IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF REEDS FOR HARMONIUMS AND OTHER SIMILAR FREE REED INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hyacinthe Gabriel Gouverneur, of Stebbington
Street, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF REEDS FOR HARMONIUMS AND
OTHER SIMILAR FREE REED INSTRUMENTS."
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Hyacinthe Gabriel
Gouverneur at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition and Declaration, on the 28th December 1871, pursuant to
the 9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HYACINTHE
GABRIEL GOUVERNEUR, of Stebbington Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF REEDS FOR HARMONIUMS AND OTHER SIMILAR FREE REED
INSTRUMENTS," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for: the

page_text: be the first and true Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hyacinthe Gabriel Gouverneur,
do hereby declare that the following Complete Specification, under
my hand and seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and forming part
of this Specification, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
to say :-
My Invention consists in constructing the frames of reeds of har-
moniums and similar free reed instruments in the following manner: —
I form the frame of the reed by stamping it out of a sheet of
suitable metal in a trough shape, the trough being somewhat wider than
the orifice formed in the bottom thereof for receiving the tongue or
vibrating part of the reed. A great economy of time and material is
thereby effected as compared with the old method of manufacture, accord-
ing to which the reed frames have been heretofore made out of blocks
or pieces of metal, the vibrating part or tongue being fixed in a trough
cut out of the solid block, or partly cast and partly finished by hand.
Besides being much more economical, the reed frame, made as above
described and shewn in the Drawing hereunto annexed, having a trough
somewhat wider than the orifice in which the tongue vibrates, and being
made of thinner sides, enables a much more sonorous and perfect tone
to be obtained than could be obtained with reed frames of the old
construction. The tongues or vibrators of the reeds are made and fixed
to the frame in the ordinary manner.
To make my Invention better understood, I will proceed to describe
the same by reference to the accompanying Drawing, in which Figure 1
is a plan of three octaves of reeds made according to my Invention;
Figure 2 longitudinal section, and Figure 3 a cross section of one of the
reeds taken on the lines x, x, and y, y, of Figure 1. Figures 4, 5, and 6,
front elevations of the stamps and dies, which I prefer using to form the
frames of the improved reeds. These stamps and dies are drawn of the
size required to form a reed frame of the size shewn in Figures 2 and 3,
and are shewn detached from the presses which operate them.
The frames of my improved reeds a, a, a, as seen in Figures 1, 2,
and 3, are made in the form of a trough rounded at the edges and ends,

page_text: and of thin sheet metal. The tongues or vibrators b, b, are of the usual
form, and are fixed to the frames a, a, by rivets c, c, in the usual
manner.
I form the frames of the reeds in the following manner:- -I take a
piece of sheet brass or other suitable metal, and of the required thick-
ness, from which I cut, by means of the stamp shewn in Figure 4 (which
must be fixed in a suitable press), a piece of the shape shewn in
Figure 7, this being the shape of the cutter d of the stamp. This piece
is then placed on the die shewn in Figure 5, and pressure being applied
to the stamp e, the piece is stamped into the required shape to form the
frame; and finally, to form the rectangular orifice for the tongue and
the screw holes f, f, at the end of the frame, the stamped piece is placed
in the die shewn in Figure 6, and pressure being applied to the stamp,
the rectangular orifice will be cut by the stamp g, and the holes f, f, by
the stamps or punches h, h. The frame thus formed is smoothed off by
hand; and the rivet holes being drilled and the tongue fixed in the usual
manner, the reed is completed.
Having now described my Invention, and the best means I am
acquainted with for carrying the same into effect, what I claim is, the
construction in the manner above mentioned of the frames of reeds for
harmoniums and other similar free reed instruments of a hollow form, as
herein-before described and represented in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hyacinthe Gabriel Gouverneur, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one.