Improvements in Mechanical Musical Instruments with Rotary Music Sheets.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Mar., 1897-Accepted, 13th Nov., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Mechanical Musical Instruments with Rotary
Music Sheets.
I, PAUL LOCHMANN, of 17 Langestrasse, Leipzig-Gohlis, in the Empire of
Germany, Factory Manager, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
The most difficult part of the work and that which requires the most time in
the construction of mechanical musical instruments to be played by rotary music
sheets, consists of the regulation of the separate parts, these being the parts of
the operating mechanism, of the damper-device and the tongues, as regards one
another and simultaneously as regards the axis of the note disk. Change of the
operating mechanism in its position with regard to the axis of the music sheet
required hitherto a repetition of the regulation of all the other parts This incon-
venience is avoided by this invention the single tune comb or several such combs
being constructed or mounted with the operating mechanism and the damping
device on a common sound plate or so-called sounding post, so that it is only
necessary to group one or several such plates upon the bed or sound board of the
musical instrument round the central axis and to regulate them as a whole in
accordance with the latter. A thus constructed musical instrument has over all
hitherto made musical instruments the further important advantage, that the
frames which have become defective, can be separately exchanged for others,
without it being necessary, to send the musical instrument to the factory or to do
the difficult work of the regulating in the place itself.
In the annexed drawing
Fig. 1 shows a section of the common frame provided with combs S¹ and S³,
the wheels Z and the dampers D¹ and D³.
Fig. 2 shows a grate like base plate R forming such frame for two combs, of
which the one is fixed on the support A' and the other on A2 and having the
wheel holder H.
Fig. 3 shows the fitting of the frame upon the bed or sound board T. The
frames R1 and R2 are placed upon the bed or scund board T and displaced according
to necessity. In each of the two shown frames one comb is taken off in order to
show the grate like frame plate R¹ and R2 on which combs, wheel holder, wheels
and dampers are combined to form a whole.
When displacing the two frames on the bed or sound board nothing is changed
in the position of the operating mechanism and the dampers in relation to the
combs. Only the position of each single frame to the middle axle M of the note
disk has to be adjusted each of the two frames being displaced on the bed or
sound board, until the desired positions have been found.
As against this process the regulation of these musical instruments as hitherto
made is the following:-The wheel-holders H1, H2, Fig. 4 are regulated in their
position to the middle axle M according to a model or template and fixed upon
the bed and sound plate. The adjustment however can be proved by using a

page_text: musical sheet only when the musical instrument is ready mounted. Consequently
the combs S1, S2, S3, and S4, and the damper-devices D1, D2, D3, and D*, must be
regulated completely towards one another and towards the operating wheels and
must be fixed on the bed or sound board T. When then as shown in Fig. 4 an
oblique position of the axis of the operating wheels to the middle axis is found this
laborious work of adjustment has been useless and not only the wheel holder H1, H2,
but also the sounding combs and dampers therefore not only 4 parts as in my inven-
tion, but 10 parts must be brought again into accordance with one another, whereby
the number of possible false combinations increases considerably. The position of
the wheel-holders H H³ however does not necessarily coincide with the middle
line of the base plate. In using a rotary music sheet, it must be remembered that
the operating wheels which lie nearer the middle axis are operated with com-
paratively small displacement of the note teeth and the wheels which lie further
away are operated with a larger displacement of said teeth. The music sheets
when made cannot be varied in form and inequalities in their production can
only be compensated for, by the position of the wheel holder in relation to the
music sheet. This increases the difficulty of properly arranging the wheel holder
at the beginning according to a model or template and also the probability of
being obliged to regulate all the single parts several times with regard to one
another.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
In mechanical musical instruments with rotary music disk the combination of
the sounding comb S, operating mechanism and damper device D) on a frame R
forming a separate body, one or more such bodies being adjustably fixed upon the
bed and sound plate T for the purpose of rendering the regulation of the single
parts towards one another independent from the adjusting of the operating
mechanism with regard to the middle axle M.
Dated this 17th day of March 1897
HERBERT HADDAN & Co.,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C.,
Agents to Applicant.