IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF REEDS AND REED-PLATES FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th February 1882. A communi-
cation from abroad by Mellen Bray of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of
America, Manufacturer.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE of the Firm of Haseltine Lake and Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings London "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
REEDS AND REED-PLATES FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS." A communication
from abroad by Mellen Eray of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America,
Manufacturer.
This Invention relates to improvements in reeds and reed-plates for musical
instruments and in the process of manufacturing the same.
It consists first in a reed tongue reduced to the desired variable thickness by
compression as distinguished from milling or filing. It further consists in a reed
and reed-plate made from, and forming when completed integral parts of the same
piece of metal, with the tongue of the reed made of the desired varying thick-
ness by compression. And it consists also in the process of making a reed and
its reed-plate from a single piece of metal by subjecting the said piece of metal
to pressure to sink therein the necessary recess to form the throat and to con-
dense and harden that portion of the metal covering the said throat and from
which the tongue is to be formed, and then milling or otherwise cutting away
portions of the metal upon the side opposite said recess to separate the reed
from the plate along its two sides and one end as will be hereinafter described.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I form in the underside of the
reed-plate a recess provided with a throat which is covered by the reed tongue
the said reed tongue being connected at one end to and forming an integral
part, of the same piece of metal as the reed plate. The top of the reed-plate
is also provided with a small recess as a meaus of withdrawing from its seat in
the reed board of the instrument, in a well known manner.
In the process of making my combined reed and reed-plate I first form the
said recesses and sink the central portion of the recess in the underside to a
greater depth to form the throat by pressure between suitably shaped dies which
may be formed upon the periphery of a pair of revolving pressure-rolls or may

page_text: be used in a drop press. I then mill or otherwise cut away the outer portions
of the stock upon the top side of the plate to such a depth and width that the
corner of the cutting tool will just meet the corner of the throat herein before
mentioned and thus sever the tongue of the reed along its sides from the plate for
a distance equal to the length of the throat.
The rounded end of the plate is then passed transversely beneath the milling
tool to cut away that portion remaining on the centre of the said plate to such a
distance that the corner of the tool will just cut into the throat and separate the
end of the reed tongue from the plate.
The dies for forming the recess and throat are so made as to sink the said throat
deeper in some parts than others so that the metal which covers the throat and
which is to form the reed will be of varying thickness according to the variation
required in the finished reed so that when the milling is completed the reed is
ready for tuning and does not require, in order to bring it to the desired shape the
large amount of filing which has heretofore been necessary.
The pressure applied to form the recesses so condenses and hardens the metal
which covers the throat and which is to constitute the reed tongue as to transform
it from soft brass to hard spring brass just suited to the requirements of a musical
reed.