A Keyboard Mechanism for Facilitating the Playing of Stringed Musical Instruments of the Violin Class.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 27th June, 1893-Accepted, 9th Dec., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Keyboard Mechanism for Facilitating the Playing of Stringed
Musical Instruments of the Violin Class.
I, EDMOND JULIEN DE VLAMINCK of 35, Rue Jean Laurent, Vesinet, (Seine-
et-Oise) France, Professor of Music, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
-
My invention relates to a keyboard device for facilitating the playing of the
violin and other stringed musical instruments of the same class, in which the
strings are usually required to be stopped or shortened by the fingers of
the performer in order to produce the intermediate tones, and it has for its object
to provide mechanism for stopping or shortening the strings operated by a key-
board whereby any person having a slight knowledge of the piano or organ may
be enabled to play on a stringed instrument of the violin class in absolutely correct
tune which is dependent only upon the accurately regulated position of the pressers
which act on a stop or shorten the strings in lieu of, and in the same manner as is
now done by, the fingers of the performer. Each presser acts upon two strings at
a time and the strings are bowed in the ordinary manner for obtaining the various
effects now produced by the different strokes of the bow in such instruments.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this
Specification, wherein
Figure 1 represents a plan of the key-board,
Figure 2 an underside plan of the key-board mechanism, and
Figure 3 a transverse vertical section, on line 1-2 Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 4 is an elevation and Figure 5 a transverse section on line 3-4, of the
mechanisin for operating the pressers of the third and fourth strings of the
instrument.
Figure 6 is an elevation of the mechanism for operating the pressers of the first
and second strings.
Figure 7 shews, on a reduced scale, a perspective view of the keyboard device as
applied to a tenor violin.
The same letters of reference denote like parts in all the figures.
The apparatus comprises a series of presser-levers a pivoted at a¹ upon a rail b
and provided with retracting springs c. The heads d of the pressers are faced with
leather or other equivalent material upon a backing of india-rubber, and are
caused to press upon and stop or shorten the third and fourth strings fe of the
instrument by means of levers g* pivoted at g' upon a rail h, the said levers lying
in forks or notches at the back of the presser levers a and being connected by
ties to obliquely-arranged levers m pivoted at m' on a rail n and connected by
ties and regulating hooked wires with the corresponding key-levers o at the
lowermost or bass end of the keyboard. A second series of presser-levers p are
pivoted at pl upon a rail b¹ and provided with retracting springs c¹. The presser
heads dare faced in a similar manner to the others and they are caused to act
upon and shorten the first and second strings rg of the instrument by means of
levers g which are provided near their ends with forks or notches 9 in which lie
the ends of levers s pivoted at upon a rail n' and connected by ties and
regulating wires with the corresponding remaining keys o of the keyboard.
The apparatus is represented, in the example shewn, as applied to a tenor violin,
in which case it comprises a series of seven pressers for the strings ef, which are
the covered or bass strings of the instrument, and a series of twenty-one pressers
for the strings q r. The first string of the tenor is replaced by a string giving the
re open so the tuning of the instrument which is ordinarily do, sol, re, la, becomes

page_text: do, sol, re, re, the second re being the octave of the first. The compass of the
instrument is about four octaves and extends thus from the lower C to B on the
fifth line above the stave. The apparatus is placed directly upon the strings as
clearly shewn in Figure 7, that is to say upon the neck or finger board of the
instrument which is supported upon two bearers placed one beneath the neck near
the head and the other at the end of the tail-piece. On depressing the keys o the
corresponding pressers will stop or shorten the strings of the instrument and in
this manner any kind of music may be executed, whether written for a tenor or
other violin. For example, the white keys 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, serve for the fourth and
third strings, the key No. 1 will give the do on the open fourth string, the
presser d which corresponds to key No. 3 will stop the string and give the re,
key No. 5 the mi, the key No. 6 the fa, and the key No. 8 the sol. The pressers
actuated by the black keys Nos. 2, 4, and 7, will give the semitones. On the third
string, the key No. 1 will give the sol upon the open string, the presser corre-
sponding to the key No. 3 will give the la, the key No. the si, the key No. 6
the do, and key No. 8 the re, whilst the keys 2, 4, and 7, will give the semitones.
Similarly, the key No. 8 will give the re on the open second string, the
key No. 10 the mi, and key No 11 the fa, and so on. The key No. 8 will also
give, in the upper octave, the re on the first string, the key No. 10 the mi, and
so on to key No. 29 which will give the si natural on the first string.
the
The keyboard mechanism may be applied to all kinds of instruments of the violin
class, such as violins, violas or tenors, violoncellos or basses, double basses, and
generally to all similarly stringed instruments.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is―
1st. A keyboard mechanism for facilitating the playing of stringed musical
instruments of the violin class, consisting in the combination of a keyboard through
the medium of levers and connections, as described, with two series of pressers for
stopping or shortening the strings, the one series acting simultaneously upon the
two lower strings of the instrument and the other series acting simultaneously upon
the two upper strings, substantially as described, for the purpose specified.
2nd. The combination, with a keyboard mechanism of the kind described, of an
instrument having the two higher strings tuned to an octave, substantially as
described.
3rd. The combination of the keyboard mechanism specified in Claim 1 with all
kinds of stringed musical instruments of the violin class, substantially as and for
the purpose described.
Dated this 27th day of June 1902
E. J. DE VLAMINCK,
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.