IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Willis, of Manchester Street, Gray's Inn
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Organ Builder, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANS."
Sealed the 24th July. 1857, and dated the 9th February 1857.
PROVISIONAL. SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Willis at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th February 1857.
I, HENRY WILLIS, of Manchester Street, Gray's Inn Road, in the County
of Middlesex, Organ Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANS," to be as follows:-
The object of my present Invention of improvements in organs is to enable
the performer on an organ to effect a crescendo and diniinuendo upon his
instrument by drawing or withdrawing stops one after the other. This I effect
by the simple depression or raising of a pedal placed in any convenient
position, or by any other mechanical contrivance, such as the gradual inflation
of an air or water receiver. The same object may be effected by the pressure of
a knob or other convenient thing placed within reach of either the hands
or feet of the performer or assistant. To accomplish this object of opening
and shutting off of a series of stops in succession, I purpose using some
auxiliary power, such as that, for instance, described in the Specification of a
previous Patent granted to me for improvements in organs. The several

page_text: parts are so arranged and combined that they may be brought into opera-
tion by a simple single mechanical action either of the foot or hand of the
performer.
The additional mechanism for producing the intended effect is actuated by a
rod, chain, or band, moved in any direction necessary by the usual machinery
of a pedal or other means, as before described. This rod, chain, or band
is made to actuate two cylinders or barrels, something resembling chime
barrels, and which are geared together by toothed wheels or friction rollers on
their axles, and which of course cause the cylinders. or barrels to rotate in
opposite directions.
The mechanical contrivances for causing these cylinders to rotate may
be varied; but one plan which I propose to adopt consists in placing a small
toothed wheel or pinion on the axle of one of the cylinders, and causing it to
gear into a sector rack or quadrant, which will be worked up and down by the
rod, chain, or band connected with the pedal lever, as above mentioned. The
cylinders or barrels are provided with studs or pins, which, as the cylinders
turn on their axes, are brought into contact with and made to depress levers
communicating with any desired arrangement of stops. The number of these
levers depends upon the number of stops in the organ which are required to be
acted upon by means of this apparatus. The studs or pins on the cylinders
or chime barrels are arranged around each of the barrels in a helical coil,
but in opposite directions, while the stop levers of each barrel are all on the
same plane. These levers must therefore be brought into action in succession
as the cylinders or barrels rotate.
It will now be understood that when the cylinders or 'barrels depress the s
levers the stops of the organ will be drawn in succession, and that a complete
depression of the pedal or other contrivance will produce a full crescendo
by bringing the stops into action one after the other, and by relieving the pedal
or other machinery from the pressure or force which has influenced it the.stops
are gradually and in succession withdrawn out of action, and a diminuendo
will take place. 'Of course any amount of crescendo or diminuendo can be
produced by depressing more or less the pedal lever, or other contrivance, which
works 'the cylinders or chime barrels.
A retarding movement, to hold or retain the stop levers in check a sufficient.
time to allow the bellows that draw the stops to become thoroughly inflated,
may be adapted to the above as well as to my former improvements, or to any.
other portion of the organ machinery, when it may be necessary or advisable
to use it. This retarding movement is effected by means of a small bellows.or.
piston, which the lever opening the valves of the pneumatic lever is made

page_text: to collapse. The air having been expelled by this force from the bellows
is only re-admitted through a small aperture, and as the bellow's requires there-
fore a certain time to become inflated o retardation is offented.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Willis in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WILLIS, of Manchester Street, Gray's Inn Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Organ Builder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Willis, Her special license that I, the said Henry Willis, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Willis, 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 terin 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 ORGANS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Willis, by "an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Henry Willis, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to increase the mechanical facilities for
producing a crescendo and diminuendo upon the organ, by enabling the player
to draw or shut off any required number of the stops one after the other
in succession by one continuous movement, in contradistinction to the complex
operations at present demanded of the performer to produce the like effects.

