US227343A - Octave w - Google Patents

Description

0. W. BARTLETT. Reed-Organ.

No. 227,343. Patented May 11, I880.-

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OGTAVE W. BARTLETT, ()F BRATTLEBOROUGH, VERMONT.

REED-ORGAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,343, dated May 11, 1880.

Application filed October 29, 187.).

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OOTAVE \V. BARTLETT, of Brattleborough, county of Windham, and State of Vermont, have invented new and useful Improvements in Reed-Organs, which improvements are fully set forth in the .anneXed specification and in the accompanying drawings.

The object of my invention is to provide a more simple and inexpensive manner of constructin g reed-organs than has heretofore been practiced; and it consists in constructing the reed-board and key-board of one piece only; in forming in the interior of said one piece the requisite general air-supply passages, reedchambers, and air-exit passages; of keys arranged to operate by gravitation to cover the air-exit openings over the reeds; and, generally, of a construction adapting said organ to be supplied with wind produced from a bellows in the ordinary way or by blowing with the mouth.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is an isometrical view of my improved organ. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view over the reeds. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan view, showing the air passages in the reed-board. Fig. at is an end view of the reed-board with its outer cover removed, and Fig. 5 is a side elevation of one of the keys.

In the drawings, A is the reed and key board. b b b are side pieces and an end piece. 0 represents a music-rack. d are keys. 0 e are weights in keys (I. t' 2' are steady-pins. h is an air-conductor, having a mouth-piece, h, secured to the end of it. h is a connecting-tube between conductor h and the reedboard. .9 is the main air-passage in the reedboard. 8 are reed-chambers. s are the reeds.

Heretofore it has been the practice to construct instruments of this class with reedboards arranged to have valves operating within a chamber or inclosed in a wind-chest, and having the reeds located outside of the chest and over the said valves.

Such a construction as the above necessarily involves considerable expense to make a windchest that will be tight, and to arrange the valves to work properly therein as well as to construct proper key-connections for them outside of the chest.

In view of the com parati vel y expensive construction of reed-organs, as above set forth, and the demand for instruments less costly and more easily kept in repair and in tune, my improved construction, as hereinafter set forth, offers many advantages.

1 construct the reed-board and key-board A for my organ of one piece only, as follows: The reed and key board A extends from the front to the rear of the instrument, and its rear edge is made of sui'licient thickness to permit of forming within it and between its outer surfaces the requisite air-passages and reedchambers s s, by boring or cutting into it, as shown.

I bore into the end of the reed-board, as

shown in Figs. 3 and 4, to form the reed-chambers, and transversely across the board under said chambers, but cutting into their under sides, so that air entering into the transverse passage 8 may freely find an exit upward into said chambers s. From the upper side of the board A, I bore air-passages, as shown in Fig. 4, down to intersect with the top side of the reedchambers, said air-passages being arranged in a line, as shown.

Having formed the air-passages in board A, as described, I insert the reeds into the reedehambers about midway between their upper and under sides, as shown in Fig. 4, so that they lie side by side therein, separated by the partition left between the chambers by boring them, as described. Said reeds are set in blocks, preferably with double-beveled edges, as shown in Fig. 4, and said blocks are a little wider than the diameter of the reed-chambers, so that when forced into the latter their edges enter the wood sufficiently to make an airtight joint on each side, and they set closely against the inner end of the chamber, and prevent the air passing at that point. Thus arranged, there is formed, substantially, a wind-chest under the reeds, consisting of the passages s and s, from which, after the end piece, I), has been secured thereon, closing the outer ends of chambers 8, there is no escape for the air entering by tube h excepting up through the reeds 8 Having constructed the reed-board and inserted the reeds, as above described, I insert the vertical steady-pins t t near its rear edge,

, and back of the vertical air-passages over the reeds, and pivot-pins for the keys (I, at w, thereon, in the usual manner, and arrange the usual felt-bearings under the keys, as shown. This completes the construction of the reed and key board, making it ready for the keys.

My keys are constructed as shown in Figs. 1 and 5, and arranged to oscillate upon proper pivot-bearin gs at 00 on the key-board.

In the rear end of said keys I insert weights of lead or other heavy substance 0 c, and under said weights, upon the under side of the key, I fix a pad of soft material, 2, and cut a slot in the end, as seen in Fig. l.

The piece 0 is fixed across the keys to serve as a music-rack and to keep the keys against the key-board.

After having constructed and arranged the reed and key board as above set forth, the end piece, I), and the side pieces, 1), are secured upon three sides of board A, and the keys (I are placed, as shown in Fig. 1, with their slotted ends over the pins i i, and with the padded portion of the key under weights 0 a, lying upon and covering the vertical windpassages over the reeds, so that no air can escape therefrom excepting when the key is opened by pressingupon its front end in playing upon the instrument.

1 next insert tube 71. through the edge of board A into passage s, and to said tube I eonnecta flexible tube, h, provided with a mouthpiece, It.

My organs may have applied to them, located thereunder in the usual manner, a footbellows of ordinary construction properly connected with the main air-passage s; or, when the instrument is of small size, it may be conveniently operated and supplied with air by blowing with the mouth through the mouthpiece 71/.

The application of the weights 6 c to keys d over the airpassages above the reeds provides such a degree of gravity-pressure against the pneumatic pressurein the reed-chambers as is in excess of the latter, and provides such a counter-balance for the key as results in producing an action much more agreeable than one in which the counter action of the key is produced by a spring; besides, the gravity action is much more uniform, and, in fact, unvariable, while a spring acts quite otherwise.

When found desirable, the metallic tube h may be made of such a length as to provide such an amount of comlensing-surface as may be requisite to cool the air when blown from the mouth and prevent any accumulation of dampness upon the reeds, which might otherwise result from the contact of warm air with them.

What I claim as my invention is 1. The reed-board of a reed-organ, constructed from a single piece of material and having the air-passages and the reed-chambers excavated therein, substantially as set forth.

2. The reed-board A, having formed therein the air-passage s, the reed-chambers s, and air-exit passages over the reeds, as shown, in combination with the keys (1, arranged to close by gravity-pressure said exit-passages, sub stantially as and for the purpose described.

3. The reed and keyboard A, constructed as shown, and provided with the vertical steady pins '5, in combination with the keys (I, slotted at their rear ends and provided with the weights 0 0, located as shown, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In combination, the reed and key board A, the reeds 8 the keys (I, and the air-induction pipes h and It, all constructed and arranged substantially as described and shown.

0. BARTLETT.

NVit-nesses F. P. LEONARD, WILLIAM S. NEWTON.

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