Year: 1887

page_text: I, ALEXANDER HENRY REED, of Suffolk House, Laurence Pountney Hill, Cannon
Street, in the City of London, 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
--
This invention has for its object to provide novel, efficient, and durable pianoforte
hammers which possess and retain resiliency and preserve their proper shape.
This object is accomplished in the manner and by the means hereinafter described
and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which:
Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of the material from which the body of the hammer
is made.
Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a piece of said material sufficient for a hammer
body. The hammer mould is shown detached.
Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a completed hammer made from said material.
Similar letters indicate corresponding parts.
It has been common to form the bodies of pianoforte hammers out of a single
thickness of felt, but the repeated blows of the hammers against the strings tend to
alter the shape of the hammer body by expanding its sides under the influence of the
blows against the strings, and also tend to lessen the natural resiliency of the felt.
This invention has for its object to overcome these defects and to construct hammer
bodies which will in a larger degree possess' and retain the quality of resiliency and
will also retain their proper shape.
In carrying out this invention, layers of textile or woven fabric alternating with
layers of felt are employed to form a composite fabric from which blanks of the proper
size and shape for forming hammer bodies are cut. The textile fabric is made or
woven of coarse meshes, that is to say, the fabric is not closely woven, the meshes
being open so as to allow the projecting fibres of the felt to engage with the meshes
and pass through them more or less. The threads of which the textile fabric is made
are preferably hard finished so as to cause the fabric to have considerable stiffness and
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page_text: elasticity, and enable it to act as a support for the felt. Having prepared a piece B of
felt, of suitable size, the same is laid down upon a suitable table and upon it is placed
a layer A of woven or textile fabric, of the same length and breadth, and upon the
fabric A is placed another sheet or layer of fabric A, and upon that another sheet or
layer of felt B, and so on in alternation until the combined sheet is as thick as
required for the body of the hammer. The upper and lower layers of the combined
sheet will be of felt. No particular number of layers A B is prescribed. For
example, the combined sheet may be formed of a bottom layer of felt B, a layer of
textile or woven fabric A is placed upon that, and a top layer of felt B placed upon
the layer A, or there may be an additional layer or layers both of the fabric A and of
the felt B, depending upon the thickness of the felt or other material employed, or
the thickness to be given to the hammer body.
The several layers A B may be cemented to each other by suitable adhesive material
if desired, but it is preferable to unite them to each other by rubbing them upon each
other so as to unite them to each other by a felting action which will take place under
suitable manipulation as the fibres of the felt will interlock with the meshes of the
textile fabric, and passing through said meshes will engage with the fibres of the felt
on cach side of the textile fabric.
Having made the combined sheet in the manner described or in any other suitable
manner, the same is divided longitudinally along divergent lines C, by cutters into
elongated strips or blanks D from which the hammer bodies are formed and applied to
the hammer moulds in the usual or any convenient manner.
Fig. 3 represents a completed hammer made from the composite material above
described, the several layers A B being properly secured by cement or in any suitable
manner to the sides of the hammer mould F, the inner layer B which is next to the
top G of the hammer mould and the outer layer B, being of felt as above described,
the arrangement of the different layers of felt and textile material A B and the order
of their location with reference to each other being as herein described and as shown
in the elevation of the completed hammer fig. 3, and as shown in fig. 2 where the
layers of the hammer body are shown as they would appear before they are bent
around and applied to the hammer mould.
It has already been proposed to employ cloth, felt, rubber and leather in the
construction of pianoforte hammers, but prior to this invention a pianoforte hammer
body has never been composed of a series of pieces of felt and textile fabric alternating
with each other as herein before set forth.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declaro that what I claim is :
1. In pianoforte hammers the combination of the hammer mould F with a hammer
body composed of alternating layers of felt and textile or woven fabric arranged
substantially as shown and described.
2. A hammer body for pianoforte hammers composed of alternating layers of felt
and textile or woven fabric combined together, substantially as shown and described.
3. The method herein described of making material for pianoforte hammer bodies,
which consists in uniting together alternating layers of felt and textile or woven fabric
by a felting action which interlocks the fibres of the felt with the meshes of the
textile or woven fabric and then severing such sheet of material on inclined divergent
lines into elongated strips, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
D
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