AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MUSIC
Year: 1886

page_text: We GEORGES BECKER of Lancy near Geneva Music Author and DENYS
MONNIER, Professor at the University of Geneva in Geneva in the Republic of
Switzerland do hereby declare the nature of our invention for AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MUSIC and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :—
The object of our invention is the construction of a machine for printing musical
pieces without the application of engraved plates in order to make the printing
more easy, quicker and therefore cheaper and to do away with the costly engraved
plates and the still more costly machinery hitherto in use.
And in order that our said invention may be particularly described and
ascertained, reference is hereby made to the accompanying drawings in which
similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
Figures 1, 2, 3 represent front-views and side-views respectively of the apparatus
with which the notes and other musical signs are printed.
Figures 4, 5, 6 represent also front views and side-views respectively of our
apparatus with which letters and numbers are printed.
In Figures 1, 2 and 3 which are drawn in full size of the apparatus, A is a square
metal pole upon which glide the sockets B and C of copper. The socket B is
placed at the left end of the pole A and is provided with the four pointed steel
arms a, it is fixed to the pole by means of the hand-screws C. At the right end of
the pole is placed the socket C which can be fastened in any part of the pole A. by
means of the screw f. This socket C carries a four-armed cross-bar D, the arms of
which are of mortice-form and used as bearers of the movable type-carriers E
which are fastened by means of the screws g. The types or musical signs are
formed in relief at the end of those four type-carriers E and placed exactly
opposite the ends of the four pointed steel-arms which are also fixed to the
socket C Fig. 3.
The types (about twenty in number) represent all musical signs, notes, keys etc
and if they are pressed against a bearer of printing-ink placed a few inches from
the apparatus the corresponding musical signs can be printed on and transferred to
a transport-sheet.
The working of the apparatus represented in Figures 1, 2, 3 is as follows:
First the sockets B and C are adjusted upon the pole A and this at a distance
from each other corresponding with the size of the paper and then the screws b
and fare screwed in. The man who works the apparatus keeps the sheet to be
copied on his left side and the transport-sheet y y upon which the music has
to be copied on his right side. If for example he wants to print the "key of sol"
he pulls vertically downwards the type of the "key of sol" fixed at the end of the
type-carrier E, and the two pointed arms a and e which correspond with this type

page_text: "key of sol" are at the same time brought downwards. Keeping the apparatus
with both hands he sticks the point a in the center of the key where he keeps it
whilst he pulls down the pointed arm e upon the corresponding point on the trans-
port-sheet, then he sticks it into the same by means of a stroke and pushes at the
same time the type of the "key of sol" upon the paper and prints this sign
upon y y-The same operation is repeated for each special musical sign. The four
type-carriers E Fig. 1 and 3 are movable and the same apparatus can successively
receive all signs which are contained in music (about twenty).
Figures 4, 5, 6 represent the apparatus which prints the alphabethical letters and
the numbers.
The socket N Fig. 5 moves on the round pole N and is provided with one pointed
arm 0.
A small sink v v1 (dotted in Fig. 4) runs along the upper part of the
pole M in order to give the fastening-screws n a better hold and so to fasten
the socket N in any place on the pole M. The arrangement at the other end of
the pole is fastened to it by means of the socket P pierced by a wooden pin c Fig. 4.
This socket carries vertically the pointed arm P p¹p which is bent horizontally
at the upper end in order to form an index for the revolving disk g. This disk or
revolver g is of copper and is provided on its border with a kind of crown d which
is provided with a number of incisions in which the types (letters or numbers) are
fastened. On the right side this revolving disk forms a hollow space ff by means
of the circular ring r r. In this space is placed a spiral metal spring & which
presses against the locking ring u on the right side and on the left against the
revolving disk g. In the center of this disk is a projecting cogged ring part S,
the teeth of which catch into the corresponding teeth of the fixed socket P Fig. 4.
By means of the metal spring t an engaging or disengaging of the two sets of
teeth is effected. If they engage the revolving disk q stops being pressed into the
cogs of P through the pressure of t. If the cogs are disengaged by the man that
works the apparatus which is done by pulling the revolving stick outward and
compressing the spring t the revolving disk or revolver can easily be turned upon
the pole M. Then the man can bring any letter or number into the position of pl
in the drawings and transfer them to the transport-sheet. The working of this
apparatus is the same as that hereinbefore described and shewn in drawings
Fig. 1, 2 and 3. The transport-sheet which if required of greater strength may bo
made of very thin zinc instead of paper and is after being printed on transported
upon lithographic stone and multiplied in the usual manner.
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:-
1. The method and means of printing all kind of musical signs upon transfer-
sheets without engraving the same upon plates as hereinbefore described.
2. The construction and application of two kind of apparatus for printing music
as shewn in Fig. 1, 2, 3 and Fig. 4, 5 and 6, the former with the two sockets B
and C, the pole A and the crossbar D with movable type-carriers E; the latter
with the two sockets N and P, the pole M, the revolving disk q, the engaging cogs S,
spring t and the type-carrying crown d, the whole as horeinbefore described and
shewn on the drawings.