IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO ORGANS AND FREE-REED INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Willis, of Manchester Street, Gray's. Iun.
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Organ Builder, for the Invention of
"IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO ORGANS AND FREE-REED
INSTRUMENTS,"
Sealed the 9th June 1857, and dated the 14th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Willis at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th April 1857.
I, HENRY WILLIS, of Manchester Street, Gray's Inn Road, in the County of
Middlesex,Organ Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO ORGANS AND FREE-REED INSTRU-
MENTS," to be as follows:-
The prinicipal object of this Invention is to supply by hydraulic power
a continous blast of air to the bellows of organs and free-reed instruments..
This I propose to effect by means of a pair of hydraulic engines, either;
stationary or oscillating. When employing stationary engines, I set up a pair.
of cylinders between or adjacent to feeders of the bellows, and connect
together the opposite ends of the cylinders respectively by means of pipes or
waterways. The opposite ends of these ways I bring alternately into com-
munication with a supply and discharge pipe by means of four-way cocks.
On the head of each of the cocks which govern the supply and discharge of
water to and from their respective cylinders I mount an arm, which I joint
to a slotted connecting rod or link. In the slot of cach of these rods works a

page_text: pin, that projects from the piston rod of the adjacent cylinder. Thus, by the
traverse motion of the piston of one cylinder, I regulate the supply and
discharge of water to and from the other. The piston rods I connect respec-
tively in any convenient manner with the middlo leaf of the double feeders.
As, therefore, the engine is double-acting, the feederswill be kept in continuous
operation, and cause a continuous blast of air to be thrown into the reservoir
of the bellows. In some cases, in order to render the action of the engine more
efficient, I propose to employ rising and falling filling pieces, which, as the
pistons come towards the end of their stroke, will move out of a recess, and
by filling a portion of the space between the piston aud cylinder head, after
the water is cut off by excentric or other means, will prevent the formation
of a partial vacuum behind the piston.
When applying oscillating engines to the purposes of this Invention, the
four-way cocks, before mentioned, will not be required, slides with suitable
apertures being adopted to regulate the supply and discharge. I transmit the
motion of the pistons in this instance through a crank shaft to vibrating
feeders, and thus produce a continuous supply of wind. Or, when a high
pressure of air is required, instead of (or in conjunction with) the vibrating
feeders or the double feeders before mentioned, I employ air pumps, which I
connect with the engine in any ordinary manner,and thus obtain a continuous
blast. In order to govern the engine and regulate the supply of air to the
demand, I cause the reservoir of the bellows in rising to operate through
suitable connecting gear on a stop-cock or cocks in the water supply or
discharge pipe,and thereby to control the amount of water to be passed to the
engine.
Instead of drawing the air which is to feed the bellows from the level at
which the feeders are situated,(which level is generally considerably belowthat
of the swell organ,) I propose to construct the bellows in such a way as to
receive the lower ends of air trunks or channels, which will conduct the air
from a higher level down the bellows. The advantage of this arrangement is,
that when the air of an apartment becomes rarified by increase of tempera-
ture, that air will be distributed through the organ, and thus the change of
pitch in the pipes due to the rise of temperature of the upper stratum of air
in the building will be equalized throughout the organ. To provide against
the possibility of the blowing engine being inadvertently left in action by the
organist, I propose to connect a cut-off cock by means of suitable trackers
with a stop so situated, that on the closing of the key doors of the organ the
stop shall be forced inwards and cause the supply of water to be cut off.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Willis in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WILLIS, of Manchester Street, Gray's Inn Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Organ Builder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Willis, Her special license that I, the said Henry Willis, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Willis, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR
SUPPLYING AIR TO ORGANS AND FREE-REED INSTRUMENTS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Henry Willis, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Willis, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The principal object of this Invention is to supply by hydraulic power a
continuous blast of air to the bellows of organs and free-reed instruments.
This I propose to effect through the agency of a pair of hydraulic engines,
either stationary or oscillating, worked by water delivered to the cylindersata
suitable pressure, and derived from the street mains or other available source.
The piston rods of these engines I connect to feeders constructed by pre-
ference on the principle of the accordian bellows, but the ordinary construction
of feeders may be employed where thought desirable.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shews, in partial sectional elevation, a

