IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1884

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
I JOHN GUY WILSON of the British and Foreign Patent Office, 71 Market
Street, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer and
Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS" which invention has been communicated
to me from abroad by Victor Seidel of Klingenthal Saxony in the Empire of
Germany to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is the construction of a mechanical musical instru-
ment which shall be capable of playing a larger number of airs than has hitherto
been practicable with a single instrument.
In accordance with this invention a series of musical barrels carrying pins which
either depress the keys as employed in Swiss musical instruments or operate arms
of valves for opening or closing the sound producing devices in wind instruments
are mounted equi-distant from each other around a central axis.-The extremities
of the axes of these individual barrels are provided with worm wheels and thus
are capable of being brought into gear with a worm upon the driving axle which
operates the bellows of a wind instrument and which worm is depressed by
arranging one of the plummer blocks in which the shaft revolves to slide up and
down in the outer casing for instance when it is necessary for such worm to be
thrown out of gear with the worm wheel of one pin barrel and to allow it to move
into gear with that of another barrel in order to change the air or tune.
For this purpose it is not necessary as heretofore to slide the pin barrel side-
ways but the keys or the air chest with the sound producing devices are moved
laterally the chest being provided with an air tight slide on the cover of the bellows
and for adjusting the movement of the chest and to change the airs such chest is
connected to a lever having on its upper edge notches to receive a pawl or pro-
jection mounted on the casing of the instrument. This same lever depresses all the
arms of the valves or keys simultaneously and before moving the air chest and thus
prevents the pins being damaged by the sliding of the chest.
:

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
I JOHN GUY WILSON, of The British and Foreign Patent Office, 71 Market
Street, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer, and Patent
Agent do hereby declare the nature of this my said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS" which invention has been communicated
to me from abroad by Victor Seidel of Klingenthal, Saxony, in the Empire of
Germany and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The improved-mechanical musical instrument forming the subject-of-this-present
application is illustrated in the annexed drawing Fig. 1 of which represents-a-
longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 a cross section. Two discs or wheels a a are keyed
upon the shaft b and have holes disposed in their respective circumferences in two
corresponding circles which serve as bearings for the series of musical barrels c.
In the drawing eight-pin-barrels-c-are-arranged-represented similarly to the
cliambers of revolving fire-arms, but it will be apparent that the number of these
barrels may be increased or diminished at will,
-Upon-one extremity of the shaft 6 is keyed the crank & formed by a spring,
bearing against the circular plate e provided with eight notches-el-
By turning the shaft b with the pin barrels c, one of the latter may be brought
into goar with the worm fand kept in position by the crank d entering the corre-
sponding notch upon the plate e. Each of the pin-barrels c carries a worm wheel g
by means of which it may be made to gear with the worm f
As soon as one of the worn wheels g is brought into gear with the worm f, the
sbaft of the latter may be turned by a winch handle and the pins of the musical
barrel thus brought into play will engage in the well known manner with the
music-producing mechanism of any kind say for example keys as employed in swiss
musical boxes. In the drawing the pins of the pin-barrel c operate the arms h of
valves closing the sound-producing-devices disposed in the wind chest p.
By the driving shaft the bellows o and o' are operated for emitting air to the
chest p by means of the rods & connecting the double-cranks with the partition
board of the bellows o and o¹.
Before gearing another pin-barrel c with the worm the latter must be lowered
and then raised again to bring the desired barrel into gear with the same worm.-
This raising and lowering of the worm f may be effected by moving the plumber-
block m arranged at one extremity of the driving shaft f¹ up and down the vertical
guiding slot n formed in the casing of the instrument.
As each musical barrel is capable of carrying ten different airs, the number of
the airs, which may be played on one and the same instrument will be very great
and equal to the number of pin-barrels multiplied by the number of airs on each
of them.
For changing the air for each pin-barrel c it is not necessary as heretofore to
move the pin-barrel c laterally but instead of this I move the wind-chest p with
the sound producing devices in a lateral direction. For this purpose the chest p is
mounted in an air-tight slide on the cover g of the bellows o¹. For adjusting the
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page_text: movement of chest p in changing its position for the different airs I connect it with
a lever r having on the upper edge notches as illustrated which catch upon a nose 8
arranged upon the casing of the instrument.
This lover r, when it is lowered before moving the chest p depresses the cranked
ends of the wire u, hinged upon the pivots v and as this wire u is laid over all the
arms of the valves or keys, they will also be depressed before the lateral move-
ment of chest p is effected and thus are prevented being spoiled by the pins of the
barrel c.
"
The lever is also depressed for the same purpose, before the pin-barrels are
changed, and this can be performed automatically by connecting the driving
shaft (as already mentioned) must necessarily be lowered, before the change of
the pin-barrels can be effected.'
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
I declare that what I claim is
(1st) The combination in a mechanical musical instrument of two discs or wheels
carrying in their circumference a number of musical barrels, the worm wheels of
which gear with one and the same worm substantially as and for the purpose
herein before described.
g
(2nd) The combination of the wind-chest p sliding upon the cover with the
wire u with cranked ends t and the lever substantially as and for the purpose
bereinbefore described and illustrated on the accompanying drawing.
JOHN G. WILSON,
Agent for the Applicant,