A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF AND MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT FOR CHANGING THE NATURAL NOTES OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS INTO HARMONICS OR FLAGEOLET NOTES." Piano harmonic, harp harmonic, or other like instruments
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Johann Baptist Schalkenbach at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th April 1877.
JOHANN BAPTIST SCHALKENBACH, of No. 2, Upper Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square,
in the County of Middlesex, Professor of Music. "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD
OF AND MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT FOR CHANGING THE NATURAL NOTES OF
STRINGED INSTRUMENTS INTO HARMONICS OR FLAGEOLET NOTES."
Piano harmonic, harp harmonic, or other like instruments.
A mechanical contrivance to change the natural notes of stringed instruments
into harmonics or flagcolet notes.
My Invention consists in the utilisation (by mechanical means) of the well-
known acoustical principle, that a vibrating string, when touched on the notal
points, produces harmonics or flageolet notes.
Performers on violin, violiucello, double bass, harp, guitar, citharre, etc., effect
this by a slight touch with the finger of the left hand at the notal point, whilst
the right hand strikes or pulls the string in the usual way, a manipulation not
possible to the pianist whose fingers are not in direct contact with the strings.
Never has a mechanical contrivance. been applied to stringed instruments to
produce the above-named effect, and it is especially for pianos of every kind that
such a contrivance must be considered a desideratum.
The mechanical arrangement is as follows:-It consists of a wooden or metal bar
with damper heads attached, which bar, when fixed, is made to run in an oblique
direction (straight or bent according to the manner in which the strings of the
instrument to which it is applied are fixed), 1, 2, or 3 strings belonging to each
note as the case may be, so that the damper heads are placed immediately over the
notal points of the strings.
The bar is moveable down and up by hinges, springs, or pivots at the two ends.
Each damper head is fixed to the bar by a flat spring or a similar contrivance,
one end of which spring is screwed to the bar; the other end bears the damper
head.
The damper head is constructed of a piece of felt, india-rubber, wood covered
with soft leather, or any other soft substance. Each damper head is made wide
enough to cover the serie of strings to each note with a somewhat sharpened edge
downwards at the part where the damper head touches the strings on the notal
points.

page_text: A regulating screw is arranged to each damper head, and is pressed against the
spring beneath, by means of which the position of the damper head is properly
adjusted.
The action of the bar downwards and upwards, limiting the pressure of the
damper heads upon the strings so as to bring out clear and distinct the harmonics or
Hageolet notes, is regulated by adjusting screws.
The action of the bar is worked by a foot or knee pedal or stop, easy for the
performer to manipulate.
Harmonics or Hageolet notes are obtainable on various parts of a string, and
similar bars as above mentioned, connected with as many various pedals or stops,
may be applied to one and the same instrument, producing as many different
changes of harmonics, namely, octave, 5th of an octave, double octave, and the
3rd of the double octave. The damper heads can, in addition, be so regulated by the
arrangement above described as to allow the natural notes to sound in conjunction
with the harmonics.
The ordinary damper arrangement of the piano may or may not be connected
with the new harmonic arrangement in such a manner that whenever the latter
comes into action, the ordinary dampers leave the strings, the object of this being
to permit freer development to the harmonics, but this part is optional.
In lieu of the bar, the damper heads may be applied separately to each seric of
strings, with an escapement action to each, by which means the damper heads
would leave the strings each time after having effected the change from natural
note into harmonic.
The mechanical arrangement or mode of application of my present Invention is
subject to deviations necessary to adapt the same to the form and interior or other
construction of the instrument to which the Invention has to be applied.
The bar may also have to be divided into several parts so as to fit in the partitions
caused by the iron bars used for strengthening in some classes of grand or semi-
grand pianos.
The bar may also have to be applied from underneath, or at the back of the
strings, on account of the original mechanical construction of the instrument
preventing application from above or in front, as in the case of cottage pianos,
pianettes, or similar instruments; but however this may be, that is the incidental
mode of application, and however the secondary contrivances are changed or altered.
I claim for myself the sole right of Invention as regards the essential point,
namely, the utilization by mechanical means of the acoustic principle before
mentioned applied to the notal points of stringed instruments, producing harmonics
or flageolet notes.
And I claim for myself the exclusive right of applying this Invention to a part
or to the whole of any stringed instrument.