Improvements in Adjusting and Transposing Devices for Automatio Musical Instruments and other Automatically Operated Selecting Mechanisms.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 30th May, 1899-Accepted, 12th Aug., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION,
Improvements in Adjusting and Transposing Devices for Automatio
Musical Instruments and other Automatically Operated Selecting
Mechanisms.
I, MELVILLE CLARK, of 1410, Marquette Building, Chicago, County of Cook,
and State of Illinois, in the United States of America, Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to structures in which, from a multiplicity of similarly
operated devices, automatic selections are made of specific devices to be operated
from time to time, such selection being controlled by travelling sheets, perforated
or otherwise configured, in a manner to correspond to the order of selection to be
effected. The most familiar devices of this class are automatic musical instru-
ments controlled by perforated music sheets, but the class to which this invention
is applicable is, not only such musical instruments, but machines for perforating
or otherwise marking the sheets which are used in such musical instruments, or
for perforating sheets for the purpose of controlling other selecting mechanisms.
It consists in novel means for adjusting and also for transposing the coöperating
elements, either to secure accuracy in their cooperation, or to change the selection
effected by a given sheet or equivalent element.
In the drawings, I have represented only the parts necessary to illustrate my
invention of a pneumatically controlled musical instrument or machine for per-
forating music sheets, the structures being identical for both purposes, so far as
it is necessary to illustrate it for the purpose of this invention.
In these drawings:
-
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a tracker range and perforated sheet and rollers
for the same with their bearings and supports to illustrate my invention.
Fig. 2 is a section at the line 2-2 on Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a section at the line 3-3 on Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is a detail section at the line 4-4 on Fig. 2.
Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail section at the line 5-5 on Fig. 1, the perforated
sheet being omitted.
Fig. 6 is a plan of a compensating washer employed to correct errors due to
shrinkage of the sheet.
In the further description of the invention, I will refer to the parts as
if they pertained to musical instruments, but it should be understood that, as
above stated, they are equally applicable to mechanisms of other sorts.
A represents the tracker range of an automatic organ, whose sounding devices
are controlled by the movement of a perforated sheet over such tracker range
which constitutes the mouth-piece of the ducts leading to the pneumatic devices.
BB are cheeks or supports for the tracker range and music sheet rollers. C is
the music or 66
rewind roll." D is the take-up or winding roll. E is the per-
forated music sheet. F F F are pneumatic ducts leading to the tracker range.

page_text: They are flexible tubes which may extend for some distance from the tracker
range to their nearest point of fixed support on the organ frame-work in which
the pneumatic ducts are continued to the pneumatic. The tracker range is
supported on the cheeks B B by means of rigid stems A¹ A¹ and A³ A³, which
are parallel and penetrate the two cheeks, so that the tracker range is guided in
a longitudinal movement, that is, a movement transverse with respect to the
music sheet. The stems A¹ A' fit closely in the cheeks B B so as to afford accurate
guidance, but the stems A2 A2 are preferably made to fit closely only in respect
to vertical dimension as seen in Fig. 4; the apertures provided for them in the
cheeks B B being elongated horizontally to avoid danger of cramping by any
slight distortion that might occur in the adjusting movement of the tracker
range A. At one end, the stems A¹ A2 are rigidly united by a cross-head A³
which extends forward from the forward stem A', and has a threaded aperture
adapted to receive an adjusting screw G. This screw is journaled at g in the
cheek B, being stopped against longitudinal movement by the head G¹ and the
collar G2 with which it is provided. It will be seen that by rotating the adjusting
screw G, which may be done by means of the milled head G¹, which is exposed
forward of the vertical plane of the tracker range, the latter may be adjusted
longitudinally, transversely with respect to the movement of the music sheet,-
and at all points securely held. Preferably the thread of the screw G is made
so that a half or quarter or full turn of the screw moves the tracker range a
distance equal to the interval between consecutive mouths or pneumatic aper-
tures a a of the range. H H are lips or fixed valve pieces secured to the cheeks BB
respectively and extending onto the tracker range covering such of the mouths a
as lie beyond the margin of the music sheet so that as the tracker range is adjusted
longitudinally, it moves under these valve lips and thus all the apertures which
are not traversed by the music sheet are covered by the lips at all positions to
which the tracker range may be adjusted.
It will be seen that inasmuch as each duct and tube F of the tracker range
communicates with the pneumatic devices for a given reed of the instrument
corresponding to a given pitch, the shifting of the mouth-piece across the line
of travel of the music sheet changes the key of the music which will be produced
by the travel of the music sheet; movement to the right having the effect to
expose to the action of the music sheet a range of notes lower down, and lower
the key, while movement to the left, for like reason, will raise the key in which
the music will be played. The head G₁ of the screw is preferably provided with
an index finger g' and a dial ( will be mounted on the surface of the cheek B
and on such dial the point or points indicated corresponding to the adjustment
of the tracker range a distance equal to the interval between consecutive apertures
in the latter. This enables the operator accurately to adjust the tracker range
to lower or raise the key one or more semi-tones.