page_text: pair of stationary hydraulic engines arranged according to the plan which I
have adopted for working the feeders of the great organ in the cathedral at
Carlisle, and Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view of the same. a, a¹, are the
hydrauliccylinders, situated immediately below the feeders b, 61, of the bellows,
aud fitted with pistons a*, the rods of which are connected respectively with
the centres of the diaphragms of the feeder. The opposite ends of the cylin-
'ders a, a', are connected by branch pipes c with a main supply pipe d, and the
supply of water to each cylinder is governed by a four-way cock e, which
alternately admits water to and discharges it from the opposite ends of the
cylinder. On the head of each of the cocks e an arm † is fixed, and to this
arm is loosely jointed a connecting bar g, one end of which is jointed to a
link h, pendent from a fixed pin on the framing of the engine, while the other
end carries a pin which works freely in the slot of a rod i, pendent from the
diaphram or middle leaf b* of the feeder. By referring to the Drawing it
will be seen that the cock of the engine a is connected to the feeder which
the engine a¹ is intended to drive, and vice versâ; thus the working of the
cocks, and consequently the regulating of the supply of water to the opposite
sides of the pistons, will depend upon the motion imparted by the engines to
the diaphragms or middle leaves 6* of their respective feeders. k, k, are pipes
for conveying away the discharge water from the cylinders a. The feeders, it
will be understood, are each of them double-acting, the disc b* forming a
central division in the expanding air chamber, and dividing it into two com-
partments 1, 2. In these feeders 1, 1, (Fig. 1,) are the inlet valves for the
compartment 1, and 2*, *, are the inlet valves for the compartment 2. The
air drawn in from all these valves passes to an air chamber m, as indicated by
the arrows, and thence, passing out at the valve opening m*, enters an air
trunk n, leading to the bellows o, situated above. For the purpose of govern-
ing the discharge of the wind from the chamber m, and thereby indirectly of
governing the action of the engine, so that too minch wind shall not be thrown
into the bellows, 1 cover the opening m* with a roller valve, (for which I
obtained Letters Patent, bearing date theTwenty-eighth dayof February, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one,) and connect that valve by means of a
tracker with the bellows, (in the manner to be presently described,) whereby
the vulve will be caused to close as the bellows fills, and as the wind is
.expended and the bellows collapses will open wider to admit more air thereto.
Pendent from the leaf or upper board of the bellows is a tracker rod p, which
passes through a hole in the top of the chamber m, and is connected to a
band or tape q, which is lapped round the centre of the valve roller. To this
tape is also attached a helical spring, the lower end of which is secured to

page_text: the bottom of the chamber m. The tendency of this spring is to unwind the
tape 2, and thereby to wind up the roller valve and lay open the passage m⭑.
As the bellows fills with wind it causes the tracker to take off the pull of the
spring from the tape q,as indicated in the Drawing, and the valve is then free
to fall and check the supply of wind to the bellows, but as the upper board of
the bellows falls it leaves the spring free to act again on the tape, and so wind
up
and open the roller valve wider. It will now be understood that as soon
as the escape of wind from the feeders is checked the action of the engines
will be checked also,and that by this means the supply of wind to the bellows
will be self-regulating. Instead of employing the air in the feeders to check
the action of the engines, the same effect may be produced by connecting the
bellows either with a throttle valve in the water supply pipe or in the water
discharge pipe in such a manner that the expansion of the bellows will effect
a corresponding diminution in the supply of water to the engines. This
arrangement as connected with the water supply pipe is also shewn in Fig. 1,
wheres is a rod pendent from the upper board of the bellows, and connected
to an arm on the spindle of the throttle valve t. The rise and fall of the
bellows will therefore cause a continuously fluctuating supply of water to the
cylinders a, a¹. u is a stop-cock, governed by a rod ux, which leads to any
part of the organ convenient for operating it. This rod may be worked by
hand to stop the action of the engines when the organ is not in use, but I
propose also to connect it with a stop in the organ, which stop shall protrude
to such an extent, that, in the act of closing the key doors of the organ when
the performance has terininated, this stop shall be thrust inwards,and by that
motion cut off the supply of water to the hydraulic engines. In some cases, in
order to render the action of the eugines more efficient, I propose to employ
rising and falling filling pieces, which as the pistons come towards the end of
their stroke will, after the water is cut off, move out of a recess,and by filling
a portion of the space between the piston and cylinder head prevent the for-
-mation of a partial vacuum behind the piston. This part of my Invention is
illustrated at Fig. 3, which represents in section one of a pair of oscillating
cylinders fitted with the improved arrangement for filling the vacuum caused
by the traverse of the piston after the cutting off of the supply of water.
w, w, are falling pieces of vulcanized india-rubber, which may be fitted into
recesses made in the cylinder heads, or laid flat against them, and secured at
their edges to prevent water getting behind them. Access of air is permitted
behind these filling.pieces by piercing the cylinder heads. When, therefore,
there is a tendency by the recession of the piston to produce a vacuum behind
it, the filling piece behind the piston will advance out of its recess and fill the

