full current will be maintained for a longer or shorter period and thus the notes struck will be correspondingly stronger or weaker. The circuit through the cut-out H is by way of a wire J, a switch J, a rheostat J 2 of low resistance and a wire J lVith the switch J in the position shown in the drawing and when the special accenting device L, hereinafter to be described, is not operated, from the note sheet, there is-no circuit through the cut-out so that all the current for exciting the electro-magnet A must pass through the high resistance G. This-is for soft playing- Patented. Dec. 2'7, 1910.

tory but is intended however, the other of the which brings tiOtl. it follows circuit of the titt'tl'O-litttfllltl is lirst closed a comparatively large current passes through the electro-nia rnet as the high resistance (i is cut-out by the contacts ll. 1F and the resistance ol the rheostat is less than the resistance (i or constitutes a comparatively low resistance. The striker B is therefore more forcibly operated. but as soon as the note has been struck it is unnecessary to maintain this comp-.u'atively large llow of current. and for this purpose the movement of the striking mechanism is made to decrease the flow of current. This is ellected by-la lappet it" that is adjustahly mounted out the 'iker l and opposed to the arm ll. .ts the striker descends. the tappet displaces the arm ll which carries the contact-piece ll and tints throws the "cut-out" ll out of action; the current now has to pass through the high resistance G to the electromae'net, and it is therefore decreased. The current could otherwise be decreased in a well-known manner by reducing the number of battery cells in circuit with the electro magnet by means ol the cut-out.

The object of the rocking arm N is to provide for loud and soft playing. it will be seen that by rotating the screw X to bring" the free end of arin ll farther from or nearer to the tappet B the full current will be. maintained for a longer or shorter period and thus the note or notes struck while the arm is in such position will be correspondinely stronger or weaker. The rocking arm X could carry the contact pieces of all the notes, or more. than one rocking arm could be providcd.'each carrying the contacts corresponding to a selected group of notes, thus in Fig. 3 the rocking arm N is' provided with the branch arms n--n. etc., carrying the contact pieces H ll, etc., and the arms 1l-"ll*. etc, carrying contact pieces corresponding to the contact pieces H Fig. l. The arms H H.", etc., are arranged forengagement' by the tappets B-l3, et'c. V The electro-magnets and consequently the keys Cthat are to be struck are conveniently controlled by the usual perforated paper roll coi'iperating with pneumatic apparatus, the being employed to make electrical contacts for closing the c'ircuitsof the anions electro- 'magnets. One of these contacts is shown at E and comprises two contact pieces E E that are'sccured withina chamber 'K. This chamber forms part of apparatus and has a bleed hole K that is connected with the vacuum chamber and a conduit R that communicateswith the tracker-board diaphragm K is opposed to the conduit K and carries a block pneumatic apparatus however" the usual pneumatic switch moved on to one or i Ii".

contacts of the rheoslat J i the cut-out it into operatherefore that when the thence by a wire connected to the The block lies opposite the contact E and so longas a vacuum is maintained in. the chamber K it does not displace the con tact. A line passage K communicates be tween the conduit K and the chamber K so that normally the diaphragm K is not under pressure. As soon, however as the opening in the tracker-board that corresponds to the conduit K is uncovered by the music-sheet so that air admitted to the conduit, the pressure of the air thus suddenly admitted advances the diaphragm K and causes this to bring the eonlact-picce 1'1 into electrical contact with the piece E plurality of rhecstats J is provided one being in series with each electro-maguet but the switch J may have several arms whereby the one switch may be made to control a group of rheostats tor the. purpose of accenting' a corresponding group of notes. Several switche may be provided ea h controlling; its own group whereby the treble and the bass, for instance. may be separately accented. Thus in Fig. the switch arm J is shown as provided with a plurality of arms J -fl to which the wires .lare suitably connected. The arms J ---[l cooperate with the rheostats ri -fil to which the wires ri J are connected. It will be seen that these rheostats provide an alternative liltlllS for obtaining loud and soft playing. It has before been proposed to employ a single rheostat in ries with a group of electro-magnets that.