It frequently happens that the music sheet, by reason of slightly inaccurate
margin or inaccurate adaptation to the particular instrument with which it is
being used, travels over the range with its perforations not accurately registering
with the mouths of the tracker range. This inaccuracy can be corrected by the
same device; a partial turn of the screw being made until the registration of
the perforations of the music sheet with the mouths of the tracker range is
accurate. If, when thus adjusted, the pointer g¹ does not stand at the division
point of the dial, which is designed to indicate accurate registration, the finger
which is frictionally held on the head G¹ may be rotated to the nearest indicated
point on the dial, and the rotation of the adjusting screw thereafter from point
to point on the dial will effect adjustment as to the key by semi-tones, maintain-
ing throughout such adjustment accurate registration of the music sheet with the
tracker range.
Adjustment for like purpose may also be effected by the adjustment on the
driving shaft of the chuck or driving head c¹, which has the non-circular tang
taking into the head of the music roll. When this clutch is made adjustable on

page_text: the shaft only by sliding thereon, difficulty is experienced by ordinary users
in obtaining nice adjustment of the roll, because, in pushing the clutch one way
or the other, if it fits closely on the shaft, it moves with difficulty, and when it
starts under hard pushing, it usually moves too far. To avoid this difficulty,
the bore in the outer end of the clutch made to receive the shaft is interiorly
threaded part way in from the end, and a part of the end of the shaft correspond-
ing to the remainder of the bore of the clutch is stripped of the thread at c¹³,
and the set screw c¹0 is inserted at the proper position to seat on this stripped
or smooth part, allowing an engagement of the threads of the shaft and clutch
for a number of turns between the set screw and the outer end of the clutch.
This permits the user to adjust the clutch accurately by turning it on the threaded
shaft, and to secure it by the set screw without injury to the thread.
It will be noticed that the take-up roller 1) is without guide-flanges for the
music sheet. I find the omission of these flanges advantageous, because the most
accurately cut paper is liable to become slightly distorted through unequal
absorption of moisture and other causes; and if compelled to run from between
the flanges of the music roller onto and between rigidly fixed flanges of the take-
up roller, the slight distortion of the margin, to which it is liable from this cause,
makes it crowd against one flange or the other of the take-up roller and even to
become chafed and worn at the edges, besides retarding the action, and sometimes
causing the paper to halt altogether. When, however, the music roll only, has
guide flanges, they will cause the paper to be delivered accurately onto the tracker
range, and any slight inaccuracy of the margin which may exist will find accommo-
dation on the flangeless take-up roll without the slightest disturbance in the
action. When the paper is rewound onto the music roll, it resumes naturally
the position from which it was delivered, and having been originally delivered
from between the flanges, it passes back between them without disposition to
bind upon either flange. The slight distortion of the margin, due to inequality
in shrinkage and expansion of the paper at different parts of its width, or even
to a slight irregularity in cutting, may be corrected as it passes over the
tracker range, without causing the difficulty which arises from restraining it on
the take-up roll, and this is effected by the lips H H, between whose ends the
paper passes as it traverses the range, thus insuring accurate registration, not-
withstanding the slight inaccuracy in the cutting of the paper.
I also employ for like purpose, in part,-i.e. to compensate for shrinkage in
the width of the paper, washers K K, made of thin calendered card-board,
preferably about the thickness of two-ply Bristol board, split at one side, as
indicated by the line k, Fig. 6, so that they may be opened to permit them to
pass onto the shaft of the rewind roll, one or more, but preferably an equal
number, being applied at each end adjacent the flanges of the roll when it is
found that the sheet has shrunken enough to permit a variation in position on
the roll which might interfere with accurate registration of the perforations
with the ports of the tracker range. When the music sheets are furnished, each
attached and wound on a roll C, it is preferable to fit each roll with the necessary
number of washers at each end to center the sheet on the roll, so that it will not
be necessary in changing music to test the registration and adjust the range
anew to each piece. But when music sheets of different manufacture are inter-
changed, variations of the rolls themselves may require correction by the adjust-
ment of the range, as above described; the two expedients, therefore, supplement
each other in the same instrument.