page_text: space, as already explained, and on the return motion of the piston it will
fall back into its normal position, the filling piece at the opposite end of the
cylinder advancing in its turn and acting in like manner. When applying
oscillating engines for producing a continuous blast of air to the bellows of
.organs, the four-way cocks before mentioned will not be required, but in place
of these I employ slides with suitable apertures for regulating the supply and
discharge of the water. The motion of the pistons I transmit through a
crank shaft to vibrating feeders, and thus produce a continuous supply of
wind. It will be obvious, that in cases where free-reed instruments are con-
structed on such a scale as to require a motive power, such as that described
for supplying air to organs, my improved hydraulic engiues may be applied
with advantage in connection with such instruments. When a high pressure
of air is required instead of (or in conjunction with) the vibrating feeders or
the double feeders before mentioned, I employ air pumps, which I connect
with the engine in any ordinary manner, and thus obtain a continuous
blast.
The last part of my Invention relates to a mode of equalizing the tem-
perature of all parts of the organ, and thereby of keeping it in tune while
temporarily exposed to the heat of a crowded hall or apartment. For this
purpose, instead of drawing the air which is to feed the bellows from the level
at which the feeders are situated (which level is generally considerably below
that of the swell organ), I propose to construct the bellows in such a way as
to receive the lower ends of air trunks or channels, which will conduct the air
from a higher level down to the bellows. This improvement is shown in the
sectional view, Fig. 4, which represents a bellows fitted with an elevated air
trunk. The air is drawn froin the upper part of the hall in which the organ
is situated down the trunk x, from which it passes through a valve * to the
feeder y, and from the feeder y it passes through the valves y*, y*, into the
bellows z. The advantage of this arrangement is, that when the air of an
apartment becomes rarefied by increase of temperature, that air will be dis-
tributed through the organ,and thus the discrepancy of pitch in the pipes will
be removed. This discrepancy is due as is well known to the rise of tempera-
ture of the upper stratum of air in the building, and the heating of certain of
the pipes most exposed to its influence, while those enclosed in the swell box
remained scarcely affected by the heat, owing to the blast of cold air thrown
into that chamber by the bellows from below.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Machinery
for Supplying Air to Organs and Free-reed Instruments, and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do

page_text: not confine myself to the means above explained for regulating the action of
the hydraulic engines, as other plans might, doubtless, be adopted equally
applicable to the purposes of my Invention, but what I claim under the above
in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First, applying pairs of hydraulic engines constructed and operating as
above described for the purpose of throwing a continuous blast of air into
the bellows of organs and free-reed instruments, and thereby preventing con-
cussion of the air and avoiding the tremulous intonation of the pipes and
free reeds.
Secondly, connecting the piston rods of the fixed engines directly to the
diaphragms of parallel acting double feeders, as illustrated by Fig. 1.
And, thirdly, applying to the bellows of organs the means of drawing air
from an elevation in heated apartments, for the purpose above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Willis, have hereunto set my hand
and scal, the Fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord.
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
HENRY WILLIS. (L.S.)