US15019A - Melodeon - Google Patents

Description

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PUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSIAH A. ROLLINS, OF BUFFALO, NEXV YORK.

MELODEON.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 15,019, dated June 3, 1856; Ressued August 7, 1866, No. 2,330.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, JosrAH A. RoLLrNs, of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Melodeons; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, is a transverse vertical sectional view of all the principal operating parts of a melodeon with my improvements. Fig. 2, is a transverse section of the tube board. Fig. 3, is a plan of the tube board.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The object of this invention is, so to arrange wit-hin the instrument, four sets of reeds and to combine two sets of valves, to be played by one set of keys, as to keep all the reeds on one tube board and to make the const-ruction of the instrulnentsimpler, than when the reeds are arranged in two banks, and at the same time to avoid making the depth or width of the case of the four-reed instrument any greater than that of an instrument of the common kind, having only one set of valves.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I will proceed to describe its construct-ion and operation.

A, is the bellows.

B, is the wind receiver.

C is t-he stationary frame to which t-he sides of the wind receiver are attached and which serves to support the tube board D.

The above parts are all the same as in a common melodeon having only one set of valves, with the exception that cavities a, a, are formed in the front and back of the upper side of the frame, by which means the upper part of the wind receiver is widened on each side to the extent indicated between the lines and c, in Figs. 2 and 3, without enlarging the frame O, the tube board or the case, by simply extending it between the frame O, and the tube board, instead of limiting its width by the interior of the frame, as indicated between the lines Z), b, according to the usual plan. In this way a sufficient width is obtained for two sets of valves E and E', to work under the tube boards to admit wind to two double sets of reeds e, e, and e, c, arranged above them. The valves E of the front set are hinged at their front extremities and the valves E of the back set are hinged at their rear extremities. This arrangement brings the movable ends of the valves together and the end of every valve E, of the front set overlaps the end of a corresponding valve E, of the back set, as shown in Fig. 1, one guide pin f, serving for the two valves. This mode of fitting every two corresponding valves of the two sets enables the valves to be opened by a single acting key E, operating like that which is employed to open a single valve, by a push down pin g, pressing on the front valve the back valve being opened by the front one overlapping it and pressing it down, whenever it is itself depressed by the key. Both sets of valves are furnished with springs L, z, of the usual kind. The rear valves E, are attached to the tube board by aA simple hinge z', of leather, but the front valves E, in addition to their being attached by a strip of leather j, are supported by a fixed strip of wood if, see Fig. 1, which extends from end to end of the whole set of valves and serves as a kind of shelf for their ends to rest upon. This strip is necessary for the support of the front valves, as when they are depressed by the push down pins, the whole of the resistance of the springs of the corresponding rear valves is transmitted so as to act in a downward direction on the hinges of the front valves and the leather hinge alone would be insufficient to bear it. The pressure on the hinges of the rear valves in an upward direction like that on the valves of other melodeons and is sustained by the tube boards, therefore no support underneath them is necessary.

That I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,

1. The extension of the wind receiver toward the back and front of the case by forming cavities a., a, between the frame C, and the tube board D, substantially as herein described thereby obtaining room under the tube board for the operation of two sets of valves, one behind the other to operate on four sets of reeds without increasing the usual size of the case.

2. The arrangement of the two sets of valves E and E, to bring their movable ends together and the fitting of the said ends together so that by the depression of the valves of one set, to open them, the cortheir hinges by a strip K, of Wood or other responding valves of the other set are dematerial substantially as and for the pur pressed and opened, thereby eifecting the pose set forth.

Opening of the tWo sets of Valves by a single JOSIAH A. ROLLNS. 5 set of push-down pins, and keys of ordinary Witnesses:

construction. S. V. SLAYTON,

3. Supporting the front set of valves at l W. J. COWEN.

[FIRST PRINTED 1912.]

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