IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANNER OF CONNECTING THE ACTION OF THE TREADLES WITH THE BELLOWS IN HARMONIUMS OR AMERICAN ORGANS."
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Browning at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 28th January 1876.
JOHN BROWNING, of 63, Strand, London, Optician. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANNER OF CONNECTING THE ACTION OF THE TREADLES WITH THE BELLOWS IN
HARMONIUMS OR AMERICAN ORGANS."
This Invention of improvements in connecting the action of the treadles with the
bellows in harmoniumns or American organs, consists in applying to the two treadles
of the instrument certain connecting links or additions of wood, metal, or other
suitable material to the levers of the bellows or to the bellows themselves, so that
the respective treadle right or left shall, before its stroke is finished, on the one
bellows being emptied act upon the bellows that is full and ready to be emptied.
In the harmonium or American organ the wind mechanism usually consists of
two bellows driven alternately by the action of the foot pedals, so that as one foot
is pressing down the one pedal and the bellows in connection therewith being
emptied of its charge, the other pedal is rising with the other foot, and the bellows
in connection therewith being filled. The consequence of this arrangement is this,
that at the end of the injecting stroke much less air is being driven from the
bellows, and suddenly on the change of notion to the other bellows at the com-
mencement of the injecting stroke a much larger quantity of air is driven from the
bellows, so that at each stroke of the pedal, at its commencement and at its end,
unequal quantities of air are delivered in equal times. The operator on the instru-
ment can only and by very long practice compensate for this action, by bringing
into play the second pedal before the first one has completed its stroke. Now the
principle of this Invention is to give to the feet instinctively the perception to act
in this way, and I accomplish this by so connecting the pedals with the bellows,
that before the one stroke of, say, the right pedal and its corresponding bellows is
utterly spent, and at its weakest delivery of air, the other bellows shall be brought
into play at the commencement of its stroke, and at its greatest delivery of air by
the action of the right pedal, so as to compensate for the unequal delivery of air, at
the same time the left pedal released from the tension of the bellows falls, and the
foot instinctively takes up the stroke, the left pedal in its turn towards the end of its
stroke acting on the lever of the right bellows, and so on.
There are several ways of carrying out this principle, by connecting the two
treadles with loops of wire, stops of wire, or other material so as to connect the
treadles in their action at the extremes of their strokes, yet with independent action
[Price 2d.]

page_text: during mid stroke. One way of coupling them is thus:-Each treadle in the ordinary
instrument is connected to the lever of the bellows by a piece of strong webbing, so
that as the foot depresses the treadle the webbing acts on the lever of the bellows
on its own side, right or left respectively.
To each treadle 1 fix a second and longer piece of webbing, but in place of
fastening the other end of it to the lever of its own bellows, I fix each end to the
lever of the opposite bellows, so that when the right treadle acting on the usual
short piece of webbing on the right lever of the bellows has nearly finished its
stroke, the longer piece of webbing begins to act on the lever of the left bellows, the
left treadle released from the counterforce of the bellows lever falls, and the left
foot takes up the stroke, and as the left treadle nearly completes its stroke, it also
begins to act on the lever of the right bellows, and so on.