Certain Improvements in Leaf-turners for Music and other Leaves.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 17th June, 1890-Accepted, 2nd Aug., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Certain Improvements in Leaf-turners for Music and other Leaves.
I, DANIEL SCHUYLER, of No. 721 Tenth Street, in the City of San Diego, County
of San Diego, and State of California, one of the United States of America, Civil
Engineer, 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 an apparatus for turning leaves, and it is especially adapted
for turning the leaves of music.
It consists of expansible air-chambers, a series of arms with attachments for
grasping the leaves, and mechanism intermediate between the air-chambers and the
arms, whereby the latter may be turned either backward or forward without aid from
the hands.
It also consists in certain details of construction, all of which will be more fully
explained by reference to the accompanying drawings and specifications.
In the drawings,
Figure 1 is a front view of my apparatus attached to a piano.
Figure 2 is a side view of my apparatus.
Figure 3 is a front elevation of the same.
Figure 4 is a top view of the turning mechanism.
Figure 5 is a detached view of the second lowermost rack-bar.
In carrying out my invention, I have shown the pneumatic cylinders A, and A¹,
fixed upon a suitable support and having plungers B, and B¹, åtted to travel within
them; these plungers being sufficiently close to prevent any great amount of air
escaping, but at the same time moving with sufficient freedom so that, when air is
forced into either of the cylinders, it will surround the plungers, and, to a certain
extent, form an air-cushion or packing upon which they move.
C, Care pipes connecting with the rear end of each cylinder and conveying air
thereto from the supply source.
When the apparatus is used in connection with an organ or other similar wind
instrument, it will only be necessary to open a valve connecting with the bellows or
wind-chest of the wind instrument, and a supply of air will be furnished to either of
the cylinders at will. The valves, in such cases, may be operated by pedals
convenient to the feet, or by any other suitable device.
When used in connection with a piano or a music stand for violin or other
instrument, it will be necessary to employ a bellows or wind or air-forcing device D,
to produce the necessary pressure.
Various devices may be employed for this purpose.
In the present case, I have shown two air-forcing bellows, which, when
employed for a piano, are fixed near to the ordinary pedals, so that by slightly
urning the foot to one side or the other, the operator may press upon either of the
bellows, and thus force air through the flexible pipe to either one cylinder or the
other.
For convenience of the operator, I have shown an arm D', projecting from each
f the bellows D, so that by lifting the toe from the piano pedal and slightly
urning the foot upon the heel, the toe may be placed upon the arm to operate the
ir-forcing mechanisın.
In some cases, it may be found preferable to employ cylinders with plungers
hich are connected with suitable pedals convenient to the feet by connecting
ods, but I do not claim any especial form of air-supplying device, independently.
I have shown the two cylinders A, in the present case, lying horizontally and

page_text: opposite to each other, so that one cylinder may be employed to turn the leaves in
one direction, and the other in the opposite direction, which is an important feature
of my invention.
The music is placed upon a suitable supporting-board or rack E, having at the
lower end a support F, upon which the lower edges of the sheets rest, and to this
support are attached the elastic arms G, with buttons at the outer ends, which are
allowed to press upon the first and last leaves of the music, so as to hold them
permanently in place.
The support is adapted to slide up or down upon the face of the rack E, and
thus adapt itself to different lengths of sheets or leaves to be held upon it.
The adjustment of the support F may be made in various ways, by a slot or slots
in which it travels, and a holding screw, or, as I have shown in the present case,
by means of elastic springs which retain it by pressure at any point to which it
may be moved.
Gare clamps adapted to hold the first and last leaves of the music at the top, in
the same manner that the bottoms of the leaves are held by the arms G.
The shanks of the arms G' extend into tubes G2, and have disks at the inner ends
which are acted upon by spiral springs G³ within the tubes.
The arms may thus be rotated to stand over or away from the leaves to be held,
and they also have a movement in the direction of the axis of the tubes to press
them down upon the leaves or lift them away from them.
The tubes are screwed fast to the back of the music-turner, just below the turning
devices.
Through the centor of the music extends a cord H, having a weight at one end,
this weight hanging behind the support upon which the music lies, and being
sufficient to produce a little tension upon the cord so as to draw the cord up out of
the way when released.
The cord passes through a guiding eye or hole 1, at the top of the support, and
thence passes down through the central portion or fold of the music, and the lower
end is pressed between the clamps J at the bottom.
