USRE12562E - Automatic attachment for pianos - Google Patents

Description

No. 12,562. REISSU-ED NOV. 20, 1906.

- J. A. SMITH.

AUTOMATIC ATTACHMENT FOR PIANOS.

\PPLIQATION FILED JAN. 28. 1904. A

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X TVitnesss-- 86 3' 3g 1 86 X 2 ohn UNITED STATES PATENT orFIoE.

JOHN A. SMITH, OF,BA.LTIMORE, MARYLAND. ASSIGNOR TO SMITH LYRAPHON E COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF WEST VIRGINIA.

AUTOMATIC ATTACHMENT FOR PIANOS.

Specification of Reissued. Letters Patent.

Original No. 723,056, dated March 17, 1903. Application for reissue filed January 28, 1904. Serial No. 191,066. I

sizes or widths of music-s eet rolls; also to provide the music-sheet-carrying frame with adjustable guides for the sheet, whereby the rately one of the removable tracker devices comprised by the contact-bar, duct-board,

the pneumatics lie. base 20,a removable duct- 'oard 81 is necessity of end flanges on the winding-roll is avoided, and thereby adapting the apparatus for the use of sheets of difierent widths; also to provide means for cutting off one or more of, the air-ducts when it is desired to use a music-sheet containing perforations within the normal compass of the tracker, and also to provide other other parts of such apparatus of novel construction and arrangement.

The invention consists of the new and novel parts and combination ofparts hereinafter shown, described, and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, in the severalfigures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a plan view showing the musicsheet-receiving frame and its attachments. Fig. 2 is a detail view in section showing the music-sheet-roll-carrying frame and its attachments. Fig. 3 is a detail view showing the means for cutting off one or more of the air-ducts. Figs. 4 and 5 are details of the tracker. Fig. 6 is a front view showing sepaand ducts.

My invention is adapted for use in connecpneumatics-one for each key to be operated and each in line withits respective keyis reached b the outside air to inflate it through a hole 1n the base or to board '20 of the wmd-chest, on the under si e of which 011 the to side. of this roll-frame.

screwed, having a series of holes coincident and communicating with theholes through the base-board leading to the pneumatics.

'The tracker 44 embodies a seriesof apertures 44*, in number equal to the number of pneumatics to be inflated by the passage of air through them, and arranged on'a scale to correspond with the several lines of perforations in the music-sheets that are to be used. On the face of the contact-bar over which the music-sheet passes these apertures 44- are quite-narrow, increasing in width until the opposite side is reached, when they are about as wide as long. (See Figs. 2 and 4.) The several apertures are separated'by thin Wedge shaped partitions 44 Into the lower portion of each aperture a flexible tube 82 is cemented and thence carriedvto and cemented in its corresponding hole in the duct? board 81, thus securing free and independent passage of the outer'air to each pneumatic through its respective aperture 44, duct 82, and holes through duct-board 81 and baseboard 20, governable by the travelof thev perforated music-sheet 42 over the contactbar 44. The contact-bar 44 is rigidl maintained in its proper position latera ly and with reference to its height by the supports 83, secured to it, their lower ends being screwed to the duct-board 81, the forward side of the contact-bar resting against the board 84, which is a longitudinal part of the The music-sheet 42 and its spool 42 and the take-up roll 43 rest in the frame 85.

Reissued Nov. 20, 1906,

To provide means for playing the several kinds of music out to any one scale, but vary,- l

ing as to their compass, I make the pianista to embrace all thekeys used in playing the music having the greatest compass, and in addition I include one or more notes both above and below to permit transpositionwithout the, loss of any of the higher or lower notes. For the notes above and-below the range of such music as has the smaller compass I make a slide cut-off valve 88 in the duct-board 81, each being individually independent and having a stop connection 88 pon the rolleframe 85 I. provide severai' pairs or sets of roll carriers or bracketed? .and 67, as above mentioned, and the rewinding-pulleys 66 for music-spools of different lengths, some adapted to be rewound at the right-hand end and some 'at the lefthand end and some having a greater compass than others. Thus it will be seen that by the use of these roll-carriers arranged at varying distances from the tracker and having some rewindfrom the right and others rewind from the left the-various styles of standard music'may be played upon the instrument without cl'ianging the roller-carrying brackets or the rewinding mechanism. For instance, the fifty-eight-note music out for the Aeolian Grand and the fifty-eightnote music for the Angelus vary in length, and one rewinds from the right and the other from the left, both of which may be played upon 'myimproved machine. By the use of the three sets of brackets as shown and described nearly all if not all of the standard music may be played upon my machine with out changing the roller-carrying brackets or the rewinding mechanism. These carriers or brackets and pulleys are all arranged at intervals back of the tracker 44, preferably those of the Widest sheets first, and so on back in order of their severalwidths, shown in Fig. 1. The take-upor winding roll 43 is not provided with the usual flanges at'its ends for guiding the music-sheet as it is Wound thereon. In accordance with myinvention and instead of these flanges I provide movable or adjustable guides 81), attached to their shifting arms 89, ad apted to be moved laterally along the bar 90, which is fixed to and forms part of the frame 85, to their proper positions to accurately guide the travel of the music-sheets as they are being moved onto the take-up roll 43. Notches 91 in the bar 84 are arranged to receive the rearward ends of the guides 89 and retain them in position to guide the sheets, which may be of any desired width.