control note-producing devices, but by the above arrangement a much more flexible control of the note-produeing mechanism is obtained, and moreover it lends itself for the purpose of accentine individual notes by m ans of a cooperating cut-out as follows: In some cases the nuisiesheet is provided with special perforations for the purpose of accenting individual notes. and for dealing with these special perforations another-set of contacts as- L is employed. These are arranged in a similar manner to the contacts E and are controlled pneumatically through conduits L from the trackerboard A by a diaphragm L. -Each contact L is placed in shunt to the rheostat J corresponding to the note that is controlled by the pa rtienlar orifice in the tracker-board whereby the aceenting of such note is determined, and it follows therefore that when any such orifice is uncovered, the corresponding rheostat with its connections is cut out. The. current must then pass through the wire l), the coil of the electro-magnet A, wire J, wire L contact-devices L, and

cut-out H; a circuit is thus provided through the cut--out H whether the switch J is in operation or not. and the wire D completes the circuit to the battery. 'An adjustable resistance L may L to the wire J F that is be placed in circuit with the contacts L so that the degree of accenting may be controllecl. instead of a set of contacts L, one or two only may be provided. In such case, each pair of contacts would operate to cutout a group of rheostats so that anynotes controlled by such group Would be accented. Thus the treble notes. could be controlled by one pair of contacts and the bass by an other. An arrangement of the circuits for this purpose is illustrated diagrannnatically in Fig. 2, in which the connections L of the accenting pneumatic L are provided with suitable connections, with the Wires J*J" corresponding to the wire J in Fig. l, and the connection L" is branche(l to the wires J -J c orresponding to the wire J in Fig. 1.

To prevent sparking at the contacts E, a non-inductive resistance M is conveniently placed. across the coil of the electro-magnet A, but this is only safeguard, as in normal operation, before the contacts E are separated, the contacts H H of the cut-out H have been separated, so that the current pass-- ing through the coil or" the electroanagnet i has been reduced and very little sparking is possible. It should be noted that the noninductive resistance G that thus serves to re duce the current and prevent sparking at E also prevents sparking at H as it'is always in circuit across the contacts H H .Any of the devices known for automatically accenting particular notes may be arranged to control the contacts L for the purpose of effecting the accenting in the case of Cit the'present invention and such accenting may obviously lae etlected by throwing in more batteries if desired, instead of cutting; out a. n "times such as the rheostats J lit desired, the method accer ing by extra holes controlling certain groups of notes, described in S. ppl'lation Smith and Gun'ton, No. 456,223, tiled December I, 1908, may he used in. eoniunction with. the electrical devices above described.

This inventioh has been described in its application to no outside piano-player. It is to be understood that it could similarly he applied to an inside piano-player,

3 \Vhat I claim as my invention and desire to seeiiufe by Letters l atent is:-- l

1. In con'ibinatimi With a musical. instrument, an ai'ztomatic operator comprising an clectromagncl', a striker ()}')IZl'l'(l tl'i'ereby, a high resistance in series with the electromagnet, a low resistance in parallel *ith the high resistance, :1 output in the low resistance circuit, and adjustable means constructetl'znul arranged to-he operated While theinstrumcnt is in usein playing a piece, opcratively connecting said output with said striker whereby the time of operation or said cutout with respect to the operation of said striker may be varied.

musi ca l electroa high resistance in series with the electro-magnet,

a low resistance in parallel with the high resistance, a cut-out in the low resistance icircall, a pneumatically operated contact in shunt with the low resistance, and means for operatively connectingthe cut-out with the striker whereby the cut-out is operated at approximately the end of the stroke, substantially'as setforth.

4. In an automatic operator for a musical instrument the combination of an electromagnet, a striker operated thereby, a high resistance in series with the electro-magnet, -a variable low resistance in parallel with the high resistance, a cut-out in the low resistance circuit, a pneumatically operated contact in shunt with the low resistance, and means for operatively connecting the cut out with the striker whereby the cut-out is operated at approximately the end of tlu stroke, substantially as forth.

