IMPROVEMENTS IN REED PIPE NOTES FOR ORGANS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Baillie Hamilton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th August 1881.
JAMES BAILLIE HAMILTON, of the Park, Greenwich, in the County of Kent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN REED PIPE NOTES FOR ORGANS."
My Invention relates to the controlling of the reed tongue in the reed pipes of
organs, so as to improve the quality of tone and to dispense with the length of pipe
otherwise necessary.
Whereas in organs a"
reed" tongue by itself under the action of wind is liable
to excessive and irregular motion, causing thereby a harsh or inadequate sound.
And whereas in order to control the action of the reeds and to render their sound
more full and pleasing, they are set in conjunction with pipes, so that the column of
air therein contained may react upon them and control their motion.
My present device consists in reacting upon reeds and controlling their motion by
means of a "wind resistance," or the resistance of other reeds under the action of
wind.
One set of reeds I call " governing reeds," and the reed or reeds upon which they
react I call "motor reeds."
One mode in which my Invention may be applied is as follows:-
A reed pipe usually consists of the following parts combined in the following
way:
1st. The pipe or tube, the column of air contained therein reacting on "the
reed."
2nd. A collar or block at the base of the pipe.
3. A "foot" socket or "boot" closed by this block.
4. A "reed tube" or "beak" inserted into the block and communicating through
it with the pipe.
5. The "reed" set upon the face of the "beak."
6. The tuning wire which passes through the block and affects the pitch of the
reed.

page_text: For the purposes of analogy, I preserve the same names and expressions in
describing my new reed pipe.
"
Instead of the "beating reed," I set upon one side of the beak, one, two, or more
free reeds, which I call "motor reeds; on the opposite side of the beak I set a
reed which I call the "governing reed."
From the tongue of the governing reed radiate a series of pins or wires which
terminate in an attachment to the motor reeds, so that each motor reed (if there
are more than one) is connected with the governing reed (common to them all).
These pins or wires may be straight or bent.
"
5
When there are only two reeds, one on each side of the beak" or reed tube, 1
either may be treated as the governing reed; but when, as I prefer, more than one
reed is opposed to a single reed, this single reed with which the others have a
common connection is treated as the governing reed.
The usual tuning wires may be omitted or employed as is most convenient.
The end section of the "beak" may be circular, or it may be flattened or moulded
to suit the arrangement of the reeds.
Moreover the reed tongues may be attached directly to slots in the tube or
"beak," without the intervention of their own reed frames if necessary.
In the example above described, the wind enters the "beak or tube" through all
the reeds, and escapes through the open end thereof. into the pipe.
But in some cases, especially when the pipe is wooden and rectangular, I prefer
to close the end of the beak, which, as heretofore mentioned, is usually open, and to
let the wind after it has entered the beak past the motor reed or reeds escape into
the pipe through the governing reed.
In such cases the collar or block closes the side of the "boot" or "foot," and is
attached to the side of the pipe, and though functionally connecting the pipe and
"boot" as before, becomes an elongated block or panel.
Preferably I use more than one motor reed, and as the wind which actuates them
has to escape through the governing reed, it is desirable to provide some vent for the
wind which passes them more than the governing reed, being single, could admit if
"set" in the ordinary way.
This gives me the opportunity of curving the tongue of the governing reed into
shapes which are known to modify the tone of.a current of air passing through a
reed, but which would be inadmissable under ordinary circumstanees were it not
actuated by the motor reeds; but if a governing reed is used in conjunction with
motor reeds, as above described, the governing reed may be made to assume various
curves and shapes without the reed frame being made to closely follow its shape or
contour, and it may by its action upon the wind be used to modify by reason of
its shape the tone of the motor reeds whose currents of air it affects.
It may be convenient to form the "beak" in such cases out of the substance of
the block or panel.
Or out of the substance of the reed frames, the pipes used in connection with
reed tongues, arranged as above described, need merely be such cavities as will, by
their resonance, give roundness and fullness to the notes formed.