IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION + OF HARMONIUMS OR SIMILAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS WITH LOOSE REEDS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmond Sèches, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris.
(France), for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
+
OF HARMONIUMS OR SIMILAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS WITH LOOSE REEDS,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmond Sèches at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
..28th October 1873. -
I, EDMOND SÈCHES, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris (France), do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF HARMONIUMS OR SIMILAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS WITH LOOSE
REEDS, WHEREBY NEW SOUNDS OR TONES ARE PRODUCED," to be as follows:-
The first part of my Invention consists in the application to one and
the same instrument of a suction and forcing bellows or air apparatus,
with one or two treadles or pedals for each of these bellows or air appa-
ratus, the action of these bellows or air apparatus with special sound

page_text: boards producing different effects. It will thus be understood that one
distinct instrument will produce the same effect as two separate and
distinct instruments.
i
The second part of my Invention consists in the employment of
an independent sound, board, containing any number of octaves and a
stop action. This apparatus or instrument contains and has connected
to it a tube made of metal or of other suitable material, of wood, for
example. I take an instrument of ordinary construction, and form an
aperture in the air chamber or the bottom of the bellows. The tube
before mentioned is inserted there, which may be provided with some ]
elastic material, and a double instrument is thus obtained, with two
keys, having two or several stops of different tones, and which however
will only require as much expenditure as would one stop, although the
sound boards and the keys are independent..
The third part of my Invention consists of an ordinary harmonium 1
bellows or air apparatus with free reeds, in combination with a frame
also of the ordinary form, but the reeds, instead of being placed on a
sound board are arranged on the pipes.
.
The fourth part of my Invention consists in the employment of a
special sound board for an instrument composed of three stops; for 2
example, two stops would have special places, and the last ordinary
places in such manner that if on the two special stops one is covered and
the other uncovered, that will produce three different tones.
The fifth part of my Invention consists in the employment of the
existing suction bellows or air apparatus, but modifying it in such 2
manner that it becomes forcing, with this advantage, that it contains
expression.
The Invention is applicable to all musical instruments of the class
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions. of the: Letters: Patent, 30
filed by the said Edmond Sèches in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th April, 1874.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edmond Sèches, Her special
licence that I, the said Edmond Sèches, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edmond Sèches, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HARMONIUMS OR SIMILAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS WITH
LOOSE REEDS, WHEREBY NEW SOUNDS OR TONES ARE PRODUCED," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Edmond Sèches, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months. next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmond Sèches, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters of reference marked thereon, that is to say:-
One of the greatest qualities and the greatest artistic merit of instru-
ments having loose reeds, such as organs, harmoniums, melodeons, and
others, is the expression or effect produced in them similar to that pro-
duced by a violin. But if it is a merit of the greatest value in an artistic
point of view, it has hitherto been the cause of retarding the success and
general use of these instruments, in France at any rate, except in
churches and for the study of sacred music, and very little indeed in
drawing rooms or private houses. This especially proceeds from the
necessary study required to use the expression, which also requires a
certain amount of musical talent and feeling, and the inconvenience of
the blowing 'being very hard, thus preventing many ladies from using
these instruments.
"

page_text: ordinary way, but opening automatically. It is well to remark that
in my Invention I cause the fortés and the pallets (jalousies) of the
treble to open before the fortés and pallets (jalousies) of the bass, and to
cause them to close afterwards. This is the true application of the word
differential progressive, and which explains the result which I have
obtained. This arrangement of mechanism of fortés has a two-fold
importance; first, it can almost replace the " expression,"
" and then it
remedies a primary defect in the organ, the bass drowning the treble.
$6
Attempts have been made to remedy this defect by the differential
wind, a mechanism complicated, very costly, very difficult to operate,
and not giving satisfactory results, as the forté is at the side of the treble
and the pianissimo in the bass. Moreover this system requires, like the
'expression," a certain amount of practice in the use of the knees, and
has besides the grave inconvenience of separating the intense or powerful
basses from the treble, and making a ringing or tremor in the middle of
the key board. With my dampers the effect throughout the whole key
board is well graduated, and the bass is always weaker than the treble,
without having at the middle of the key board the inconvenience before
pointed out.
Further, and in order not to neglect any detail, I hollow out the keys
in a portion of the key board, as in Figure 3, which represents an
ordinary key board, in which I have hollowed out the keys to a certain
extent, and the sound is naturally stronger throughout these hollowed.
out portions than in the full or plain part. In fine .this frame, placed
on the table also, has an automatic forté d, Fig. 1, which makes, for
example, 4 in number, but to be more correct, 8 when they are divided
into two parts, that of the bass and that of the top, and these 8 parts
one after the other progressively let out the sound. It is not then the
pianissimo or the forte without transition, but a natural graduated
crescendo, progressive but subordinate to the more or less precipitate
movement of the bellows.
It is as well to remark here that by these combinations a performer
can play making all the changes which were to be obtained only with
the "expression," and that without any study, by simply regulating the
motion of the bellows.
There is an inconvenience in the old system of not being able to pass
instantly from loud to soft. I have remedied this by means of a knce