The contact-bar 44 and the duct-board 81, with the ducts 82 cemented in them, as described, constitute a separable tracker or tracker-board, the duct-board being screwed to the top of the foundation or pneumatic board 20 and easily rem L vable for repairs or cleaning or for the substitution of another tracker adapted for music cut in a different scale, but having a duet-board the exact counterpart of the first-described one and that will exactly fit the pi anista.

In the several makes of perforated sheetmusic now in general use the lines of peri'o rations vary, some being cut five to one inch, some six to one inch, and so on, according to the particular piano player or players upon which it is designed to be used. By the use of my present invention all of the aforesaid music may be employed upon the same player.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that any number of trackers maybe employed interchangeably upon the same piano-player to accommodate the particular music-sheet to be used, as the lower ends of the apertures in each of the trackers register with the air-ducts leading to the pneumaties, whilethe upper ends ofthe said apertures over which the music-sheet passes vary in scale in the several trackers, whereb music sheets Whose several lines of per orations vary may be used upon the same player simply by changing the trackers.

As shown in Figs. 4 and. 5, the contact-bar 44 is constructed of a block of wood having a longitudinal slot increasing in width from the top to the bottom and provided .upon

each side of the slot with a series of saw-kerfs 44 ,-running parallel with the sides of the slot and adapted to receive the thin wedgeshaped partitions 44*, which are cemented in place, and thereby'forniing the tapering perforations 44*, into the lower ends of which the rubber tubes 82 are crowded, and imarranged between the tracker and the winding-roll, substantially as described. s

2. 111. an. automatic attachment for pianos, a tracker, a roll-carrying frame provided with a ilangelcss winding-roll, and. adjustable guides for the music-sheet on said frame arranged betwcen the tracker and the windingroll, substantially as described.

3. In an automatic attaelnnent for pianos, a roll-carrying frame provided with two or more independent setsof roll supporting and rewinding brackets arranged at'varying distances from the tracker, and adapted to receive rolls of different lengths, substantially as described.

4. In an automatic attachment for pianos, a roll-carrying frame provided with two or more independent sets of roll supporting and rewinding brackets arranged at varying distances from the tracker, and adapted to receive rolls of different lengths, the rewinding-brackets of each set being arranged upon opposite sides hf the frame, substanwind-chest, a tracker having a series of taiasea pering erforations formed by wedges aped pieces inserted in saw-kerfs in a tapering slot in said tracker, and perma nently connected with said ductboard by air-ducts, the said duct-board, tracker and their connecting air-ducts being adapted to be bodily removed from the wind-chest, substantially as described.

6. In an automatic attachment for pianos, the combination with the tracker having a series of tapering perforations formed by thin fiat wedge-shaped pieces inserted in sawkerfs in a tapering slot in said tracker, of air ducts crowded in the larger ends of said perforations and cemented therein, and a ductboard to which said air-ducts are secured, substantially as described.

7 In an automatic attachment for pianos, the combination with the duct-board and airducts connected therewith, of a series of individually-independent cut-offs for said air ducts, substantially as described.

8. In a pneumatic playing instrument, means for enabling the instrument to be controlled by music-sheets arranged in different scales, comprising tracker devices having a plurality of series of ducts suited to the re spective scales, and means for making either of said series of ducts operable upon the instrument.

9; The combination, with the pneumatic devices of a music-playing instrument, of tracker devices comprising two diilerentlyspaced series of ducts, and means for selectively employing either of the said series of ducts in operative relation to the said pneumatics.

10. The combination in a music-playing instrument, of a plurality of trackers having their respective ducts spaced in difl'erent scales, and means for locating and support l system,

1 l l l thin flat ing either of trackers in operative relation to the instrument.

11. The combination in a traclrenboard of a base provided with a series of air-passages and a plurality of trackers each provided with a series of air-apertures the outlets of which in both trackers are spaced to register with the airpassages oi the base, while the aperture-inlets of one tracker differ in spacing from those of the other tracker.

12. The combination in a music-play ng instrument, of a base provided -with a series of air-passages leading to pneumatic-actions, a plurality oi perforated controlling-sheets arranged in riliilerent scales, and a plurality of trackers each provided. with a series oi airapertures, the outlets of which are s aced to register with the air-passages of t. 1e base, while the aperture-inlets are spaced to register with the respective sheets.

1.3. The combination with a set or series of pneumatic-actions, provided with air-inlets, of a plurality of perforated controlling-sheets having their respective rows of perforations arranged in different spacing laterally oi' the sheet; and means for selectively establishing pneumatic connection between the said airinlets and the differently-spaced rows of perforations of the respectivacontrolling-sheets;

1 The combination, with a niusic-playing for different scales,

including a removable tracker, and means for selectively employing either of said trackers in to the instrument.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature two witnesses.

JOHN A. SliiITH,

controlling relation in the presence of Witnesses:

F. P. SMITH, Amen E. Gasser, I

instrument, of a plurality of trackers

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