When this is done, the weight will be drawn up against the eye so that a sufficient
tension may be brought upon the cord to bind the music to the support and hold it
in place, whether the sheets be long or short.
The rest F is grooved or channeled to allow the cord to lio close upon the music.
In line above the central fold of the music is journaled a shaft K, which carries
the independent toothed gears L, and each of these gears has an arm M, projecting
radially outward.
As many of these gears and arms may be mounted upon the shaft as will be
necessary to turn any number of leaves of music; the number of gears and arms
being as great as the number of leaves which will ordinarily be found in a piece of
music.
Beneath these gear-wheels is fixed a guide-plate N, having independent channels,
within which are fitted the horizontal racks O, which slide in these channels, and the
teeth of which engage with the toothed disks or gears, each rack engaging with one
of the gears, and all of them operating independently of each other.
Upon the opposite ends of the racks are fixed the notched inclined plates P, of
different heights, and in line with each of these plates and racks are hinged the
bars Q, and Q1, there being one of these bars at each end of the travel of each of
the rack-bars, except the upper one at the left and the lower one at the right side.
Elastic arms R are fixed upon the supporting frame of the device, and these arms
press upon the bars Q, and Q, with a light pressure so as to hold them down.
Each of the plungers B, which are fitted to reciprocate in the cylinders A, has a
swivel yoke S, fixed in the center of its outer end, and the arins or rods T have their
upper ends passing loosely into these swivel yokes, while their lower ends are loosely
hinged or attached near the bottom of the supporting frame, so that when this
frame stands at the usual inclination of a music rack or support, the weight of these

page_text: rods will cause then to drop toward the back of the support, and thus they will rise
and fall upon the hinged bars Q, and Q, always resting upon the highest one when
not traveling back or forward.
The inclined plates P are made, as shown in Figure 4, with a gradual inclination
toward the teeth of the racks to which they are attached, or of which they form a
part then with an abrupt shoulder upon the top, this shoulder facing in the direction
of tho bars Q, and in such a manner that when either of the plungers is forced out,
carrying with it the movable arm T, the arm T will engage the shoulder of the plate
which stands the highest and will thus force the plate and the rack-bar toward the
opposite side, and through the rack-bar will turn the toothed gear or disk I, thus
causing the arm which is attached to the gear to travel over in the arc of a circle.
Each arm M has a clamp U, flexibly connected with it, and the clamps are adapted
to take hold of the upper edges of the leaves of music, so that when one of the arms
is caused to traverse its are of a circle, it carries with it its clamp and the music-leaf
to which said clamp is attached.
These clamps are adapted to slide along the arms M, so as to stand at aay desired
point between the inner and the outer ends, and their positions are thus adjusted to
adapt them to wide or narrow leaves.
Each of the plates P, has its outer end inclined or beveled also and running down
to a point, and each succeeding plate from the lowermost to the uppermost at
the right end, and from the uppermost to the lowermost at the left end, is made a
little higher than the one preceding, as is plainly shown in Figure 4.
The object of this difference in height, and also in the corresponding difference in
the inclined outer ends of the plates, is to raise each succeeding bar Q, slightly above
the preceding one, and to thus raise correspondingly the arms T.
The piece of music being suitably fixed upon this rack or support and opened so as
to expose the first two pages, if there are six leaves to be turned, there will be six
arins M, with clamps U connecting them with the successive leaves to be turned, and
each arm will be fixed to a toothed disk or gear L, and each gear will engage with
the corresponding horizontally-sliding rack O.
All of the turning arms will lie upon the right side, and, consequently, all of the
racks O, will be forced to the left side, and the inclined outer points of the plates P,
extending under the hinged bars Q, each one of the bars will be slightly raised above
the preceding one by reason of the different heights of the incline.
There are but five of the bars Q, the upper rack on the left side standing in line
with the frame-piece a above the uppermost bar, and the corresponding lower rack at
the right end standing in line with the frame below the lowest of the bars Q upon
that side.
The uppermost of the bars Q is raised slightly above the level of the upper frame-
piece a, by the inclined point of its corresponding plate P, so that the notch upon
this plate is slightly above the notch of the upper plate P. The second bar is raised
slightly above the first one; the third, fourth, and fifth correspondingly are raised
slightly above the preceding ones by the increased height of the inclined outer points
of the plates P, which pass beneath thein, so that when the leaves are in the position
described, and the rack-bars are all upon the left side, the lowermost of the bars Q
will stand the highest from the surface behind it.