page_text: communication with the reservoir, whereby this valve is instantaneously
opened, and consequently the whole or part of the reservoir is instan-
taneously emptied, according to the duration of the pressure on the
valve.
The variety of tone has always taken up a considerable amount of
attention, and I have added to this part some great improvements by
acting together or separately on the sound boards or stops (jeux).
In Figure 4, which represents an organ having three stops, two sound
boards e, f, of my Invention are used, and one sound board g of ordinary
construction. In those of my Invention the production of the sound,
instead of arriving directly or nearly so at the outlet, as in the ordinary
sounding boards, which gives a crying tone, passes through a double
sound board or double case f¹, which rounds the tones and gives them
the sound or tone so much desired, instead of a metallic " coppery
tone, as now.
"
In those organs built on the American system the vox humana is
obtained by a pallet wheel, the rotation of which is produced by a wheel
with blades driven by the suction of air. This is naturally a suction
system, and I have produced it by the air blown out, as seen in Figure 1.
This result and this application has never before been done in organs
where the air is blown out, and I therefore claim it as part of my
Invention.
Figure 5 is a view of a small instrument h, containing an indeter-
mined number of octaves, only this little instrument has no bellows, it
is independent. To use it the tubular piece g, Figure 6, is screwed there
to unite the part h to the air chamber of any instrument, the tube g
conveying the wind, and the instrument supplies either its own stops or
supplementary stops. In an ordinary instrument only, containing one
stop of 8 feet, this small movable sound board can be added, which will
contain a stop of 4 feet, and without more expenditure of wind, that is
to say, that the bellows if it sufficiently supplies the instrument, will
suffice for the two, the effect of two stops on one instrument of one stop
with a very small expense. If it is required to remove the small
movable sound board it is only necessary to stop the inlet orifice with
the stopper k.

page_text: I think it is unnecessary to give a Drawing shewing the application
of my bellows, the one a suction bellows, and the other a blowing
bellows. It will be sufficient to say that on the same instrument con-
taining special stops for both systems I arrange a suction and blowing
bellows. I employ two pedals instead of one, and four instead of two
and according to the one acted on so I act on one or the other of the
bellows. The left foot may be used to operate the suction bellows, and
the right foot the blowing bellows.
Figure 7 is a view of a suction bellows arranged as a blowing bellows,
as opposed to the ordinary way of employing-a blowing bellows. Here
the action of the foot produces the suction, and it is a spring / which I
employ to produce the blowing action.
Instruments with automatic fortés of peculiar construction can be
produced according to this Invention at a very low price.
I do not limit myself to the particular form or shape of making these
instruments, which must be varied to suit the particular class or kind of
instrument to which the several parts of the Invention are or may be
applied; at the same time the Invention is particularly applicable to
those classes of instruments manufactured and sold by the house or firm
of Alexandre, père et fils, of Paris and London.
An essential feature of my Invention is that I arrange several fortés,
say eight, in one instrument, in which case they open simultaneously in
such manner as to produce a crescendo as perfect as may be, and not a
harsh transmission from pianissimo to forte. I favour the treble or tones
that render the air to the detriment of the bass, my object being that
the treble or first notes should be heard above the bass in this kind of
instrument, not only by opening the treble or upper range of fortés
before those of the bass or lower fortés, but also by arranging the fortés'
orifices, as shewn at Figures 2° and 2d, where it will be seen that the
upper or, treble openings are widely opened, or, in other words, have a
broader sectional area, while those of the bass are greatly reduced.
Moreover the space between each key of the key board is almost imper-
ceptible in the bass, and very wide apart in the treble, as in Fig. 3.
These three causes combined form a combination really new, which I
claim, though composed of known constituents, a problem not heretofore
solved, viz., to obtain without the employment of the expression a very

page_text: Eighth. The combination in one and the same instrument of a suction
and blowing bellows, substantially in manner and for the purposes
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmond Sèches, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.