page_text: This end I propose to attain by the simple depression or raising of, a pedal or
pedals, placed in any convenient position; or any other equivalent mechanical
contrivance may be employed to transmit the impulse, motion derived from the
foot or hand of the performer or his assistant in connection with the draw
stops. To accomplish the opening and shutting off of the series of stops
in succession I purpose using some auxiliary power, such as that for instance
described in the Specification of a previous Patent granted to me for improve-
ments in organs, and bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
The draw rods, valves, or slides which are required to be actuated I connect
severally to a pair of bellows; one bellows by its inflation being used to force in
and the other to pull out the slides. These bellows I mount upon and connect
severally with a common wind chest, closing the discharge openings from. the
wind chest to the bellows by spring valves of the ordinary construction. The
valves are each connected. to one of a series of levers, which are depressed in
their required order by the action of a barrel or barrels constructed on the
chime barrel principle, the same receiving an axial motion through suitable
gearing from a pedal or other like contrivance, set in action by the foot or hand
of the performer. When, therefore, the pedal is depressed, and an axial
motion given to the barrel, the levers as they are acted upon will open the
valves in the wind chest and admit air to the bellows in their proper order, and
thereby cause the draw rods or stops to cut off or admit wind to the wind chests
with which they are respectively connected.
a, .a,
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the arrange-
ment of mechanism which I prefer to employ in carrying out the principle of
my. Invention, a portion of the wind chest being removed to shew the internal
construction; and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same, partly in section.. In
this arrangement it will be seen that I employ but one barrel, but in some
it
cases may be desirable to use two barrels, one for actuating the levers
which effect the shutting-off of the stops, and the other for operating.the
levers, through the intervention of which the strops are drawn.
Figures 1 and 2; is a barrel mounted in suitable bearings, and carrying on
its surface a double set of pins, which are set in helical lines around its
periphery, and are intended to act upon bell-crank levers b, c, suspended above
the barrel, and connected respectively by rods with rock levers d, d, properly
centered on a beam or frame that carries the pneumatic lever wind chest.
Rods from these levers d pass through the wind chest e, e, to the valves f,
which close. the air passages. g leading to the pneumatic lever bellows h.
These bellows are arranged in two ranks above the wind chest, and they are

page_text: connected in pairs to their respective slides or draw rods i, i, so that the
inflation of the one, coupled with the consequent contraction of the other, will
permit of a backward or forward motion being imparted to the slide, in order
to draw or shut off the stop as required. It will now be understood that if
the number of. levers d in connection with pneumatic lever bellows correspond
to the number of stops to be governed by this arrangement of apparatus, and
the same are set in action in due order by the rotation of the barrel a, the
stops may all be drawn in succession, so as to produce a crescendo or increasing
power of sound, and in like manner the opposite effect may be produced; the
direction of rotation of the barrel being reversed, as will be presently ex-
plained. On the axle of the barrel is a pinion k, which gears into a sector
rack 1, connected by a rod m with a pedal lever, or a knob, that yields to
pressure, or other contrivance placed within reach of the performer. The
depression, therefore, or elevation of the pedal lever will cause the sector.rack
to rock on its fulcrum, and thereby impart an axial. motion to the barrel.
I have stated that the barrel is provided with two sets of pins; these are
intended, the one set to act upon the bell-crank levers b and shut off the
stops, and the others on the levers c and draw the slides. The rock levers d
are connected alternately the one with a lever b, and the next with a lever c,
and so on, throughout the series. To the lower ends of the rock levers
tumbling pieces are fitted, so that the pins which are intended respectively to
operate those levers when moving in one direction will, when the rotation of
the barrel is reversed, slip past the tumbling pieces without moving the levers.
In large organs, where the number of stops to be thrown in and out of action
is numerous, I may find it convenient to give the barrel a slight endway
motion, in order that the barrel in completing a revolution may not present
those pins which have already performed their action again into contact with
their respective levers until the action of the apparatus has been reversed:
To this end, I turn a screw thread on one end of the barrel axle, and tap the
bearing to correspond thereto. The continued rotation of the barrel will thus
ensure its receiving a slight endway motion sufficient for the pins that have
acted to pass on one side of the levers. When this arrangement is adopted
the pins must be set a proportionate distance apart to ensure their meeting
the ends of the bell-crank levers at the proper time. It will be understood
that the order of succession of throwing out and bringing into action the
several stops will depend upon the judgment of the organ builder, but the
amount of crescendo and diminuendo may be governed by the taste of the per
former. Thus, a complete depression of the pedal or other contrivance will
produce a full crescendo by bringing all the stops into action one after the

