ments for the Automatic Graphic Registration of the Music while being Played.
Year: 1885

page_text: ments for the Automatic Graphic Registration of the Music
while being Played.
I ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a Communication from
Paul Boehm and Fedor Juliusberger of Berlin in the German Empire) and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
The object of this invention is to design an apparatus for Key instruments which
registers automatically and graphically any music while it is being played in such
a manner that it is correct regarding the value of each note and also easy to read
and to transcribe into the ordinary system of notes.
This system of graphic reproduction is not only valuable to composers wishing
to register new compositions while being played but also for music teachers who
may correct their scholars mistakes after playing without the necessity of the
teachers presence.
In the accompanying drawings
Figure 1 represents in section and
Figure 2 in plan the arrangement of the registering pencils.
Figure 3 section of figure
on line xx.
Figure 4 a registered piece of music on the registering paper.
Figure 5 the same transcribed.
Figure 6 a registering pencil double size.
Figure 6 section of figure 6.
Figure 6B cross section of figure 6 on line y y.
The arrangement consists essentially in furnishing each key of the instrument
with a registering pencil. On depressing the key the registering pencil is pressed
against a slowly passing continuous web preferably of paper and the note will be
thereon registered according to the position of the key on the instrument and the
value through the length of the depression of the key registering a shorter or longer
stroke on the paper, which is ruled in accordance with the key board.
ر

page_text: In the key instruments which are at present in use such as Pianos, Harmoniums
and organs, the notes of the diatonic scale are represented by the white keys in
front and the half notes supplementing the chromatic scale by the elevated black
back keys. To facilitate the reading of the registered music, the synchronous notes
must be registered on the same horizontal line on the paper and the registering
pencils are to be arranged therefore on the underside of the keys in a horizontal
line, as shown by the small dotted circles in Figure 2.
To enable the registering pencils to register a hard depression as well as a soft
touch without tearing or injuring the paper, each pencil is provided with a spring
arrangement which even enables the softest and finest repeating note to be properly
registered as such.
The registering pencil is represented in Figure 6, 6º, and 6b in double size, and
the pencil S consists of a sleeve a with a wood screw b in its upper part.
In this sleeve a is another sleeve d for the reception of the pencil c which
sleeve is held down by a small spiral spring & situated in the upper part of
sleeve a.
The downward tendency of sleeve d is limited by the pin e fastened
in sleeve d and sliding in a slit a¹ in sleeve a.
Underneath these pencils which are screwed into the underside of the keys by.
the screws bis the reproduction roller W on which is rolled the continuous web
of paper. The even unrolling of the paper P from the roller W on to the roller W¹
during the playing is effected through an ordinary well known clock work mechanism,
for instance through the spring barrel F with gearing g engaging with the gearing 9³
of the receiving roller W₁ through the intermediate wheel g'. This clock work
mechanism has also a stopping arrangement to stop the movement of the rollers or
to release them at will. The reproduction roller W is also movable and can be so
set that the pencils do not touch the paper in case no registering is wanted.
The paper for the reception of the registered music is ruled vertically in accord-
ance with the keys on the key board to enable and facilitate the reading of the
strokes representing the notes according to their height or depth see Figure 4.
For the same object the names of the notes (as c, d, etc) are printed on the
paper at intervals and the horizontal ruling of the paper facilitates the reading of
the value or duration of each note and their consecutive order.
In Figure 3 the chord of C is being played and registered as shown on the first
line of the paper represented in Figure 4.
Figure 4 represents the register of the first 3 bars of L. von Beethoven's sonata
No 3 op: 2 transcribed into the ordinary system in Figure 5 (Figure 4 is written
two octaves too low because of shortness of space).
:
In Figure 4 it will be seen that the breves in the bass of the first bar are repre-
sented as long strokes in their respective vertical columns of C and Q while the
semiquavers of the second half of the first bar are only represented by long points.
This graphic register of a piece of music as a new composition not yet written
or a Fantasia can now easily be transcribed into the ordinary system if desired.
It is also evident that this arrangement will enable the teacher to correct the
practising of a pupil afterwards without the teacher being present during such
practising and will also enable him to know whether the pupil has practised and
how long as the pupil has to unwind the register from Roller W₁ cut it off and
present it to the teacher.
This arrangement may also be placed at the further end of the key board and the
pencils pressed against the paper roller through intermediate levers or otherwise.
A shifting of the paper P on the roller W sideways is prevented by discs at the
ends of the rollers. The pencils may also be arranged in a frame under the key
board instead of being screwed into the keys themselves in such a manner that a
depression of the key also depresses the pencil and brings it into contact with the
paper, while the releasing of the key also releases the pencil which is drawn upwards
by a spring with an upward tendency.
Lastly it may be mentioned, that the pencils if made longer and arranged radially
towards the middle of the key board would allow a shorter paper roller to be used.

page_text: for registering the music which would facilitate the subsequent reading thereof
By the term pencil is meant a suitable marking point and not merely a common
lead pencil.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondents I declare that what I claim is
1. An arrangement on key board instruments for the graphic registration of the
music during the playing thereof, consisting essentially in the use of registering
pencils S operated by the keys in combination with a steadily travelling web of
paper or equivalent P ruled in the direction of its length in accordance with the
key board and also at equal intervals across for the purpose of receiving a graphic
registration of the notes thereon showing their height or depth, value and con-
secutive order to allow the music to be easily transcribed into the ordinary system
the whole constructed and operating substantially as specified.
2. In an apparatus such as specified a registering elastic pencil consisting essen-
tially of a sleeve a with the screw b and the sleeve d with the pencil c in the
interior of sleeve a in combination with the spiral spring & in the sleeve a and
the pin e fastened in sleeve d sliding in the slot a¹ in sleeve a acting as stop to the
sleeve d in its downward tendency through the spiral spring 8 substantially as
specified.