66
It is essential, as already assumed, that the music roll or rewind" roll, from
which the sheet runs to the tracker range, should itself have no endwise play
which would prevent accurate registration on the range. It is also essential that
it should have a very free or easy action in its bearings. In order to permit
holding it very firmly against endwise displacement while running, and at the
same time giving it a free action and a range of adjustment, I furnish the driving
shaft c of this roll with a thread at ", and an interiorly threaded collar c²,

page_text: which is screwed onto the shaft. The inner end of the bearing B in the cheek B
has an annular groove B10, and the opposed face of the collar C2, being similarly
provided with a groove C20, a race-track is formed for anti-friction balls 2, which
take the endwise thrust of the roll.
Although I have here shown a tracker range having ducts constituting thereby
virtually a mouth-piece for a series of pneumatic conductors, the construction
being such as would be employed in a pneumatically operated instrument, it will
be seen that the invention would be equally applicable in connection with a
tracker range of a different sort, that is, one which constitutes the terminal of a
series of conductors other than pneumatic, and I desire to be understood as
claiming this invention without limitation to pneumatic conductors, as dis-
tinguished from others, such, for example, as electric.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. In an automatic selecting mechanism, which is constructed and arranged to
be controlled by a travelling sheet or belt; the combination with a tracker range
and a travelling sheet, of mechanism for causing the sheet to travel across the
range; and mechanism for adjusting the tracker range at will transversely with
respect to the direction of travel of the sheet.
2. In an automatic selecting mechanism, which is constructed and arranged
to be controlled by a travelling sheet or belt; the combination with a tracker
range and a travelling sheet, of mechanism for causing the sheet to travel across
the range; mechanism for adjusting the tracker range at will, transversely with
respect to the direction of travel of the sheet; and flexible conductors from the
tracker range adapted to make connection with the selecting devices.
3. In a pneumatically operated selecting mechanism, in combination with the
tracker range or mouth-piece; flexible pneumatic ducts therefrom to the select-
ing devices; a perforated controlling sheet; mechanism for feeding it across
the mouth-piece; and mechanism for adjusting the mouth-piece transversely with
respect to the direction of movement of the controlling sheet.
4. In an automatically operated selecting mechanism, having a tracker range;
flexible pneumatic ducts therefrom to the selecting devices; a perforated con-
trolling sheet and mechanism for feeding it across the tracker range; such tracker
range being adjustably mounted on supports, and provided with means for
adjusting it transversely with respect to the direction of movement of the con-
trolling sheet; and lips H H extending onto the end portions of the tracker
range and adapted to operate as slide valves over the mouth of the tracker range
at such end portions, the controlling sheet being of suitable width to extend
between the proximate ends of such lips, whereby the mouths of the tracker
range which would be exposed beyond the margins of the paper are closed by
the lips.
5. In an automatically operated selecting mechanism, in combination with
the cheeks BB; rollers supported thereon, the controlling sheet operated by such
rollers; the tracker range or mouth-piece A having stems by which it is mounted
between and supported by such cheeks with a range of longitudinal adjustment
between them; and the screw rotating in a part fixed with respect to the cheeks
and also in a part fixed with respect to the mouth-piece and threaded at one of
said points to adjust the mouth-piece relatively to the controlling sheet.
6. In an automatically operated selecting mechanism, the combination with the
cheeks B B; the rollers supported thereon, and the controlling sheet operated
by such rollers; the tracker-range or mouth-piece A having stems by which it
is mounted in such cheeks; the cross-head A³ connecting the stems at one end,
and having a threaded aperture; and the adjusting screw G journaled in the
cheek and engaging the cross-head to adjust the tracker range.
7. In combination with the adjustable tracker range and the screw G for

page_text: adjusting the same; an index finger adjustably secured on the screw; and a dial
over which said finger is rotated by the screw.
S. In an automatic selecting mechanism, comprising a controlling sheet and
rollers by which it is given travel; the roll-actuating shaft having a telescoping
extension, such extension being provided with a suitable head for engaging the
roller; a flange on the shaft facing the bearing thereof; anti-friction balls inter-
posed between said flange and bearing, whereby the telescoping member of the
shaft may be adjusted to prevent endwise play of the rollers, and the end thrust
thus caused upon the shaft may be received by the balls.
9. In an automatic selecting mechanism comprising a controlling sheet and
rollers by which it is given travel; a chuck on the roller actuating shaft for
engaging the roller, the shaft having a threaded and an unthreaded portion, and
the chuck being apertured to pass onto the shaft and having correspondingly
threaded and unthreaded positions; and a set screw in the chuck which penetrates
the unthreaded portion of the chuck and is adapted to set upon the unthreaded
portion of the shaft.
12. In an automatic selecting mechanism comprising a controlling sheet and
rollers by which it is given travel, split washers removably lodged on the roller
shaft inside the end flanges respectively, as and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 20th day of M. 1900
MELVILLE CLARK.
By Herbert Haddan & Co.,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, W.C., London, Agents to Applicant.