US252977A - Otto spaethe - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

0. SPAETHE.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

No. 252,977. Patented Jan. 31,1882.

INVENTOR lllilllmm ITNESSES:

AIICIINBY PETERS. Pmla-ulnognphor. wasmngmn, D. C.

U NITED STATES PATENT OEEICE..

OTTO SPAETHE, OF GERA, GERMANY.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 252,977, dated January 31, 1882.

Application lcd June 2l, 1881.

To all Iwhom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, Or'ro SrAET1rE,ot'Gera, in the Empire ot' Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mechani cal Musical Instruments or Melophones, of which the following is a specitcation.

This invention relates to a mechanical musical instrument ot' that class in which the operation of the sound-producing devices is controlled by a perforated. sheet ot' paper, and more especially to an improved instrument of that class to which I have given the name of melophone,77 in which the sounds are accompanied by the ringing of bells, whose actuating mechanism is also set in motion by said perforated sheet.

The invention consists of the connection with a musical instrument, the reeds of which are operated 'by means of compressed air and a perforated sheet of paper drawn through the instrument, of a series of bells and spring-acted hammers or tongues, the latter being provided with projecting noses, which are engaged by the pert'orations of the paper and dropped into narrow slots intermediately between the regular wind-openings or" the reeds.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l represents a side elevation, partly in longitudinal section, of my improved melophone. Fig. 2 is a plan View of the same, with parts removed. Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section ot the instrument on line w x, Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional side view ot' a bell and its actuating mechanismen an enlarged scale.

Similar let-ters of reference i-ndicate corresponding parts.

By reference Yto the drawings it will appear that the instrument is composed of two main partsa top part, A, and a bottom part, B. The top part, A,is connected byhooks orotherwise with the bottom part, B. Vithin the top part-, A, is arranged a spring-cushioned rail,O, the lower part of which is recessed or slitted intermediately between the regular wind-recesses, so as to provide space for a series of spring acted hammers or tongues,D, which are fulcrumed to a pivot-rod, a, at the rear end ot' the rail C, and extended through slots b ofthe end wall of the top part, A, to the outside, so as to strike, when actuated, a corresponding series of bells, F, of diiierent sizes, which are se- (No model.)

cured to tixed posts at the end wall ofthe top part, A. By the action ot springs applied to the lower ends of the hammers or tongues D the downwardly-projecting noses with which the hammers are provided are caused to pioject into slots p ofthe top ot' the wind chestm, arranged in the bottom part, B. In the top part,A,is also arranged, in front of the rail D, aspring-pressed rubber-covered roller, c,which, in connection with a similar covered roll, k, of the bottom part, takes hold of the pert'orated sheetofpapergandpullsthesamethrough between the top and bottom parts, A B. The bottom part, B, contains the bellows g, which are connected by a pitman, 7i, with a crank on the shaft of the roller lo, which latter is operated byacrank-handle, l, connected to the outer end of its shaft. The air passes from the bellows g into vthe wind-chest m, as shown in Figs. l and 3, and from there to the reeds a, which are thus kept continually under air-pressure, as usual in instruments ot' this class. The air and the sounds are emitted through openings o at the top ot' the wind-chest lm, intermediately between which the narrow slotsp, for the noses otl the hammers or tongues D, are arranged. When the perforated actuating-sheet is placed is position on the bottom part, B, and then the top part, A, placed thereon and secured tightly by its hooks or other fastening devices, the spring-pressed rail O, as well as the hammers or tongues D, press the sheet q firmly upon the openings o and p, while the rollers c and k take hold ot' the same for forward motion. By turning the crank-handle l the rollers c and lt, as well as the bellows g, are set in motion, and consequently the perforated sheet moved forward, so that whenever the pert'orations ot' the sheet register with one or more of the openings o, the compressed air contained in the windchest is emitted through the opening o in proportion to the size oi' the perforations, so as to sound the reeds, while when the perforations ot' the sheet register with the slots p the hammers or tongues D sound the bells` bythe dropping ot' their noses into the slots p. In this manner the music played by the instrument vis appropriately accompanied by the sounding ot' bells, which produces an exceedingly pleasing and striking et't'ect.

Having thus described myinvention, l claim IOO as new and desire to secure by Letters Pat- In testimony that I claim the foregoing as entmy invention I have signed my name iu preslo In a mechanical musical instrument or meloence of two Witnesses this 22d (lary of April, phone7 the combination, with the wind-obesi: m, 1881.

5 having openings o and intermediate narrower OTTO SPAETHE.

slots,p, ofa supporting-rail (l, spring-actuated Vitnesses: levers D, having noses d, and bells F, subsinn- C. BRUNO, tially as and for the purpose Set; forth; I NESTOR SCHMIDT.

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