Improvements in Violins and the like.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 22nd June, 1896
Complete Specification Left,. 22nd June, 1896-Accepted, 5th Sept., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Violins and the like.
We, WILLIAM MCKENZIE, Journalist, and WALTER WILLIAM RISING,.
Cabinet-maker, both of 54 Lambton Quay, Wellington, in the Colony of New
Zealand, 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 :-
Our invention relates to improvements whereby the tone of violins and like
instruments is greatly improved in quality and volume.
In carrying our invention into effect we place, preferably in a horizontal position
in the space between the belly and the back of the violin, discs or plates of any.
suitable material which, being supported within the instrument, will vibrate whilst
the instrument is being played and thus improve the sound produced by the
instrument at the same time that the carrying power of the sound is also increased.
We have made numerous experiments with different materials, such as paper,
cardboard, wood, vulcanite, ebonite, glass, and also with metals and thin steel,
which all seem to give more or less improvement in the required direction, but the
result of our experiments is that thin discs of glass give the best result, and. for
the ordinary violin we find that good results are obtained by three such discs of
about 2 inches diameter, and about 15 wire gange in thickness, supported at their
centres to a horizontal bar within the body of the violin so that they may be free
to vibrate.
Our invention is illustrated on the accompanying sheet of drawings on which-
Figure 1 is an exterior view of an ordinary violin with the usual bass bar and
sound post.
Figure 2 is a lougitudinal section of the same.
(a) is a horizontal bar supported at either end in the blocks (6) and (61) as
shewn, and to this bar are fixed by pins or other fastenings the glass discs (c) (cl)
and (c2), so that when the ordinary strings of the violin are struck or actuated by
the fiddle-bow the said discs vibrate and the vibrations increase the volume of
sound and the distance to which it is carried, aud, moreover, the tone of the
instrument is greatly improved in quality.
We wish it to be understood that we do not bind ourselves to the size or number
of discs or supporting bars as these may vary with the instrument and the effect
required.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is,
1. A violin or the like having glass discs supported within it, substantially as
described herein and illustrated"

page_text: 2. A violin or the like having discs or plates of any suitable material supported
within it, substantially as and for the purposes described herein, and illustrated on
the accompanying drawings.
3. A violin or the like having discs or plates of any suitable material, size, and
number, arranged upon a bar or bars within the body of the instrument,
substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
Dated this 23rd day of April 1896.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.