page_text: •
other, and by relieving the pedal or other machinery from the pressure or
force which has influenced it (which may.be effected by depressing another
pedal, or equivalent mechanical contrivance),. the stops will be gradually and
in succession withdrawn out of action, and a diminuendo will take place.
But when a crescendo or diminuendo of limited extent is desired, that may
be produced by depressing more or less the pedal, lever, or other contrivance
which imparts the rotary motion to the barrel a. In order to give the
barrel a tendency to take a neutral position when not in action, that is, to
stand with the pins free of or not in contact with the bell-crank levers, I
mount on its axle a stop wheel with an undulating or. notched periphery, and
cause an antifriction bowl n, carried by a spring lever o, to bear against that
wheel. The pressure of the bowl will therefore be greatest when in a raised
position, and resting then on an. inclined plane, it will tend to move the
barrel round to the neutral position required. This is most suitable for a
movement actuated by two pedals, the one rising as the other, falls, but will
scarcely be necessary when but one pedal is used, in which case a spring
attached to a band passing. round an unoccupied part of the barrel will cause
the pedal to rise and effect a diminuendo, but convenient notches will then be
applied for fixing the pedal at one of several points of its traverse action, in
which case its movement to those points will always ensure a certain power
of sound.. Connected to the hinder end of the levers d is an arrangement
for holding or retaining those levers in check a sufficient time to allow the
bellows which draw or shut off the stops to become thoroughly inflated before
they return to their normal position and cut off the supply of wind. The
principle of action of this retarding movement is to render available the
pressure of the atmosphere for counteracting the tendency of the lever to
return to its normal or quiescent position, by causing the lever, whose move-
ment is to be governed, to collapse (during its active movements) a small air
chamber, which is capable of filling again but slowly when released from the
pressure of the lever.
"
In Fig. 2, p is a cylinder fitted with a piston q, which. is attached to the
lever d. The upper end of the cylinder is covered by a valve opening out-
wards, in which a small opening is made. The air having been expelled by
the thrust of the piston. of the lever d from the cylinder, is only re-admitted
through a small aperature in the valve, and as the cylinder requires a certain
time to become inflated; a retardation is consequently effected; the like result
may also be attained by means of a bellows. This retarding action may also
be applied with advantage in other parts of the organ, for instance, in the
pedals of this movement. To facilitate the action in all weathers of the above:

page_text: described crescendo and diminuendo arrangement, I propose to insert between
the head of the screws r, which connect the upper boards s to the wind chests
that supply the pipes with wind, washers of india-rubber or other elastic
material, which, possessing the property of yielding slightly, will allow the
slide to move comparatively freely even in damp weather.
I would remark that the above-described Invention is not intended to
supersede the use of the ordinary appliances for drawing and shutting off
the stops either singly or in groups, but it is intended simply as an addition
to organs to produce musical effects, which have hitherto been but very
imperfectly realized upon that instrument.
Having now set forth the nature of my improvements in organs,' and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be under-
stood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,-
First, drawing or shutting off the stops of organs by a continuous movement
in contradistinction to intermittent or repetition movements, whether such
mechanical result and the novel musical effect thereby produced be obtained
by the mechanism above described, or any mere modification thereof.
And, secondly, I claim the mode of retarding the return movement of levers
in organs, as above explained.
hand
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Willis, have hereunto set my
and seal, the First day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
HENKY WILLIS. (L.S.)