IMPROVE- MENTS IN VALVES FOR WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1885

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I, FRIEDRICH ERNST PAUL EHRLICH at Gohlis near Leipsic, Saxony, German
Empire, director of the company Fabrik Leipziger Musikwerke vormals Paul
Ehrlich and Co" do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN VALVES FOR WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS" and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
In order to enable parts of the mechanism in musical instruments operating
with reeds to be made as light as possible and at the same time to increase the
precision with respect to the action and diminish the cost of manufacture the
valves are made according to this invention of paper or the like thin, flexible and
at the same time strong materials, such for example as woven fabrics or stuffs that
are impenetrable to air or thin sheet metal and they partake of a sliding motion.
The rods or wires employed to impart motion to valves of this description are
connected thereto either directly as in the case of the valves a and b, figures 1
and 2, which valves are represented as being directly connected to operating rods f,
or indirectly, as in the arrangement illustrated in figure 5, the paper being in this
case stretched between the two ends of a curved wire to which the operating rod
is attached.
Figure 2 represents an arrangement which may be adopted in carrying out this
invention. e is the reed chamber of a mechanical or automatic musical instrument
operated by means of a tune band or music sheet h which is caused to travel
slowly over the noses i of the keys or levers. Each operating rod f is joined to or
forms a prolongation of a corresponding key or lever and shifts the valve (which
is provided with an aperture corresponding with the size of the opening c, in the
compartment d of the reed chamber) in accordance with the arrangement of the
perforations or of the elevations and depressions in or on the tune band or music
sheet h. The valve a, fig. 1, is shewn in the position for covering or closing the
orifice c, and the valve b, is represented in the position for uncovering or opening
the corresponding orifice. In the latter position the wind passes through the
orifice c, and through the reed d, as indicated by the arrow, into a space e e, which
is in communication with a pair of bellows, exhausting or drawing air therefrom.
The atmospheric pressure thus caused to be exerted on the backs of the valves
effectually prevents leakage.

page_text: These valves are also suitable for automatic musical instruments worked by
cylinders or pin barrels. In this case the cylinder or pin barrel takes the place of
the tune band or music sheet h.
Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the application of the improved valves to mechanical
or automatic and other wind instruments working with air under pressure. k, is
a chamber containing compressed air. 7, is a wire connected to the operating
mechanism and attached to the valve.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
In automatic or other musical instruments, the employment, with the object of
obtaining, together with greater facility in the construction, an effectual closure
of the valve-controlled orifices, of sliding valves (a, b,) connected with the operating
mechanism and made of sheets of thin, flexible, air proof and strong material, such
as paper, textile fabrics, sheet metal or other suitable materials, substantially as
described.