Improvements in- Musical Instruments.
Year: 1889

page_text: Improvements in- Musical Instruments.
I, GEORGE STECK, of 1066 East Boulevard, in the City of New York County
and State of New York, United State of America, gentleman, 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 relates to various improvements in stringless pianos.
It consists in the features of construction more fully pointed out in the claim.
The accompanying drawing is a vertical transverse section through my improved
piano.
The letter a represents a piano case, containing a suitable action, of which b, is the
hammer and c, the key. d, are the steel springs that produce the sound. 1 wish to
employ springs of the kind that are formed of a straight shank and downwardly
extending spirally coiled head, as I have found such springs to produce the richest notes.
The difficulty in the employment of springs of this kind when used in connection with
hammers and dampers, is to so construct the parts that both the hammers and the
damper lifters will clear the heads of the springs. This difficulty I overcome by
placing the hammer and damper on opposite sides of the coiled head of the spring.
That is to say, the shank of each spring d, is attached to a rail in the forward part
of the piano case, while the damper lifter projects upwards between the coil of the
spring and the back plate of the piano case. Thus the hammer is free to strike the
lower side of the spring-shank between rail and coil, while the damper lifter is free
to project above the spring shank between the back plate and the coil and to properly
engage the damper levers.
e, is the rail to which the straight shanks of the springs are attached, by sockets f.
This rail, which 1 term the "spring rail" is placed in the forward part of case a, so
as to leave ample room between it and the back plate a', for the reception of the
springs.
The rail e, should be made of metal and should be re-enforced by ribs e¹. The
damper lifters g, pass upwards between the back plate a', and the ends of the springs d,

page_text: and project through a perforated ledge h, as shown. These lifters raise the damper
levers g, carrying dampers g³, that engage the upper side of the spring shanks.
Each damper lifter is placed directly back of its spring as shown, so that the lifter,
the spring and the hainner of each note are all in a line. Thus it will be seen,
that the damper lifters need not be set obliquely as would be the case, were they to
clear the springs.
The hammers b, act upon the shanks of springs d, between rail e, and the heads
of the springs. Thus the head of each spring is placed between the hammer and the
damper lifter and both are free to act without interfering with the vibration of the
spring.
An additional advantage of this construction is that no sounding board whatever
is employed and that therefore the piano may be built cheaply and of light
material.
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:
The combination of rail e, with the coiled springs d, secured thereto and with
hammers b, and damper lifters at opposite sides of the spring heads, the spring,
damper lifter and hammer of each note being in line with each other, substantially as
specified.