IMPROVEMENTS IN STEEL WIRE AS USED IN PIANO-FORTES AND OTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Rayner Gibson, John Stuart
Baptie, and Alfred Squire at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on
the 24th August 1882.
JOSEPH RAYNER GIBSON of 63 St. Pauls Road, Camden Town in the County
of Middlesex Electrician JOHN STUART BAPTIE of 63 St. Pauls Road, Camden
Town in the County of Middlesex Pianoforte Maker and ALFRED SQUIRE of
6 Wrotham Road Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Pianoforte Maker.
IMPROVEMENTS IN STEEL WIRE AS USED IN PIANO-FORTES AND OTHER MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
"
C
The object of this invention is to produce by a novel process hereinafter
described an improvement in steel wire as used in pianofortes and other
musical instruments whereby it is rendered capable of producing more sound, a
soft enriched tone and is less liable to be affected by atmospheric changes
In carrying out our invention we magnetise the wire by causing it to pass
through, over, under, or between, the poles of a magnet or magnets, which may be
either permanent, or induced by causing a current of electricity to pass through the
coils surrounding the iron cores as with an ordinary electro magnet
The permanent magnets or the iron cores of the electro magnets may be made
of any suitable shape for example-as a die similar to those used in the manu-
facture of wire or the poles may be made to revolve as wheels or rollers and the
wire drawn through under or over them
Having passed through this process, the wire will be found to be very powerfully
magnetised and when cut into the required lengths each shorter length will be as
perfectly magnetised as in the original or longer piece
It is well known that in the immediate vicinity of a magnet there exists &
»
balo
"
or atmosphere" usually termed a "magnetic field" which is inseperable
from the magnet and which although we cannot see it or satisfy ourselves by
touch of its presence, we know to be present that it must occupy a space and to
do so a proportionate bulk of air must be displaced, it follows that the "halo" or
"magnetic field" is more dense than the ordinary atmosphere, or the former could
not displace the latter By applying this principle to our invention we introduce
into a piano or other musical instrument a considerable " magnetic field" which is
..... 511

page_text: disturbed when the instrument is played the disturbance varying according to
the length and thickness of the wire for the moment acted upon for the quantity
gauge
of
of magnetism, would in every case depend upon the capacity and "
the wire
When by the act of playing an instrument the wires are agitated corresponding
disturbances are caused in the various "magnetic fields" which in turn act upon
the ordinary atmosphere creating sound waves, increased in volume and softened
in tone increased in volume because the atmosphere is not acted upon directly by
the wire but by indirect action through the "halo" surrounding it and which
forms a "cushion" between the wire and the common atmosphere
This wire is rendered less liable to oxidation from atmospheric causes by virtue
of its magnetism, the "halo" surrounding the wire consisting of an atmosphere
more dense than common air and consequently not so easily penetrated