Improvements in Pianoforte Actions.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Sept., 1896-Accepted, 24th Oct., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by MORRIS STEINERT, of 169 Olive Street, New
Haven, County of New Haven, State of Connectiout, United States of
America, Merchant.]
Improvements in Pianoforte Actions.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 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 :-
My invention relates to an improvement in grand piano actions, and consists in
the construction and arrangement of the parts herein described, whereby escapement
is effected without losing control of the jack over the hammer, and without
deranging the operative connection of the train of levers by which motion is
conveyed from the hammer to the key.
The advantages of my construction are: that it does away with the necessity of
supplemental devices for holding up the hammer to permit of its re-engagement
with the jack after escapeinent: that the hammer is more delicately under the
control of the performer, and that the quickness of repetition is unlimited.
In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a side view of the action, Figure 2 &
partial view showing the relation of the parts when the baminer is in its escaped
position. Similar letters indicate like parts in each of the figures.
A is the key, B the fly, C the jack, D the adjustable trip stop, and E
and F regulating screws limiting the lateral play of the jack. H is a lever
intermediate between the jack and the haminer K.
That part of the lever on which the jack acts is peculiarly shaped, as shown in
the drawings at G, so as to present two surfaces slightly inclined to each other,
and forming an obtuse angle G, over which the end of the jack slides when tripped
by the stop D, and permits the hammer to fall buck slightly after the apex of the
angle G is passed.
In the escaped position shown in Figure 2, the jack still remains in operative
connection with the lever H, and the slightest retraction of the koy will enable a
proportionate impulse to be given to the hammer, whether or not the retraction
is sufficient to restore the jack to its original position with reference to the angle G.
The jack and trip stop are so arranged that when the jack is tripped, its
upper eud noves toward the center of motion of the lever H, and this is preferable
for two reasons: first, that when the key is partly depressed, a slight movement of
the key will control a larger movement of the haminer than it would if the jack
moved away from the center of motion of the lever H; second, that as the lever H
is tilted out of its horizontal plane by the depression of the key, the angular
resistance offered to the return movement of the jack is decreased instead of
increased; Figure 2 illustrates this, and shows that in proportion as the key is
depressed the inside surface of the angle G becomes more ueerly horizontal.
By means of the regulating screws E and F, the initial and final positious of the
jack, with reference to the angle G, can be adjusted with great nicety.
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, 1 declare that what I claim is:-
1. In a piano action, the combination of the pivoted hammer K, the pivoted

page_text: lever H provided with the obtuse angled escapement G, and the jack C arranged
to be tripped so that its upper end moves over the angle G when the key is
depressed, all substantially as and for the purpose described.
2. In a piano action, the combination of the pivoted hammer K, the pivoted
lever H provided with the obtuse angled escapement G, the jack C arranged to be
tripped so that its upper end moves over the angle G and toward the center of
.motion of the lever when the key is depressed, and the regulating screws E
and F, all substantially as and for the purpose described.
Dated this 1st day of September 1896.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.