In an automatic operator-tor a musical instrument the combination of a source of electrical energy, an electro-magnet, a pneun1atically operated contact in the circuit oi" said electroanagne an armature normally in position of maximum torque, a striker operated by the armature, a lugmounted Riljustaloly on the striker, a cut-out operated by the lug, a high resistance in series with the electro-magnet, an adjustable low resistance rheostat in parallel with the high resistance and in circuit with the cut-out, a

moun'iaticallv oaerated contact in iarallel .l

with the low resistance.

In combination with a musical instrument, an automatic operator con'iprising an electro-magnet, a. contact in the circuit ther of, a'nondnductive resistance in series with the coil of said electron'iagnet, a cmwout in shunt with said resistance, said resistance being arran ed to prevent sparking at said contact a; A said cut-out respectively, striker operated by said electromagnet, and adjustable connections between said striker and out-outconstructed and arranged to be operated while the. instrument is in use in playing a piece to vary the time of operation of said cutut withv respect to the operation ct said striker,

for varying the resist- 7, In an automatic operator for a musical instrument, the combination of a plurality of electric circuits, a pneumatically-operated electric contact in each circuit, a perforated sheet for controlling the pneumatic apparatus, a plurality of electroanagncts, each controlled by one of said contacts, a plurality of note-actuating mechanisms each one of which is operatively connected to one of said elcctro-magnets, one or more other pneumatically-operated contacts, means whereby said other contacts may be governed by the perforated sheet, one or more rheostats connected in parallel with said other contacts, means whereby said other contacts may cooperate with said first mentioned contacts to accentuate any particular note or notes.

8. In an automatic operator for a musical instrument, the combination of a plurality of electro-magnets, a plurality of strikers, each striker being operated by an electromagnet, a plurality of rheostats, one connected in series with each electro-magnet, and a plurality of operating handles each arranged to control a plurality of said rheostats, a plurality of cut-outs, one'in series with each electro-magnet and operatively connected with each striker, and means for varying the time of operation of. said cutouts.

9. In an automatic operator for a musical. instrument, the combination of a plurality 01. electro-magnets, a plurality of strikers each striker being operatively connected with one of said electro-magnets, a plurality of rheostats, one connected in series with each electro-magnet, a plurality of operating handles, each arranged to control a pluralityof rheostats and an electrical contact in shunt with one or more of said rheostats, and means for operating said contact to shunt said rheostats.

10. In an-automatic operator fora musical instrument, the combination of a plurality of electro-magnets, a plurality of strikers one operated by each of said magnets, a high resistance in series with each of said magnets, a low resistance in paraliel-Witheach of-said high resistances, a cut-out in circuit with each of said low resistances, adjustable means operatively connecting said cut outs with said strikers, and means whereby the l l l l 1 i times of operation of a plurality of said cutouts may be yari ed at will.

11. In an automatic operator for a musical instrument, the combination of a plurality of electro-magnets, a plurality of strikers each operated by one of said magnets, a high resistance in series with each of said magnets, a low resistance in parallel with each i of said high resistances, cut-outs in circuit with each of said low resistances, means on said strikers cooperating with said cut-outs to control the time iif operation thereof, said means being adjustable to vary the time of operation ot a plurality of said cut-outs with respect to the operation of their cooperating strikers.

,12. In an automatic operator for a musical instrument, the combination of a plurality of electro-magnets, strikers operated thereby, a high resistance in series with each electro-magnet, a low resistance in parallel with each high resistance, a cut-out in circuit with each low resistance, means for simultaneously varying the resistance of a plurality ofsaid low resistances, and means operatively connecting said cut-outs with said strikers. whereby said cut-outs may be operated during the operation of said strikers respectively.

13. In an automatic operator fora musical instrument, the combination of a plurality of electro-magnets, strikers operated ther by, a high resistance in series with each ele tro-magnet, a. low resistance in parallel with each of said high resistances, a cut-out in circuit with each low resistance, a pneumatically operated contact in shunt with each of said low resistances, and means for simultaneously operating a plurality of said contacts to simultaneously shunt a )lurality of said low resistances, and means or operatively connecting said cut-outs with said strikers whereby said cut-outs may be oper-V ated at approximately the end of the strokes of said strikers respectively. Y

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of I two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM mnzny ems.

Witnesses:

HAROLD WADE, HARRY g BRIDGE

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