Improvements in Cornets or similar Musical Instruments.
Year: 1886

page_text: Improvements in Cornets or similar Musical Instruments.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firin of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CORNETS OR SIMILAR MUSICAL INSTRU-
MENTS to be as follows:-
"
This invention relates to brass musical instruments.
The defect of brass wind instruments having pistons or cylinders is the want of
exactness of the sounds which result from the simultaneous employment of several
pistons or cylinders. This defect is inevitable with the ordinary methods of
construction because if the tubes of the pistons successively lower the note, say
a tone by the employment of the first piston, a semitone by the employment of
the second, and a tone and a half by the employment of the third piston, then,
although these tubes are of the required length when employed separately, they
are of an insufficient length to produce correct notes when united. This result is
in accordance with a law in acoustics the explanation of which is useless here, and
is a defect which musical instrument makers acknowledge and which several have
sought to remedy.
The remedy has been effected by some by the employment of special pistons
provided with a number of holes for the purpose of combining the passages of the
column of air so as to afford compensating lengths to the tubes, or to place a new
series of tubes in connection therewith each time several pistons are used in com-
bination. These arrangements, however, offer numerous inconveniences; In fact ;
the air-distributing holes being more numerous than is ordinarily the case the
closing surface must of necessity be greater and the loss of air is with difficulty
avoided; also the column of air being more disturbed, its regular proportions
become only imperfectly established.
These defects of construction cause a want of sonority, a certain difficulty in the
emission of the sounds, and, moreover, with additional lengths of tubes well com-
bined for producing exact fundamental sounds, irregularities in the vibratory
proportions of harmonies quite as prejudicial to the general exactness as the
defects in the lengths caused by the simultaneous employment of several pistons.

page_text: The object of this invention is to remedy these defects, and this I accomplish
without any great changes; the ordinary pistons having six distributing holes.
According to the said invention I employ a supplementary piston or regulator
which I arrange upon the passages of the additional tube of the first and third
pistons at the most suitable points to facilitate the operation.
This regulating piston is adapted to be operated by one of the free fingers of the
left hand or of the right hand, according to the form and construction of the
instrument; it is only employed in the combinations necessitating the joint
operation of the three pistons or of the 1st and 3rd. The operation of the
regulator lengthens the additional tube sufficiently to establish the exact length
necessary for the note to be lowered two tones and a half by the simultaneous
employment of the first and third piston.
Employed separately, each of the pistons acts as an ordinary piston, thereby
permitting the performer to preserve all his habits of fingering and to make
himself progressively familiar with the regulator.
If the performer has to tune the sliding piece of the third piston so as to lower
the note two exact tones by its employment with the second piston, it follows that
all the other combinations furnish lengths of pipes sufficiently exact in practice for
ensuring exactness over the whole range of the instrument. The regulating piston
can be applied in the manner described to instruments constructed with four or
more pistons; combinations employing several regulating pistons can then be used
for producing the exact lengths and consequently ensuring absolute exactness.
This system can also be applied in the same manner to tubes having other
lengths than those described above for each of the pistons and which I have not
specified because they are those in ordinary use. This system has also this
advantage that it can be applied to instruments having rotary or other cylinders,
and that the regulator itself can be one of these cylinders.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
For the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in Cornets or similar Musical Instruments.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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:-
This invention relates to cornets and similar musical instruments.
The defect of brass wind-instruments having pistons or cylinders is the want of
exactness of the sounds which result from the simultaneous employment of several
pistons or cylinders. This defect is inevitable with the ordinary methods of
construction, because if the additional tubes of the pistons successively lower the
note, say a tone by the employment of the first piston, a semitone by the employ-
ment of the second, and a tone and a half by the employment of the third piston,
then, although these tubes are of the required length when employed separately,
they are of an insufficient length to produce correct notes when united. This
result is in accordance with a law in acoustics the explanation of which is useless
here, and is a defect which musical instrument makers acknowledge, and which
several have sought to remedy.
The remedy has been effected by some by the employment of special pistons
provided with a number of holes for the purpose of combining the passages of the
column of air so as to afford compensating lengths to the additional tubes, or to
place a new series of tubes in connection there with each time several pistons are
used in combination. These arrangements, however, offer numerous inconveniences;
in fact, the air-distributing holes being more numerous than ordinarily the closing
surface must of necessity be greater and the loss of air is with difficulty avoided,
also the column of air being more disturbed, its regular proportions become only
imperfectly established.
These defects of construction cause a want of sonority, a certain difficulty in the
emission of the sound, and moreover with additional lengths of tubes well com-
bined for producing exact fundamental sounds, irregularities in the vibratory
proportions of harmonies quite as prejudicial to the general exactness as the defects
in the lengths caused by the simultaneous employment of several pistons.
The object of this invention is to remedy these defects, and this I accomplish
without any great changes of the ordinary pistons having six distributing.holes.
The said invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing the Figure of
which is hereinafter described.
. According to the said invention I employ a supplementary piston or regulator A,
which I arrange upon the passages of the additional tube of the first or third piston
at the most suitable point to facilitate the operation.
In the annexed drawing I have applied it to the additional tube of the third
piston.
This regulating piston A is adapted to be operated by one of the free fingers of
the left hand or of the right hand, according to the form and construction of the
instrument; the said piston only employed in the combinations necessitating the

page_text: joint operation of the three pistons, or of the first and third. The operation of
the regulator lengthens the additional tube B sufficiently to establish the exact
length of the column of air necessary for the note to be lowered two tones and a
half by the simultaneous employment of the first and third pistons.
Employed separately, each of the pistons acts as an ordinary piston, thereby
permitting the performer to preserve all his habits of fingering and to make
himself progressively familiar with the regulator.
If the performer has to tune the sliding piece of the third piston so as to lower
the note two exact tones by its employment with the second piston, it follows that
all the other combinations furnish lengths of pipes sufficiently exact in practice for
ensuring exactness over the whole range of the instrument. The regulating piston
can be applied in the manner described to instruments constructed with four or
more pistons, combinations employing several regulating pistons can then be used
for producing the exact lengths and consequently ensuring absolute exactness.
This system can also be applied in the same manner to additional tubes having
other lengths than those described above for each of the pistons and which I have
not specified because they are those in ordinary use. This system has also this
advantage that it can be applied to instruments having rotary or other cylinders,
and that the regulator itself can be one of these cylinders.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is
The improvement in cornets and similar instruments, consisting essentially in
the employment of a supplementary or regulating piston substantially in the
manner described with reference to the accompanying drawing for the purpose
specified.