US7317A - Keed musical instbument - Google Patents

Description

(the reed or reeds.

YUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES AUSTIN, OF CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

REED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 7,317, dated April 30, 1850.

T o all whom t may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES AUSTIN, of Concord, in the county of Merrimack and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful improvement in reed musical instruments such as melodeons, seiaphins, or others of like character, in which a sounding-board is employed; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully de scribed and represented in the following specification and accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 1 denotes a top view of my improved sounding bo-ard and box, having the reeds applied directly to it, t-he said figure representing the series of valve chambers and valves, which are hinged to the rear edge of the upper surface of the sounding board, as turned back, for the purpose of uncovering and exhibiting the reeds. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the above, the valve chamber in this figure being represented as turned down upon, and over the sounding board, and as covering Fig. 3 is a vertical and longitudinal section of the sounding box. Fig. 4 is a cross section of a few of the valve chambers, their reeds and the part of the sounding board to which the reeds are directly applied.

The most important feature in my improved melodeon or reed instrument, consists in entirely dispensing with any metallic frame for supporting the reed, and the opening or passage within which it vibrates; the reed opening, by my improvement, being made directly through the wooden sounding board, and not in a frame or plate of brass or metal fastened thereto, in the usual manner. The reed is fastened or screwed directly to the wooden sounding board, and extends within and over the opening. By dispensing with the metal frame, heretofore arranged for sustaining the reed and its air passage, I am not only able to very much cheapen the cost of manufacturing an instrument, but I edect a very remarkable and highly important improvement in its tone; for I have discovered that when any metallic article is placed on a sounding board, the tone will be materially and injuriously affected by it; the probable cause of such injurious action being owing either to the difficulty of conducting sound through the metal, or from an influence which it exerts on the sounding board to prevent its proper vibration.

A nother very material improvement o1` addition to the reed consists in providing it with a sounding board and box, the latter 'producing on the sound emanating from the reed an effect very like that which is exerted on the strings of a violin or violoncello by the box over which they may be strained. The upper part of this box in the reed instrument, is its sounding board, the bottom of the box being a thin board made like the sounding board; the air which is blown upon the reed being condensed in the box, and suffered to low between the sounding board and the bottom of the box, its pressure of condensed state contributing, very materially, toward an improvement of the tone.

In Figs. l and 2, A represents the sounding board, or top board of a close box or chamber B, the air from the bellows being admitted into the box, through a series of openings a, a, a, &c. formed through the front part of its bottom board The reed openings 0, c, c, &c. are rectangular apertures cut directly through the sounding board, the reeds d, (Z, (Z, &c. being respectively applied to such openings, and confined to the sounding board by screws e, e, e, &c.

A rectangular frame D, or series of valve chambers f, f', &c., is hinged to the rear edge of the sounding board by a tight hinge or piece of leather, or other suitable substance g, the lower part of this frame, or

that partof it, which rests directly on the sounding board, and between and around each of the reeds, being cushioned with leather, as seen at 7L, h, h, in order to prevent a circulation of air from one valve` placed; it being held down on, or against its seat, by a spring Z, and lifted by the key lever connected with it, in any proper manner.

What I claim as my invention or improvement in reed instruments, made With a sounding board, is,

To make the reed opening c, directly throughA the Wooden sounding board, in combination with the applying of the reed directly to the same, and fastening it to the sounding board; instead of using any metallic frame for the opening and reed, as has been the customary method of making and constructing such instruments; my sald invention, by dispensing With'the said metal frame, not only producing a remarkable improvement in the tone, but a great saving in the cost of construction of an instrument.

In testimony whereof I have hereto set my signature, this twelfth day of February,

CHARLES AUSTIN. Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, CALEB EDDY.

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