The rod Tupon that side then rests upon the highest point of the lower bar Q, and
in such a position that when the plunger B upon that side is forced out by a supply of
air admitted into the cylinder A, the side of the rod T will engage the shoulder of
the lowermost plate P, which is in line with the lower bar Q, and pushing the rack-
bar to the right, the rack-bar will, through its engagement with the gear, turn the
latter and the arm carried by the latter, and with it the leaf of music to be turned.
As soon as the pressure is released within the cylinder A, the air may be with-
drawn by the action of a spring within the bellows, or by other suitable device, and
the plunger B will be withdrawn to the, rear end of the cylinder A, carrying with it
the rod T.
This rod passes up over the incline of the plate P, upon the second rack-bar from

page_text: the bottom, and drops upon the second of the bars Q, in readiness to engage the
shoulder or notch upon its plate P, when the piston is again pushed forward, and
thus, upon each successive return of the plunger, the rod T drops upon the next one
of the bars Q. each preceding one having dropped into a horizontal position as soon
as its corresponding rack-bar has been moved to the right so as to withdraw the
inclined plate l' from beneath it.
In this way the rod T drops at each successive return of the bar Q, which is next
above, until the uppermost rack-bar has been moved and all the pages have been
turned.
It will be manifest that any leaf may be turned backward by operating the
bellows connected with the cylinder and plunger upon the opposite side, so
that, if desired, any of the leaves may be turned backward with equal facility.
It will be seen that the relative height of the plates P', and the bars Q', at the right
side, are the reverse of those at the left, that is the uppermost plates and bars are
highest upon this side.
The swivel yokes, which are attached to each of the plunger ends, and within
which the rods T are loosely fitted, allow these rods to rise and fall without any
friction, and thus accommodate themselves to the different positions which they take
upon the bars Q.
These swivels also allow the plungers to rotate freely within the cylinders as they
reciprocate, and thus distribute any possible wear, equally.
It will be seen that the movements of all the parts necessary to turn the leaves are
positive, and I do not in any way rely upon springs or similar devices for moving the
leaves; each leaf is turned either to right or left by simply pressing the foot upon
the bellows or air-supply mechanism, and when the leaf has thus been turned, the
rack and mechanism by which the turning is accomplished, remains in the position
in which they are left after this turning, and are in readiness to be turned in the
opposite direction whenever the opposite movement takes place.
The spring-arms K, which rest upon the bars Q, simply insure each bar dropping
below the level of the next succeeding one, as soon as the rack-bar in line with it has
been withdrawn.
In some cases an entire piece of music is contained in one sheet, being printed
upon both sides. Such a sheet may be held and turned by my device, by simply
folding the left-hand margin so that the retaining cord will lie in the fold. The
sheet may then be attached to one of the clamps and turned in the usual manner.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what 1
claim is―
1. A device for turning leaves, consisting of the pivoted arms M, connected
successively with the leaves to be turned, racks and pinions by which said arms are
turned about their center of motion, and pneumatic expansible chambers through
which motion is transmitted to move the racks and pinions and turning arms
successively, substantially as hercin described.
2. The combination of turning arms M, connected with the leaves, and having a
central shaft about which they move, pinions connected with the inner ends of said
arms, rack-bars engaging the pinions, pneumatic expansible chambers, and an
intermediate connecting mechanism whereby the movement of expansion within the
chamber is transmitted to each of the rack-bars and pinions successively, substantially
as herein described.
3. The combination of turning arms and pinions, the independently-actuated rack-
bars engaging said pinions, and having the inclined plates at their opposite ends, the
hinged bars Q, and Q, the spring arms pressing upon said bars, the swinging arms T,
the pneumatic cylinders and plungers, and the swiveled yokes fixed in the ends of
the plungers and engaging the arms T so as to reciprocate the arms with the
movement of each of the plungers, substantially as herein described.
4. The combination with the pneumatic cylinders, plungers, swinging arms, sliding

page_text: toothe racks, pinions, and turning arms, of the flexible straps adjustable upon said
arus, and having the clamps whereby they are connected at any point with the
upper edges of each of the leaves to be turned successively, substantially as herein
described.
5. The vertically-adjustable support for the lower edge of the music, the weighted
cord fitting the central fold of the sheets, and tho clamping device by which the
lower end of the cord is held, the elastic arms by which the first and last leaves are
held at top and bottom, substantially as herein described.
For the Applicant.
W. E. GEDGE,
Agent.